When Helping Hurts
Good Intentions Are Not Enough Unleashing and equipping people to effectively help the poor requires repentance and the realization of our own brokenness. When Helping Hurts articulates a biblically based framework concerning the root causes of poverty and its alleviation. A path forward is found, not through providing resources to the poor, but instead by walking with them in humble relationships. Whether you're involved in short-term missions or the long-term empowerment of the poor, this book helps teach you three key areas: -Foundational Concepts (Who are the poor?) -Principles (Should we do relief, rehabilitation, or development?) -Strategies (How can we help people effectively here and abroad?) An additional two chapters and conclusion will help you apply the teaching to your situation and take the next steps more quickly. It's your best way to a true understanding of poverty and a plan to make a difference.
Stats for nerds
5recommend
6mentions
6people
2014–2022years
83% recommend17% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I would encourage everyone to read "When Helping Hurts". It lays out why it is bad for Americans' first response to throw money at an international problem.
Some of the reasons why we should be slow to give money:
We should encourage self-empowerment. If there are local laborers who can clean up after a natural disaster, we should empower them to help their community
We should avoid short term solutions. Instead of donating a super expensive tractor to a farming community that can't maintain it, donate a tractor that they can maintain
We should strengthen the community. Instead of sending a Dr to heal people across the world, send a Dr to train local Dr's who heal the locals
And, to be clear, the model of being thoughtful of where and how to give is much harder than giving money. This is not a cop out
- Not to diminish your good intentions and the obviously profitable experiences that you've gained, but I would be hesitant to recommend voluntourism without any qualifications.
There are obviously benefits to the people who go, but there is also potential of harm to the communities visited -- more so than just the usual tourism -- in the name of doing good. Skilled/educational trips like medical missions that provide relief and sustainable/appropriate skills transmission to providers in the local community tend to be the most positive/neutral, but efforts like helping to rebuild schools, etc. with volunteers who have no specific expertise tend to be problematic.
(issues include depriving livelihood from local builders, badly rebuilt buildings owing to lack of skill that have to be rebuilt, creating a culture of dependency, damage caused to the dignity of providers in local communities, the constant impermanency of relationships can especially affect children in the local community, etc.).
Many thoughtful missions organizations are aware of these issues and try to plan missions trips that mitigate such harm. There's a book called "When Helping Hurts" [1] that guides a lot of the new thinking in this space. Again good intentions are laudable, and we should not be dissuaded from doing good in the world, but acting with discernment and wisdom ensures that actual good, and not harm, is done in the visited communities.
- My wife and I 'When Helping Hurts' last year, and I'd highly recommend it as a resource for thoughtful volunteerism. Beyond the content, I thought it had the best set of questions/exercises I've seen in a book of this kind.
- Have you read When Helping Hurts? It's a really good exploration of this dichotomy of blame between the people and the systems.
In truth, both are broken.
- You should read the book “When Helping Hurts” to get a better idea of the harm you can cause by just giving poor people money without addressing root causes and more systematic issues.
In fact, I will buy you a copy if you are interested.
- There's a book I'm just beginning, When Helping Hurts[1], that dives into this subject deeper. Complicated for sure.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/When-Helping-Hurts-Alleviate-Yourself/...
