It is challenging to work with the poor

Apr 29, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
I want to share with you an experience that I had working in the jungle of Guyana with poor people.
A Non-Government Organization (NGO) wanted to help the women in the community to earn a skill and a few dollars. The NGO donated sewing machines and cloth for the project. At first, the women were excited about the project, opportunity to learn to sew, and to earn a dollar.
A few months after the project started, the NGO left the community and the project continued successfully. Women made clothes with the donated cloth and sold them.
A year later, the women’s excitement faded, and they lost interest in the project. Soon afterward, the women decided to sell the remaining unmade cloth because it wasn’t being used.
Three years later, a new NGO arrived and wants to start a project to help poor women out of poverty.
These same women asked the NGO, for you know what, “cloth” to make clothes and sell. And the NGO, not knowing the about past, donated the material to make the clothes.
With experience like this, it makes it challenging to work with and the help the poor.
This experience reminded me of a story about a man who was digging a hole. When asked why he was digging the hole, he said to get some money.
When asked why he needed the money, he said to buy some food. When asked, why he needed the food, he said to get some strength. When asked, why he needed the strength, he said to dig the hole.
Sometimes, not all times, when I’m working with the poor, I feel like the man digging the hole, I’m going nowhere. I’m not making any progress in helping them out of poverty.
Anthony Pantlitz

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