We have been on the ground in Rwanda for a few days now trying hard to get our little house livable so we can get started on our purpose here. These have been some of the most chaotic days of my life… WOW! And I love chaos. Fortunately, we have had some invaluable help from both Rwandans and Expatriate Americans (Expats) who live in Rwanda. We couldn’t have done it nearly as quickly and easily without them.
If you’re interested in some humorous details from my wife’s perspective about our life here, please check out Cheryl’s BLOG at http://ccrainey.blogspot.com. She will make you both laugh and cry.
I wanted to begin my blogging with a brief explanation of why we are so passionate about Musanze Inc’s tagline – “Confronting Poverty with Opportunity.”
Before you begin to help the materially poor who live in chronic poverty, you must first decide what you are going to help them do and how are you going to help them do it. I know that seems painfully obvious, but it is a critical first step that many forgo. Just jumping in and helping anywhere you see a need can actually do more harm than good. (More about “When Helping Hurts” in a future post.)
For us, it is about helping those in need become the solution to their own problems. It is not for us to decide what their future should be. That is for them to decide. It is not for us to do things for them or do things to them. It is for us to listen and learn as they express their “Hoped for Future.” It is for us to come alongside their “Present Reality” helping them develop their indigenous capacity to be the solution to their own problems.
Yes, they have an incredibly difficult “Present Reality,” one that is almost unimaginable for someone living in the developed world, but they also have an equally incredible “Hoped for Future” – one that would inspire even the most cynical of observers. They hope for a community that provides for its own needs. They hope for a community that allows its citizens to unleash their full potential. They hope for a community that is free, just and prospering from the fruit of its own labors.
So how then do we help?
There are three categories of needs that the materially poor have. The first category is Health – things like food, water, medical, shelter, clothing and sanitation that allow every citizen’s body to be developed to its fullest.
The second category is Education – things like reading, writing, arithmetic, science, professional skills and trade skills that allow every citizen’s mind to be developed to its fullest.
And the third category? … What do you do with a sound mind and a sound body that builds a successful community? A sound body alone allows you only to exist. A sound mind alone allows you only to think. It is the third category that allows you to achieve your “Hoped for Future.”
The third category is Opportunity. Without opportunity there is no positive way forward. No sustainable future. No possibility for you to be the solution to your own problems.
I am in no way demeaning a sound mind and a sound body. On the contrary, those are absolute necessities to be able to take advantage of opportunities, but if the help stops at health and education then, believe it or not, that help may actually make things worse. Let me explain:
If you have helped a chronically poor community to be healthier, then you will have directly increased the population of that community at a rapidly expanding rate because if less are dying and lives are longer then more and more people are alive to tax the community’s resources. Without a corresponding increase in opportunity, how can that community provide for itself? It can’t, so it’s only option is to hold out its hand and beg for the help it needs to provide for its increasing population.
In a similar way, it’s possible to harm a chronically poor community if all you do is educate its people. This phenomenon is known as “The Brain Drain” because, once educated, the “Best and Brightest” leave their chronically poor communities at a staggering rate. They leave to find a better life. Why do they leave? Because they can! Most of us would too.
A small percentage will stay out of loyalty, duty and commitment but because there are so few of them, they are, in reality, just “taking one for the team.”
A small percentage will stay and use there “Best and Brightest” gifting in a predatory manner. They take advantage of their less able neighbors to make their own life better with no attempt to relieve the suffering of their neighbors. Their influence and success is directly dependent on the suffering of their neighbors so they have no interest in relieving it.
Having your “Best and Brightest” uneducated, around and helping is better than having them educated and gone. Even uneducated, they are a big asset to any community.
So what’s the answer? How does a community increase its indigenous capacity even as its population increases? How does a community keep the majority of its “Best and Brightest” around even after they are educated?
… Opportunity …
Without opportunity, a community has no ability to self-determine its future and bring that vision into reality under their own energies and abilities. How could they?
Opportunity is how a community meets the needs of a growing population.
Opportunity is how a community retains its “Best and Brightest.”
Opportunity is how Musanze Inc will endeavor to confront poverty.
Stay tuned for details…
Caveat: You may have asked, “What about their spiritual needs?” Great Question! I’ll explain more fully later, but for now, let me be crystal clear. Without a proper understanding of the ultimate authority in the universe and what that authority is calling them to achieve, no community can thrive. And without a personal relationship with the Living God, no person can thrive. Helping people have worldly success without helping them have a right relationship with God is little help in the eyes of eternity.
