What is poverty?[read the whole article on ACTS website:
http://actsoverland.com/volunteer/responsible-approach-to-volunteering/#paternalism ]
"Poverty is often thought of as the lack of material resources or finances, in which case it is likely that hand-outs are given in order to assist people or communities. It is important that the true meaning of poverty understood before giving material hand-outs and in the process possibly causing harm to oneself and the community.
Words used to described poverty by the 'poor' themselves are shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness. This shows that poverty is multi-faceted and has to do with so much more than not having material things.
The way poverty is viewed determines the solutions attempted to implement to alleviate poverty. Poverty has to do with broken relationships, whether it is with oneself (poverty of being), others (poverty of community), God (poverty of spiritual intimacy), or the rest of creation (poverty of stewardship).
Viewed in this way, it is clear that everyone experiences poverty in one way or another. As a volunteer, it is important to be aware of one own's poverty, so that one does not consider oneself as superior to others, and is open to learning from materially poor people on how to become 'richer' in one own's areas of our poverty.
So, if poverty is multi-faceted, approaches to alleviating poverty must also be multi-faceted, and it is essential to determine the nature of the poverty before deciding on how to help."
* Working with low-income communities is complicated and IS NOT about material solutions. Daily I'm learning about the isolation and paralyzation of these communities and the mental and emotional hardships they face.
