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Why help the Poor?
from JAC Issue #19
by
General Eva Burrows
(this is a
condensed version of an address delivered by General Burrows
at the opening session of the Third Asia-Pacific Regional
Workship on Banking With The Poor held in Brisbane, 21-25
November 1995, used with permission)
This is a
subject about which I feel passionately, yet at the same time
realistically- with a strong compassion rather than
sentimentality. Nevertheless, as I have traveled the world, my
indignation has often been aroused by the sights and sounds of
human need.
I had the privilege once in Calcutta to meet Mother Teresa at
one of her feeding centres for the poor and outcast of that
teeming city. When I asked her how she coped with all the fame
and adulation she receives, she replied, “It means nothing to
me. But one thing I have done which I believe is important. I
have helped people to talk to the poor and not just about the
poor.”
This is a simple but very significant statement which
indicates ‘the poor’ are not just some conglomerate group
which can be dismissed as an economically nonproductive sector
of society that we are unfortunately stuck with. They are
fellow human beings- real people, individuals- for whom we
have a concern and responsibility.
That is the first and most basic reason why we should help the
poor- because they are fellow human beings, flesh and blood
people like ourselves. We cannot turn a blind eye. In this
global village, our planet, we are realizing more and more
that we are interdependent. We are like a global family,
albeit a dysfunctional one. We must accept that we are our
brother’s keeper. Some people misquote the words of Jesus who
said, “The pr you will have with you always.” They use this to
denigrate the poor. But Jesus was not acquiescing to the
permanence of poverty or maligning the poor. Rather He was
indicating that those who have plenty will have an opportunity
for generosity in helping those living in poverty.
Do we have any idea what it means to be poor? Poverty
diminishes people. Extreme poverty is deeply demeaning. I have
seen people competing with dogs on the rubbish heaps of many
large cities of impoverished lands.
You may have seen the poor, but have you ever imagined how it
must feel not to be able to provide food for your hungry
children; not to have a shirt on your back; not to be able to
help your dying child because you lack access to medicine; not
to be able to send your child to school when you know that
some education is the only hope of success for that child and
for your family?
Despite the phenomenal economic growth of many Asian
countries, there are still 800 millions lacking basic human
needs like food, shelter, work, and minimal health care. Yet I
have been deeply impressed in the many countries of Asia I
have visited to the ingenious methods that the poor use to
rise above their hopelessness.
In Delhi I saw a shanty dweller family pulling through cotton
wool and bandages that they must have scavenged from hospital
dustbins. There were using it to fill pillows to sell to their
neighbours. In Colombo I remember an umbrella repairman,
remaking and selling umbrellas with his own recycling
techniques. In Manila there are men who cart unimaginably
large loads on bicycles to earn their daily bread. In hovels
in Calcutta I have seen women slaving over pots of boiling fat
making small cakes for selling at the street market. These
people deserve our help in the most positive ways.
The plight of the poor, unemployed, and downtrodden always
aroused the fighting compassion of William Booth, the founder
of The Salvation Army. Speaking once to a group of
parliamentarians in London toward the end of the last century
he used as his illustration the cabhorse which was the main
means of transportation around the city in those days. “What
happens,” he asked, “when a cabhorse collapses on the roadway?
Men do not gather around the fallen creature and say, ‘you
stupid animal, you got yourself there, get yourself up! Nor do
they gather round and academically analyse the environmental
difficulties that caused the horse to fall down’. “No,” said
William Booth, “men of goodwill gather round, put straps under
the horse’s belly and lift it back on its feet. They will then
make sure it has three things- food to eat, shelter, and work.
And if you do that for a horse, why will you not do it for a
man, who is made in the image and likeness of God?” The
Salvation Army still operates under what may be called The
Cabhorse Charter. Translated into contemporary terms, it means
that every human being deserves:
- a reasonable standard of living;
- a reasonable standard of accommodation;
- an opportunity to use his abilities in satisfying work.
Another reason why we must help the poor is the need for
social justice- one of the great themes of humankind’s
thinking about society, and a divine requirement of all
religions. There is injustice when a small fraction of the
population grows richer by the year, while others ache and
suffer for lack of the most basic necessities. There is
injustice when there is gross inequality in how a nation’s
resources are distributed.
Our difficulty with social injustice comes when we try to move
beyond our intuitive ideas to put it into practice. But we
must try.
We must recognise that a socially just policy can no longer be
considered simply a supplement, an adjunct to economic policy.
Indeed, economic and social policy are inextricably
interrelated. In the context of an increasingly integrated
world economic system, we can see that social justice and the
social solidarity and cohesion it brings are essential for
successful economic development. You can have- indeed, must
have- a sound balance between economic policy and social
justice strategy. In fact, we might say that the exclusion of
large sections of a nation’s population from full social and
economic participation is very wasteful of human resources.
How do we give the poor the opportunity to rise above their
grinding poverty? If lack of normal access to credit is a
crucial reason why the poor remain poor, how can we give them
access to credit that will enable them to create a productive
and sustainable lifestyle?
I believe that Banking With The Poor is one such way. It has
proved that the poor are good credit risks, especially when
organised into self-help groups. Repayment of mirco loans is
excellent. Women especially have proved reliable borrowers,
and evidence great success in their simple business ventures.
This success breeds success and new confidence, and it
encourages others. By facilitating micro-enterprise of the
indigent poor, and encouraging domestic financial institutions
to provide for their credit needs, Banking With The Poor
supports economic growth and financial independence in
countries where the poor have been looked on only in negative
terms.
It has been said of Mother Teresa that she merely loves,
feeds, clothes the poor, and treats the dying and does not
provide them with the means to fight for their rights- that
she treats the symptoms only, and not the root causes.
Well, I don’t think the Mother Teresas of this world are
really cut out for that. But you are. You are the people who
can tackle root causes, who can ensure that economic plans are
linked to socially just development strategies, who can play a
more balanced, positive, proactive role to sustain and develop
your nation’s social, human, and natural resources.
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