book report: When Helping Hurts

I just read the best book on poverty alleviation. EVER.

There have been several times in the last couple years where the relationship I had with "the poor" didn't sit right. I was "helping" them, but it felt wrong. I've also spent a lot of time simmering ideas for work I want to do among the materially poor, both local and global. And reading this book was a lot like the first time I put glasses on in 2nd grade. Everything became astonishingly clear.

This is the only book that I have ever had to decide who to loan it out to first. So since it might be a while until I see it again, I wanted to summarize what it talks about so I can correctly keep talking about it forever and ever. Lucky world!

A brief summary of what Michelle got out of
When Helping Hurts: How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor...and yourself
By Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
(available from amazon.com for $10)

When Helping Hurts starts by presenting something I've wanted for a long time: an explanation of poverty from a biblical perspective. Understanding the "big picture" is important: you can't effectively alleviate poverty without knowing how it got there in the first place.

We have to start with Jesus. The book states, giving biblical support, "Jesus came to reconcile -- put in right relationship -- all that He created." It goes on to say that the mission of the church, then, is an extension of Jesus' ministry: "to preach the good news of the kingdom in word and in deed." It briefly presents how the church has handled poverty throughout history.

Defining the cause of poverty directly affects how we will treat it. For example, if we think the cause is a lack of material resources, then we will give the poor material resources...if we think the cause is a lack of knowledge, then we try to educate them. Ultimately, however, poverty is the result of broken relationships -- at the foremost, it is the result of a broken relationship with God, but it is also the result of a broken relationship with self, others, and the rest of creation.

Individuals are connected to the systems they live in. Broken individuals result in broken systems -- political, economic, social, and religious. And broken systems result in broken individuals. Assigning responsibility solely to the individual or solely to the system is incomplete.

This framework also recognizes that material poverty isn't the only type of poverty. Since we all have broken/imperfect relationships, we are truly all poor, be it material, spiritual, relational, emotional, etc. "One of the major premises of this book is that until we embrace our mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good. [...] One of the biggest problems in many poverty-alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich -- their god-complexes -- and the poverty of being of the economically poor -- their feelings of inferiority and shame."

If these broken relationships are the cause of poverty, then poverty alleviation is "the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation." Materially speaking, this reconciliation process includes helping people to support themselves. Spiritually speaking, this reconciliation process includes addressing people's need to restore their relationship with God by accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior -- poverty alleviation has limited effectiveness if this is not the case. To replace a materially poor person's values with middle-class values only replaces their former worldview with a modern worldview...that people can be their own salvation.

True poverty alleviation is a process that involves people...not a project to be done or a product that we end with. That makes lasting work hard and slow. But quick fixes are a waste of time, so in the end, this process approach is a better investment.

If all of what has just been said is true, then the church is a prime candidate for effective poverty alleviation.

After establishing this framework for understanding poverty, the book moves on to some practical principles. The first distinction made is between relief (urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid, often in the form of material assistance, to reduce immediate suffering from a natural or man-made crisis -- this "working for" is intended to "stop the bleeding"), rehabilitation (seeks to restore communities to their "pre-crisis" condition -- this is characterized by "working with") and development (ongoing change that moves all people -- helpers and helped -- along in the relationship reconciling that restores us to what God created us to be). To offer "relief" assistance to people who are at a "rehabilitation" or "development" stage typically brings everyone further from God's ideal than closer to it. The book describes basic principles for each stage, emphasizing the need to avoid paternalism and not do things for people that they can do for themselves.

Once the stage of material poverty is identified, it is important to ask those who are in need of assistance asset-based questions like, "What gifts has God given you that you can use to improve your life and that of your neighbors?" instead of need-based questions: "What is wrong with you? How can I fix you?" Three Asset-Based Community Development strategies are explained: asset mapping, participatory learning and action, and appreciative inquiry. Poverty alleviation requires significant participation of the poor involved in order to have any type of success. "Doing to" or "doing for" others demeans the community of people involved and has virtually no long term impact.

The book finally moves onto practical strategies for effective poverty alleviation, both local and global. It discusses the potential harm short-term missions groups can have, offering suggestions for improving the positive impact they can have on those who go and the communities they go to. It offers practical, effective ministry models that churches can establish in their own communities that address both the broken individual and broken system. Next it explores the microfinance movement that is being used in the Majority World (countries where most people live in poverty) -- and why they sometimes work and sometimes don't -- and why Savings and Credit Associations are often a better model for alleviating poverty. Finally it briefly touches on Business As Missions -- viable businesses that are vehicles for ministry.