Okay, before I step into this one let me get something straight so no one gets their feelings hurt. I believe there are two basic “Hearts of Compassion” a person can use to view people in need – the “Mercy Heart” and the “Justice Heart.”
The “Mercy Heart” sees suffering and says, “That is wrong. I love those people. God loves those people. I must do whatever it takes to relieve their suffering RIGHT NOW.”
The “Justice Heart” sees the same suffering and says, “That is wrong. I love those people. God loves those people. I must do whatever it takes to make sure they suffer like that NEVER AGAIN.”
Don’t miss the difference. It’s not subtle, at all. It is profound… “Right Now” or “Never Again.”
And though, at times, every person is capable of expressing both “Hearts,” we overwhelmingly default to one or the other. We can’t help it. It’s the way we were created, and both ways are equally valid and valuable. There is no right or wrong here.
I give this caveat because around the subject of “When Helping Hurts,” relationships can be strained or even lost among equally loving people who have been wired with different “Hearts of Compassion” with which they view those in need.
I want to be clear that having one or the other of these “Hearts” is not a measure of one’s compassion. It is an expression of one’s compassion according to one’s wiring – equal but different. This is an important precursor to the “When Helping Hurts” discussion because without it, we may lose our way in a sea of emotions on our journey to serve.
Because most of the ways we hurt those we long to help are some form of enablement or paternalism, the following must be our “Golden Rule of Helping.”
“Do Not Do Things for People That They Can Do for Themselves.”
Now, those of you with a “Mercy Heart” are saying, “But…”
And those of you with a “Justice Heart” are saying, “Absolutely!”
Neither of you is wrong. That’s why I started this post the way I did. Stick with me.
The key to finding our way forward is in defining three categories of actions that we could take to help those in need – Relief, Rehabilitation and Development.
Relief is an urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering. This is the Band-Aid that stops the bleeding. Relief is best used in the immediate wake of a natural disaster like a hurricane, tsunami or earthquake or in the wake of a human disaster like war or economic collapse.
Rehabilitation is restoring people to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions. This should begin even before the Relief is completed.
Development is the process of ongoing change that eventually allows people to be the solution to their own problems.
When we deploy the wrong category of help for a particular situation we ALWAYS hurt those we are trying to help.
Unfortunately, “Rehabilitation” and/or “Development” are rarely used. The overwhelming tool that gets deployed time and time again to try and help people is “Relief.” Long after “Relief” is required, “Relief” is still given.
The classic example for Americans is our welfare system. Though at times, welfare provides the needed “Relief” it was originally designed to provide, it most often catastrophically hurts those who participate in it because, quite simply, it breaks the “Golden Rule of Helping.” Through enablement and paternalism, welfare does things for people that they could do for themselves… AND IT’S KILLING THEM… one generation at a time.
Let me say it again. When we deploy the wrong category of help for a particular situation we ALWAYS hurt those we are trying to help.
So why is it that we rarely deploy anything but “Relief” to help the materially poor even when “Relief” is rarely needed? Well this gets me back to the earlier discussion of “Mercy Hearts” and “Justice Hearts.”
A “Mercy Heart” is almost perfectly wired to deliver “Relief” because they see suffering and respond with such amazing energy and compassion that incredible amounts of “Relief” are brought to bear on a problem.
A “Justice Heart” is almost perfectly wired to deliver “Development” because they see suffering and want to strategically build the community’s indigenous capacity to solve its own problem.
And when it comes to “Rehabilitation,” both “Mercy Hearts” and “Justice Hearts” can be a great fit depending on the exact scenario.
Unfortunately, often “Mercy Hearts” are so energized by providing “Relief” that they provide it long after it is helpful. And because they were first to arrive and therefore have control of most of the resources, it is very difficult for “Justice Hearts” to get engaged in “Rehabilitation” and/or “Development” when the time is right.
This is why many “Relief” projects end up hurting the very people they set out to help. Haiti is a great example of this. Prior to the recent earthquake, more “Relief” aid per person was going to Haiti than any other place on earth. And this had been going on for decades with little evidence of progress and lots of evidence that it was actually making things worse. Let’s hope this time “Rehabilitation” and “Development” will be appropriately deployed.
As for Rwanda, the country is crying out for “Development.” And because of that they are getting a flood of “Justice Hearts” into the country to join the “Mercy Hearts” that have been here for years doing some great and much needed work.
One of my favorite quotes from Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, is, “I can tell you exactly how many billions of dollars the West has given to Africa for poverty “Relief” over the last 40 years. I just can’t tell you any real and lasting difference it has made.”
Musanze Inc is in Rwanda to focus on Development.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still some very helpful places in Rwanda to provide “Relief” and “Rehabilitation” so there is no shortage of need for both “Mercy Hearts” and “Justice Hearts.” But the people and the government of Rwanda are very determined to be the solution to their own problems, and we are very determined to help them do exactly that.
(Footnote: If you want to learn more, “When Helping Hurts” by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett is an excellent resource. They have done a masterful job of pulling together the best thoughts on the subject and presenting them in a very useful format.)
