The dust has about settled on the fracas over the 10 American missionaries caught red-handed in Haiti. In their care were 33 children, some who turned out to have parents, heading over the border to the Dominican Republic as founding inmates of an orphanage that was still no more than a twinkle in the eyes of their abductors.
Not the hottest spice in the rack these do-gooders. But, at the heart of it, are they worse than many of us who use our gifts, lend our support – and maybe even our prayers – to keep orphanages on the go.
They may have been the perpetrators of this act of folly. But it takes two to tango. And the tune often danced to when it comes to meeting the needs of hurting people is what the donors – that’s us – are most likely to support.
That’s why it’s not the ‘abduction’ of these kids that’s the issue. Rather, it’s the underlying assumption that an orphanage – which should be a relic of a bygone era – is the best way forward.
Strong words? Ask any leading aid and development agency and they’ll tell you they started getting out of the orphanage business decades ago. And for good reasons.
In some communities parents who are poor, though perfectly able to care for their young, willingly give away their children to be brought up under such a roof. For them it is the most loving thing to do. Which means there’s an inexhaustible supply of children waiting for the orphanages we in the West just love to build and then have to go on funding year on year on year.
There’s a far better way, as good development agencies know. It’s to commit the same level of expenditure and expertise into helping the poor community care for their own. It’s to build on the sense of mutual obligation together with the amazing coping skills, that’s at the heart of poor families - something too many in the West are blind to because it is so far from their own experience. And that holds good even when a disaster on the scale that hit Haiti is behind it all.
But it is tough trying to raise money or get excited about something you can’t see. Which means there’s a constant knee-jerk towards what’s visible and tangible – ‘solutions’ that can be photographed, visited, declared open and for which detailed plans can be produced.
Indeed, that’s the rub. You can’t print pictures of newly acquired skills, strategies or abilities. Or stick a plaque with your name on a community’s increased ability to care for those most in need among them. So in the meantime those who should know better do daft things in Haiti. And some of us may not be much better.
Posted by meadowsesq 
