Toxic Charity

I have also been reading “Toxic Charity” and that book has also gotten me to thinking and wondering some things. Volunteering and helping others has always been such an important aspect of my life but after reading what I have from this book I have to wonder if I am causing more damage than good. I have good intentions but what is the end result of my helping out and volunteering? Am I helping the people that I help gain a dependency on others rather than owning their situation and making a difference? Are they learning from what I am doing or am I taking away something from them for doing things that they could do for themselves? These are all questions that keep coming to mind as I learn more about the organization that I am partnering with and learning about the way that they do things and why they do things. Yes, right now I am attending many meetings but that’s because we want to lead behind the communities and help them come to the solutions themselves. We want the communities to work through things and we are there to support them and be there for them.

In this book, they give 6 things and call it the oath for compassionate service, which I will list below but while reading them, if you have done volunteer work/ mission trips/ etc before, then ask yourself, what was the outcome of the work you did? Is the work going to help sustain the community? Did you leave the community in a way where once you left then they would be able to provide for themselves and do what you did? Or did you go in and do all the work and leave the communities you were working in empty handed where they have to continue relying on outsiders to come in and do things for them when they are probably capable of doing the work and learning from you?

I know I have been guilty of doing this type of work and from reading the book so far, it has left me wondering how I can continue volunteering an helping out but also have a lasting effect on the communities and people I help. How can I teach the people I help what I come in and do? How can I enter into the communities and listen to them and do what they need rather than going in and telling them what needs to be done? How can I come along side the communities allow them to do what they are capable of rather than wait for others to just give them things? I pray that during my 2 years of service here at D.L.F. that I will learn from this organization and gain some insight on these questions.

The oath for compassionate service:

•        Never do for the poor what they have (or could have) the capacity to do for themselves
•         Limit one-way giving to emergency situations
•         Strive to empower the poor through employment, lending, and investing, using grants sparingly to reinforce achievements
•         Subordinate self-interests to the needs of those being served
•         Listen closely to those you seek to help, especially to what is not being said-unspoken feelings may contain essential clues to effective service
•         Above all, do no harm