We are very excited to announce that Plant With Purpose Executive Director Scott Sabin has written a book called Tending to Eden which will be published in the next couple weeks! Based on Scott's own 18 years of experiences working with Plant With Purpose in Haiti and other countries, the book provides a global perspective on environmental stewardship and makes the connection between poverty and the environment. Below is a brief excerpt from Tending to Eden.
(to pre-order your own copy, click here.)
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From Tending to Eden, pages 22-25
"In December 1997 Plant With Purpose’s technical director, Bob
Morikawa, and our new Haitian director, Jean-Mari Desilus
(whomwe called Dezo), traveled with me to the Haitian village of
Kavanac. The sun beat down on us as we walked a steep, narrow
path between hillside farms, their tiny fields separated from one
another by loose rock walls. Ragged corn struggled through the
rocks on either side of us. My lunch was not sitting well.
After we’d crossed one ridge and were on our way up a second
long slope, I told the others I needed a rest. As I sat on a large
stone, contemplating the hill in front of me, two elderly women
came up the hill, five-gallon buckets of water balanced on their
heads. “Bon swa, blan,” they greeted me. They asked where we
were going, and Dezo told them we were headed to a village meeting
in Kavanac. The older woman said they were on their way to
the same meeting. “We’ll let them know you will be along in a
while,” she said with a teasing grin.
At the top of the last ridge, I could see the
south,
to the east, and the brilliant blue water of the
Prince to the north. A little farther along the ridge sat a group of
about forty farmers, men and women, in an open-sided lean-to
made of wood and corrugated tin. When we reached them, several
sidled up tome and discreetly held out their hands while rubbing
their stomachs.
I shook my head, indicating I had nothing to give them.
The meeting convened and moved past pleasantries to a series
of questions from the community as to what Plant With Purpose
intended to do in the village. A woman stood and, in a confrontational
tone, told me about the other humanitarian agencies that
had worked in the area. She named two agencies that had brought
food and clothes, then left and never returned. “How is Plant With
Purpose going to be any different?”
After giving the question some consideration, I responded,
“Well, first of all, we are not going to give you anything.”
She looked stunned.
“Second, we are not going to leave until you ask us to.”
The woman stood there, speechless.
Once we understand God’s heart for justice and the vicious
cycle of deforestation and poverty that traps the poor, how do we
respond? The desire to help is admirable in a world where far too
many pass by on the other side of the road. But determining how
to respond can be complicated.
I was originally drawn to the work of serving the poor and hungry
because it seemed simple, unambiguous, and virtuous. I had
studied political science and was often struck by the moral ambiguity
and unexpected consequences of most policy choices. Well intended
programs often had the opposite effect of what their
drafters expected. The most well-meaning projects could cause
great harm. As I was to discover, humanitarian work can be nearly
as complicated.
Many humanitarian organizations respond to poverty and
injustice by giving surplus food, medicine, and clothes, and maybe
starting orphanages and clinics. They focus on treating the symptoms
of poverty—which sorely need to be treated. But others ask
questions about the root causes: Why are people are hungry and
sick? Why so many orphaned children?
The Bible seems pretty straightforward in its approach: give a
cup of cold water in the name of the Lord. Our first response is
often to give things away. The poor clearly lack things, and we
have things, so what could be more obvious than giving out of
our abundance?
Yet giving things often comes with unintended consequences.
Without knowing the needs and challenges faced by local communities,
our gifts can be inappropriate. In one community where
we work, a relatively new bulldozer sat in front of a school yard
for many years, slowly rusting. No doubt it was given with the
best of intentions and was probably very expensive to ship. Yet it
was completely inappropriate to the local conditions. It ended up
serving as a germination bed for weeds and a few small trees
before being sold for scrap.
Even when gifts are appropriate to the needs of the people, they
can often create dependency.
and many short-term mission teams have come to share the
gospel and build churches and school buildings. Yet there is a
growing school of thought that much of our aid may be hurting
the locals.
As we were establishing Plant With Purpose in
missionary sternly informed us that he wasn’t sure
needed another well-intended nonprofit agency. “We have created
a nation of beggars,” he said. “For years folks have been coming
down here thinking they are helping by giving things away. But
that just teaches people to beg.” Another missionary told me that
after citizens in one village received cracked wheat from USAID,
few local farmers bothered to plant corn because they couldn’t
compete with free food.
Often, the problem is less with aid itself than with how it is
applied. We tend to focus on short-term, immediate-impact solutions
rather than long-term investments in people. Many Americans
have at least a passing understanding of what handouts do
to initiative, self-esteem, and motivation. We talk of how a welfare
mentality creates dependency. When we see panhandlers on
the street corner, most of us realize a handout won’t change their
lives. A gospel tract probably won’t do much good, either—
though it may be better than handing them a dollar. Unfortunately,
we don’t always translate that understanding into our approach
to the poor overseas."
Posts
Tell me more, tell me more! What a great little taste-tester. I can't wait to read the whole thing!
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