From Paternalism to Partnership
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Transcript of From Paternalism to Partnership
11lightmagazine.ca
In the documentary Where’s my goat?, di-
rector Christopher Richardson journeys to
Zambia to track down a goat his company
bought a third world family. Th e director
brings a light touch to a heavy theme: how
the best of the West’s intentions to benefi t
those in the ‘majority world’ are often in-
terpreted very diff erently by the recipients
of that charity.
When helping hurts “By focusing on symptoms rather than on
the underlying disease, we are often hurting
the very people we are trying to help. Surpris-
ingly, we are also hurting ourselves in the
process,” writes John Perkins in the Foreword
to When Helping Hurts. “As followers of Jesus
Christ, we simply must do better.”
Th e authors of the book,
Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert,
conclude that North American
Christians, as the “richest people
ever to walk the face of the earth,”
are often using methods that are
“exacerbating the very problems
they are trying to solve.”
While North Americans usually
focus on the material lack in ‘poor’
nations, the authors contend that
poverty has more to do with bro-
ken relationships. For people to be
whole and wealthy, they must be fully
functioning in four building blocks for all of
life – their relationships with their Creator,
themselves, each other and the rest of cre-
ation: “If we reduce human beings to simply
physical – as Western thought is prone to do
– our poverty-alleviation eff orts will focus on
material solutions. But if we remember that
humans are spiritual, social, psychological and
physical beings, our poverty-alleviation eff orts
will be more holistic.”
By focusing on material needs, Fikkert
proposes that North American Christians are
simply feeding their “god-complex … a subtle
and unconscious sense of superiority in which
they believe that they have achieved their
wealth through their own eff orts and that they
have been anointed to decide what is best for
low-income people.”
“We are often deceived by Satan and by our
sinful natures,” writes Fikkert. “Part of what
motivates me to help the poor is my felt need
to accomplish something worthwhile with my
life, to be a person of signifi cance, to feel like I
have pursued a noble cause … to be a bit like
God.” Fikkert concludes, “Until we embrace
our mutual brokenness, our work with low-
income people is likely to do far more harm
than good,”
Th e good news is that, as always with God,
there is another choice. And some groups are
trying to get it right.
Are North Americans addicted to the high of giving?
“For sure,” says Ben Hoogendoorn,
president/CEO of FH (Food for the Hungry)
Canada. “It’s about stuff . Easiest thing in the
world to do, just to give stuff .”
“Sustainable community development
is actually quite boring,” adds Hoogendoorn,
who has worked for FH Canada for over a
decade. “Because you’re there a long time, and
progress can be very, very slow. But the results
at the end are very exciting.”
FH’s motto is “to walk with churches,
leaders and families in overcoming all forms
of human poverty by living in healthy relation-
ship with God and His creation.”
Many of their programs begin in a relief or
crisis situation, but then the government asks
FH to stay and help with development. “You
have to transition from relief into rehabilita-
tion, and then into long-term development,”
says Hoogendoorn. “Most of the time, the staff
we have working in relief we can’t have work-
ing for us in development, because they are of
the mindset that they want to continue to give
things.”
What’s needed in North American givers is
a “cultural shift, a whole paradigm shift,” says
Hoogendoorn. “If we see pictures on televi-
sion with starving children, it must mean they
don’t have enough money, so we should just
give them money.”
“Now that is partly true, because if people
are starving, then they do need something.
But you can’t just leave it at that. What hap-
pens tomorrow, next week, next year? If you’re
going to see a situation and throw money at it,
then you’re going to continue to do that until
the end of time. You have to go back and fi nd
the root cause.”
Partnership: “walking with”, not “do-ing for”
Hoogendoorn pointed to the defi nition of
paternalism: doing something for
people they are able to do
themselves, which creates dependency, not
thriving sustainable communities.
FH’s approach emphasizes “walking with”
rather than “doing for,” allowing the commu-
nity to develop its own model of a preferred
future. Th is means that instead of pouring in
funding, FH staff work with the community to
identify the root cause that is keeping it from
health and sustainability.
In the case of one community in Uganda,
it was a belief that they had been cursed with
poverty for generations. FH staff “started
to tell them that they were created in God’s
image, that they did have value, that He had
a purpose for them and it was not God’s plan
that they should be like this,” relates Hoogen-
doorn. “Th at community graduated with
unbelievable results, after 11 years.”
Th ey have graduated 34 communites since
1994, the latest being the village of Cubi,
Rwanda. “Our brand promise is to graduate
communities after 10 years,” said Hoogen-
doorn. “We don’t want to be in a community
forever, so every community we go into, there’s
an exit strategy.”
Sometimes FH’s approach results in the
agency being turned down by communities
that are used to accepting aid and fi nancial
support. “We do not want to engage with a
community unless there’s a total buy-in from
their leadership,” stresses Hoogendoorn.
“Th ey’re ultimately responsible for seeing
growth and progress.”
Of FH’s 2,000 staff , 96 percent are nationals.
Another organization that emphasizes
partnership is MCC. Phil Schafran, the Men-
nonite Christian Committee’s director of
Resource Development and Communications,
says their approach to development is to build
relationship.
“We try to work with local
partners, so we’re not bring-
ing in a Canadian agenda or
solution to their local issue.
We’re trying to fi nd trustworthy
reliable partners that we can have
a longterm relationship with.
Similar to FH, they ask their
local partners what they need
help with. “We want to build their
capacity, we want to strengthen
them, we want them to take the
leadership in the project,” says
Schafran. “I think we recognize that
money is power and whenever you’re bringing
money into the equation, the person bring-
ing the money has the power, so you have to
mitigate that power. So rather than saying, ‘we
have the money, we’ll make the decisions, we’ll
tell you what to do,’ we’ll listen to them.”
Tobi Elliott, a 30-something writer from Abbots-
ford is interested in your feedback. Contact her
From paternalism to partnership by Tobi Elliott
Last month The Light Magazine explored how short-term missions can appropriately serve the group they intend to help. This month, we examine some of the unintended consequences of North American giving, as well as some ministries that are doing community development work well.
Editor’s Note: please note in last month’s article
Short Term Missions by Tobi Elliott, we incor-
rectly reported Phil Schafran’s position with
MCC. He is the Director of Resource Develop-
ment and Communications.
Recommended reading:When Helping Hurts: How to alleviate
poverty without hurting the poor and
yourself, Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett
(Moody, 2009).
Busekera Rwanda Opening ceremony, celebrating
a new partnership with FH.
Cubi Rwanda Graduation celebration