Understanding Charity from the Crisis in Haiti

One of the more interesting dynamics of humanity lies within the concept of charity. I have three points that should influence our thinking in giving aid to Haiti.

Charity is defined as the voluntary giving of help, but in modern practice there is rarely an offer of assistance without motive or expectation. How many hot meals, for example, would you hand out in your neighborhood if you knew that half the recipients would drop the meal on the ground and spit in your face? Despite the other appreciative half who would benefit, few would endure such disrespect.

It is also worth noting that there are no intrinsic guarantees our charity will be used as anticipated or received at all. From the Korean peninsula to the Middle East region to the African continent we see examples of this.

Finally, it is naive to offer charity without understanding the recipient’s perception of the giver. If your benefactor is also your oppressor, there’s less appreciation. If your angel is in worse straits than you (like when North Korea offered aid to Katrina victims), there may be a devaluation of sincerity.

So what does this all have to do with Haiti? Just as much as it does with your reason for giving. You see stories and pictures of travesty and send money; meanwhile, people in the streets of Port-au-Prince yell, “More doctors, fewer journalists!”

Consider the mix of emotions of a person whose family is lying dead on the street, who sleeps next to them because their house is no longer safe to inhabit. Consider them bathing in the streets in unclean water while you come by with big trucks and cameras. Perhaps you’d understand why they’d say “Put down 
the camera and help us.”

Now consider that much of the international aid that is not given by NGOs is offered with considerable requirements—to ensure expectations and political motives are met. This has NOTHING to do with helping people, and is essentially the reason why Haiti as a nation is unable to respond to its own needs. I repeat: Haiti is a result of foreign occupation and oppression by the same people who are providing aid right now.

So when your country has been getting royally violated for the the last 70 years by foreign aid, how would you respond? If you weren’t an effective humanitarian but you knew people who were suffering—dying—what would you do?

/via @jody_kiely

Perhaps new thinking is required. Better yet: new action. And a much better understanding and implementation of charity—and reparation. Starting with our brothers and sisters in Haiti, let history be consulted but not repeated. Let’s think beyond what the pictures show us, and let us encourage and assist those who are seeking to commit their energies to improvement while we throw dollars and criticisms from the comfort of our text messages and tweets.

And by all means, keep giving. Better yet: plan to visit Haiti later this year when the media has found something else to show and the country is till poor, still needing, still suffering (like it was before the quake). Show that your heart is connected to your hands and not just your wallet. And to your brain as well; generate awareness and be active in campaigns to forgive debts Haiti has with IMF, World Bank, IDB and others. These points should define our giving and caring as we look to Haiti