It's More than a Tomato! The Real Goal of Community Development!

I was a participant in a Community Development "Webinar" yesterday (2 more to go). We were discussing the dynamics of Community Development, and analyzing what poverty really is. And of course the issues of Haiti came up.

The Session yesterday was called "When Helping Hurts" - Haiti was known world wide as the "NGO State". It had such a disproportionate number of NGO's Operating that the NGO's were actually providing most of the government services, inadvertently propping up corruption and use of resources for personal gain within government. The Government did not have to share anything with the people. - or so they think.

As a result, there was little cohesion developing in the country of Haiti. Not working through local method's & resources generally leads people to thinking we can't help ourselves in any manner, and we lack the resources to help ourselves. This is the Lie that most are not aware of. The Root Cause of Poverty is rarely, if ever, rooted in a lack of country resources. It's the brokenness of humanity manifested in broken Economic, Social, Political, and religious systems that block others from access to those resources.

These were some various ideas that came floating out of the Webinar for Development workers.

William Hickox who works for World Vision Canada comments;

"And people say to us, "Why do you want to work with the government? They're corrupt!" ... vicious circle. We try to avoid providing what we feel it's the government's responsibility to provide. Maybe we'll build a school and give the kids supplies, but the government has to pay the teachers."



Redeeming the fallen structures is part of developments long term focus. Often we simply "react" to the immediate need, which is good, but without the former you are there forever, and ever, and ever. At least World Vision focuses on "future Extraction", even though that may be elusive, and changing.

A Good Balance is the key. I have two more Sessions to go.

Our Development work is not simply irrigation. It is more than a "tomato". The resources that that "tomato" creates touches many aspects of life. That tomato's increased income represents better access to health (Money for drugs), better access to education (Money for school fees), more income for Africans to invest in the needs of their extended family (They can help family members with similar crises), more freedom to be involved in and contribute to community needs. That simple tomato affects a lot.

Anyway, most think we are "Putting in Garden Irrigation", but have no idea of the thought that is involved as to why we chose this technology, or how we see it fitting into the larger picture of changing whole communities. The end goal is our real ministry. The irrigation is just a small start to what really needs to happen, in our view. We have to work at all levels of a community to help them see the need to redeem the brokenness in patterns of thinking, action, or decision that have isolated and impoverished people.