In this world right now approximately 3 billion people are living in poverty, young women and children are being sold in the thousands for labor and sexual exploitation; families are living in unsanitary slums and camps and trying to fight off diseases that could be treated in my hometown of Houston with some simple antibiotics. Within the past twenty years in America, there has been a renewed enthusiasm within North American Christian communities and churches for fulfilling God’s commands to help the impoverished and oppressed. As a result, there has been a dramatic upswing in the amount of “short-term missions (STMs).”
“Cumulatively, Americans contributed more than $1.6 billion on short-term missions in 2006 alone.” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009) The devastating majority of short-term mission trips often aim to spread the gospel of the Christian religion and provide material relief to people of other cultures in poverty. former missionaries Steven Corbett and Brian Fikkert have realized the adverse effects of Short- Term Mission trips and wrote the text “When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate poverty without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself.” This book argues that STMs greatly devastate the impoverished that many Evangelicals attempt to try and help, and leave the people they are serving in a more devastated circumstance than before they received the aid, and the principles outlined in this book have greatly impacted how I view and approach poverty alleviation.
In general, Americans are quick to understand to view poverty as a lack of material goods. American culture is founded on capitalism and a want to acquire material goods of values as a status of wealth.
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When in actuality, poverty is far more emotional. Living in poverty is a lack of emotional and physical freedom, even if the country if you call home is technically “free.” In the text, people in poverty will report saying poverty feels like being trapped or enslaved within their environments and circumstance with a lack of empowerment and ability to change their circumstance for themselves. Through reading this and spending time in the Dominican Republic, I had to listen to those within the communities I was serving and learn that, “[Americans who are not impoverished] describe poverty differently than the poor in low-income countries do.
While poor people mention having a lack of material things, they tend to describe their condition is far more psychological and social terms than North American audiences” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009). Therefore, my approaches I need to take need to not approach poverty alleviation from a material standpoint, rather one that treats the emotional symptoms. Corbett & Fikkert provide numerous strategies to implement when attempting to fulfill the Biblical calling of helping the poor without hurting myself.
The most important concept found within the book, in my opinion, is learning when to apply relief, rehabilitation, and/or development. In a few cases just simply providing material goods is much needed and necessary in life or death situations. I believe that one of the biggest culprits for STMs shortcomings is due to the fact many people are unable to distinguish what response is ethically appropriate for the situation that they are attempting to help.
“Relief can be defined as the urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis.” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009).
In situations like these providing material assistance would be appropriate in order to “stop the bleeding.” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009). “The key feature of relief is that there is a provider-receiver dynamic in which the provider gives assistance- often material- to the receiver, who is largely incapable of helping himself at that time.” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009) An example of when relief and material assistance would have been appropriate is after the Haitian earthquake to Haitians who are near death, or to people who have been hurt as a result of Hurricane Harvey in Houston the night after landfall.
“Rehabilitation begins as soon as the bleeding stops; it seeks to restore people and theircommunities to positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions.” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009) The most vital step when it comes to rehabilitation would be relationship with the people who you are trying to help, for example victims of an earthquake, and help them self-determine what the best course of action would be for their own circumstances so they can be involved in the recovery processes and not relying solely on outside aid to do it for them.
Thirdly, from a Christian point of view the idea of “development is a process of ongoing change that moves all the people involved- both the “helpers” and the “helped”- closer to being in right relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009)
Development in this case would include working to undo the systems that oppress people based off of a financial status, gender, or race. “Development is not something that is done to people or for people, but with people. Development seeks to empower the materially poor to develop and break their own cycles of poverty that have been created.” (Corbett & Fikkert, 2009) An example of development in this framework would be in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake working to create jobs to help rebuild the cities and towns to attempt to restore the fallen economy.
Many of these ideas are based in social work principles that have existed for decades. It can be argued that at the core of social work is just simply knowing when to apply relief, rehabilitation, and development and how to do it in an empowering way. As I continue to educate myself in the field of social work, I am beginning to learn more and more about my own STM wrongdoings of my past and proactive steps to take to approach poverty alleviation. This novel is exceptionally well written so that any person can understand the points that are trying to be conveyed in a non-shameful fashion. This novel has deeply impacted how I view others, the world, poverty, and ethics that I will carry with me as I begin to take bolder steps to pursue my career in social work.
References
- Corbett, Steve. Fikkert, Brian. (2009) When helping hurts how to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor– and yourself Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers,
