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Where
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Not Giving a Thirsty Kid Water
16th June 2006
'Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' "Then they will also answer Him, saying, 'Lord when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' "Then He will answer them saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Mathew 25:41-46
This can be a hard place to live at times. You get asked for stuff all the time. People come up to you and the street and say, "Can we be friends?". Being the semi-decent guy that I am I say "Sure". Before you know it though, they are asking you for money. Can get a little depressing. I have formed some friendships with the local people who seem like real friendships. It is nice. We get hounded by the families around us and the Door Kids in particular. The lady who does my washing had a child of hers write a letter (she is illiterate) telling me her sad story and begging me to pay for her kids to go to school. A bag of water costs 300 cedi ($NZ 0.05). Five cents is nothing to me. The New Zealand government recently got rid of five cents people because they figured that the average New Zealander wouldn't even bother to bend over and pick one up. Why wouldn't I give a kid five cents worth of water? Five cents of goodness that would make their bleak world a little less gloomy. Some of these kids are orphans. Some of these kids are ex-child soldiers. Some of these kids sleep in the market overnight. Some of these kids are HIV positive. Some of these kids are prostitutes. So, once again, why wouldn't I give a kid five cents worth of water? Lemme back up a bit and relate a story that another volunteer told me. Previous volunteers used to give out any left over food they had in the guesthouse to the many kids that would gather at the door. The parents of the kids soon learnt about this and stopped feeding their kids at home to - I presume - save money. They would feed some of their kids, but not others. Not a good situation. The volunteers chose instead to sponsor one family and give all their left over food to them. A child was sent to collect it every evening. Before long though, the other kids learnt about this and would beat the kid up and take the food. The left over food is now thrown out. It took a long time to get the kids under control again. They would demand food and would get very angry when they weren't given any. They would scream at volunteers and torment them in the night by throwing rocks on the roof. This highlights two things for me. Firstly, desperate people do desperate things. When you're only get one meal a day (if you're lucky) then I can understand why you might beat up a kid for food. I don't approve, but I do understand. It reminds me of the time was cell phone was stolen in the Philippines, or when Emma had five hundred pounds stolen that had been raised to buy some community water pumps. Secondly, it highlights how well meaning intentions can end up going bad. Left over food being given away caused children to not be fed by their families, children getting beaten up and volunteers tormented. This is one of the reasons why we don't give out money, food or water very readily. Volunteers still do give out stuff, but to a much lesser degree than what it was before. We keep a track of any money that is given out to make sure one kid isn't duping different volunteers with the same stories. When volunteers do give out money it tends to be about 3000 cedi ($NZ 0.50) or so. I don't give out money. Sometimes I'll buy of bottle of coke and give the kid next to me the last quarter. Or give any a kid the last bite of the doughnut I'm eating. Even these small bending of the rules can cause problems. A couple of kids got into an argument over the quarter bottle of coke that I gave to one of them. I heard that a previous volunteer would give out $US 500 to people. This highlights the second and third reasons why we try not to give out money, food or water. Sustainability Volunteer teachers are encouraged to assist the teacher, but not take over their jobs. The administration is encouraged to seek funding outside of GVN (Global Volunteer Network) just in case GVN ever has to pull out Any one of a number of unsafe situations might cause GVN to pull out. Ghana might implode into yet another African civil war. Camp itself might become very unsafe. I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does then CBW (Children Better Way - a Liberian NGO on camp) will collapse and many Liberians will go without. The CBW schools would close. The HIV/AIDS program would vanish. The Water and Sanitation team would be no more. The list goes on and on. Expectations "Malcolm gave us five hundred dollars. Why don't you?" When you get a group of people together from all over the world, their circumstances are going to vary greatly. Some will be old, some young, some rich and some poor. A volunteer in the Philippines gave away a car. I personally can't give afford to give out five hundred dollars or a car. If I did though, then I would not be able to afford to go to Uganda. One Liberian would benefit, many Ugandans would suffer. When people ask me for large amounts of money, I explain to them how much money this is costing me to be here. I tell them that the greatest gift I can give to Liberia is my time, not my money, and that I am using my time to educate their future leaders. Questions? Comments? Try contacting
me. (c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena. |
