Day 54: Looking at the Problem of Poverty

Up ‘til now I have not really addressed the reason for my coming here: poverty. I guess I have avoided the topic because I am still struggling to process it. The first thing I have realized is that it is much harder to define it when you are dealing with it on a day to day basis. I am reluctant to look at Addis and stamp a label like “crisis” on it. Mainly because of the thoughts and actions that the word typically conjures up: disaster, catastrophe, emergency, calamity. People’s response to a “crisis” is generally knee-jerk and emotionally driven. Here (maybe not everywhere) I have found that you can’t treat the situation as a “crisis.” No doubt the people are poor here, but in most cases they are living. At the core, they have lives just like you and I: family, friends, community, hardships and joys. They have pride and rightfully so, their country is known as the birthplace of civilization. Their culture is rich in tradition, ceremony, and relationships. It’s difficult, then, to come into their world and say, “I’m here to fix the problem.” For them, the “problem” is their life. So, I guess the first thing I’ve learned is how important sensitivity and awareness is.

At a seminar addressing youth and its challenge, Yunatin said, “The way we see the problem can be the problem sometimes.” He means that if we are equipped with the right approach and attitude we can face the challenges, maybe not eliminate them, but we can overcome them. Jesus said, “You will always have the poor among you.” Matthew 26:11 Does He mean ignore them? Of course not, I think His message is clear: there is always going to be a need to help the poor. The key is how we see the problem and therefore, how we respond to the problem. And to me it has become a completely relational matter. I don’t see how we can write a solution in a manual and tell workers to go solve the problem. The real healing is a matter of the heart. I could send money across the ocean to the hungry children in refugee camps, but if there isn’t a caregiver there to give them love what good will it do? What will the children in the orphanages become if no one is there to teach them life values? If no one comes to hold them when they cry? Money is a means to achieving an end, but it is by no means the end.

I asked my kids in class to discuss these two statements (in English of course): “Children are our future” and “Money is the key to happiness.” The students came to an agreement that statement one is true and statement two is false. They believe that since education has become more and more accessible especially to the children living in the countryside there is hope for change in their county. In regards to money, they grappled over it a little longer and the discussion became somewhat heated. All of them sort of lit up at the thoughts of what they would do if they had money, but in the end admitted that there is always a want for more no matter what you have. Ruth, a very bright, soft-spoken girl, said this, “If you have money you can buy a bed, but no sleep. You can buy food, but no appetite, you can buy a home, but not family, you can buy things that make you happy, but not happiness.” Such a profound perspective that is often lost in our money-driven society.

For thirty years or more individuals, NGO’s, and governments have been pouring billions of dollars into countries like Ethiopia and yet the number of hungry children climbs and the AIDS epidemic spreads. Doesn’t it beg the question: What are we missing?

Progress is often hard to measure. It takes time. Too much time it seems. Knowing the number of people, children, that are dying each second because of lack of food or basic care helps to prompt action. But how we act is the difficult part. (I am in no way claiming to have found the perfect solution!)

Those with heart want to act fast because lives are at stake, but when you come to a place like Addis, it gets more complicated than scooping people into an assembly line and giving them food for a day or week. There are degrees of struggle and hardship. There is poverty that is warranted and unwarranted. There are people who desire help and those that don’t. There are some that are making it out of poverty on their own and those that will die if we don’t help. We can’t treat people like statistics. It takes a human touch, a genuine interest to make a difference in someone’s life. That’s why the best programs I have seen here take in no more than 30 street kids at a time. Mother Teresa always said to do what’s in front of you. Do what you can and if everyone would do that imagine what the world would look like.