A Fair Chance?

Now during my time here I have been emphasizing the slogan, "Think Opportunity, Not Charity." I’ve made some challenging remarks against charities, some which many may not have been welcomed.

I hope you will allow me to state my perspective through a fictious, yet possible, story…

Imagine a farmer here in Bongo; we’ll call him Alfred. For the past year Alfred has realized that in  order to increase his productivity he needs to get a donkey cart. This would allow him to transport his produce to the market, as well as help him moving things around the farm. He also has the innovative idea of renting out the cart for others to use when he is not in need of it. Alfred was part of a farmer group has just completed the AAB program. In addition to his group project with them, he decides to plan out how he will earn a donkey cart by the end of the season. He realizes that if he keeps his expenses low, and sells when the market prices are high, with the amount of yield he is expecting he should be able to purchase the donkey and cart, with his profits and a small loan, in about 5 months. So with his plan in tact Alfred goes at it; he works tirelessly, putting his sweat and blood into his farming activity. He has a goal in mind and never loses sight of it. He limits how much he and his family spends, because he knows the much getting this cart will put him ahead of the game… or will it?

After all the work and 5 months later Alfred becomes the proud new owner of a donkey cart which he has earned. A few weeks later Alfred here’s that his neighbour, Patrick, has received a donkey cart from a charity organization from Canada. Alfred cannot believe it! Alfred remembers meeting an individual from this charity a few days ago who came to see his farm. They talked about how well he was doing and how he was one of the ‘better off’ farmers in the village. Patrick on the other hand, the charity felt bad for. When they came to meet him he gave them a sappy story of how he’s struggling and can’t even feed his family and how he needs ‘help.’ The charity sees how destitute his farm look, and give in to his wishes. What irritates Alfred even more is that he knows Patrick very well, and he knows how he sits around just waiting for things to come to him. Instead of taking control of his farming and livelihood he waits around, wastes his money on pito (local alcoholic beverage), and doesn’t even mind his farm. He doesn’t prepare his land, plants at the wrong times, and lazily harvests his crops letting much of the produce he could use to feed his family, rot.

So now Alfred, who can only rent out the donkey cart at a fixed price to account for his loan payments, now has no more customers. Why? Patrick rents it out for a lot less, since he received it for free and doesn’t really care about the donkey cart. He relies on the money he gets to purchase more pito and will just wait to sucker another charity into ‘helping’ him. Alfred who expected to be ahead of the game, is now falling behind since all the others in the community are using Patrick’s low-price cart to transfer their produce, that the market is saturated and Alfred cannot earn what he expected. Now Alfred has fallen behind on the loan payments and has to struggle to keep his farm going. Alfred who had plans to break his cycle of poverty, is even further in it, all thanks to a charity that tried to ‘help.’

So the question I leave you with is, are we really providing a fair chance with charity?