When Helping Hurts

"How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor... and yourself"

Book written by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

This is my book report from the second book that I have read in my Community Development for Missions training school. My first book report on the book "Truth and Transformation" can be found here. 

A - What are the key themes and principles that were communicated in the book? 

When Helping Hurts was written to make people wanting to help the poor realise the ways in which they often end up hurting the poor more than they help them. It not only points out what we need to avoid in mission and community development, but also proposes alternative solutions to improve the way that we help poor people while avoiding hurting either or both parties in the process.

The first part of the book looks at the foundational concepts of helping without hurting. Herein it discusses why Jesus came to the Earth – not just to save our souls, but to restore our relationships with Him, ourselves, each other and the rest of creation. We need to remember that in every aspect of community development we want to be bringing restoration in these three areas, as Jesus did. The book then looks at the real definition of poverty from the perspective of the poorest people. The define it as being so much more than a lack of material possessions, but as a lack of dignity, value, self worth and power.

Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work. When we come in as outsiders to a poor community we need to realise that we have mutual brokenness. Financial gifts in these situations tend to do a lot more harm than good as they do not solve the underlying problem of poverty. In our attempt to bring about poverty alleviation, then, we need to strive to bring about reconciliation in all four relationship areas. This means that sharing the Gospel is key to being able to bring true transformation.

Part two of the book goes on to outline various strategies for helping the poor without infliction additional harm. It is essential to remember that development should be done with people and not for people. The importance of providing the right kind of help was then addressed, looking at examples where relief, restoration and development are appropriate and when they are not. An organisation should choose to focus on one of these areas to be the most effective.

Another principle discussed was to focus initially on what the community already has, rather than their needs. This helps a community to see their own strengths, rather than wallowing in their weaknesses. This can be done through Asset Mapping, Participatory Learning and Action or by an Appreciative Inquiry. In order to be the most beneficial to the community, the people themselves need to be involved in the development process from the planning stage, right through to the evaluation stage. In doing so, it is also imperative to give a voice to the marginalised and make sure that their input is also gained.

The third and final part of the book analysed practical strategies for helping without hurting. It first looked at the short term missions (STM) phenomenon. More often than not, STM go in, do something and leave feeling good about themselves. But the locals are often left in a much worse situation. There are many causes for the hurt that STM teams bring; the major reasons coming from the foreigner’s lack of understanding of the local’s culture, their concept of time and their concept of self. In order to be effective, STM need to come in through an existing ministry that is working long-term in the community and have a good understanding of the community’s needs and culture. STM teams need to seriously consider their reasons for taking a team, evaluate how the community is benefiting and ensure that the community actually want them there.

The book then went on to discuss the need for poverty alleviation methods in the United States itself which I have discussed in more detail in part C. After addressing what poverty looks like in the States, it outlined possible solutions that can be brought by the local church to the poor in their immediate surroundings. These can include workshops and classes on managing finances and training in the soft skills needed for successful employment. The final chapter then looked to the rest of the world and looked at ways in which different economic solutions can be implemented to bring about the material poverty alleviation required in a sustainable long-term fashion.

B - How can you apply these themes and principles to both your personal life and as a community development practitioner?

This book has been great because, while it has not taught me that many totally new things, it puts things that I have learnt in various different parts of life in one concise book. I am excited to take this book home and give it to the missions committee at my church to challenge the way that we do missions and propose some changes to our STM programs. I have learnt the importance of including the locals in every step of the development process and this is something that I want to make sure I implement in my personal life and in any development involvement.

I have previously been involved in helping communities out by doing practical things that I now realise they could have done for themselves. I now recognise how hurtful this can be and will endeavour never to do it again. Ensuring that the community themselves actually want us there, not just our group thinking we are needed, is also something that I will take into consideration in the future. Finally, this book has given me some new, insightful ideas for how to further develop my Masters in Computer Science work that I plan to do in 2013 with additional elements that will help bring about greater lasting change. I really enjoyed the book and I look forward to having the opportunity to put what I have learnt into practice.

C - Is there anything in this book that you have more questions about or disagree with?

I struggled the most with chapter 8 which addressed material ‘poverty’ in the United States. I put poverty in inverted commas on purpose, as I cannot agree with the authors that this is true material poverty. The authors described their monetary income, the amount of the welfare cheques they receive and their living conditions; all of which are better than most people in South Africa. I cannot believe that someone would be considered ‘below the poverty line’ while receiving $1200 from the government each month, the equivalent of nearly R10000; a reasonable starting salary for university graduates in South Africa. I understand that the cost of living can be higher in the United States in some respects, but I also think that the expected standard of living is extremely high. I cannot agree that these people need government or church funding, when they are already living better lives than the majority of the rest of the world, and thus I cannot consider them to be living in poverty. If you truly want to see poverty, you need to go and see how people live in the rest of the world.