Permit a comment on my dear friend Joyce Sasse’s column (WP, Sept. 8) on giving.
For centuries charity was handled by the church under the guidelines of the widow’s mite (the spirit of giving is more important than the size of the gift) and the parable of the good Samaritan (helping anyone in need and expecting nothing in return).
Now we’re in the 21st century. Hundreds of agencies, with permanent offices and professional staff, clam-our for our charity dollars. Giving has become big business. How many of our mites go into fundraising?
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So we encouraged direct charity. Pastor Sasse served a church in our community of Gleichen (the main town for the Siksika Blackfoot reserve) and with us experienced the requests for handouts on the streets.
We often took the panhandler into a store and purchased bread and meat for him, rather than just flipping him a coin, which we suspected would likely be spent for something else. She may not have experienced the frustration of having this same food purchase being offered for sale at a discount in the back alley.
I experienced this same problem in Zimbabwe. In previous years charity food came in trucks or planes with workers tossing out bags of food. This procedure damaged local morale and undermined local economic balances. It didn’t take long for recipients to ask, why should I work … in the hot sun when I can wait in the shade until another truck rolls in loaded with food?
So we pushed the idea of “teaching a man to fish rather than handing him a fish.”
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank monitors all donations -many are given in return for work on roads or ditches, extensive agriculture training is offered to farmers to improve their production, storage facilities are built and the re-sale of any donated grain is forbidden.
Pastor Sasse advises to let your conscience be your guide, but our conscience is a product of teaching. Charity without conscience destroys incentive and creates dependency. Our marching orders were given by St. Matthew’s final words: “go … to all nations … teaching them.” It goes hand in hand with giving.
Vern Hoff,
Gleichen, Alta.
