FACT: The mission of Lifeline of Hope is to the orphan children of the world and to the donors that support them as well as those in their community that choose to provide for them.
For more than ten years, Orphan’s Lifeline International has been caring for orphan children in cultures of poverty in developing and third world countries across the globe.
I think that in the beginning all we knew was that we wanted to help the children, and that seemed relatively simple as a thought. Raise money, find people in the countries that wanted to take care of the children and supply them with the funds, services and goods to do just that…simple…right?
WRONG!
I have threatened for many years to have a bumper sticker made that simply states: “nothing is easy.” And when it comes to the work that we do for the orphan children of the world that statement holds true more than ever.
UNDERSTANDING A CULTURE OF POVERTY
Have you ever looked at your television set and wondered at the technology behind what you see? And have you ever thought to yourself how anyone could possibly be so smart as to have developed such an amazing technology that can take beams of electronic information and translate them into images and sound that we can see and hear? I know I have…and I have made the mistake of thinking of the technology as a single invention coming from one mind or even a team of minds.
The truth is that the technology in a television is the culmination of thousands of minds over many decades. One mistake after another has led to one triumph after another for each and every component of the television that makes it the technological marvel that it really is.
It is much the same in understanding a culture of poverty from two different sides…the first being the culture itself and the second being our perception of it from the other side of the fence…outside that culture looking in with our limited knowledge and preconceived notions.
First of all, to understand it, like the television, we have to break it down into its components…what is it made of?
It is made up of people, history, government and country specific culture and religion.
First of all the people: People that live in a culture of poverty, very often come from generations of people that have lived within such a culture and as such, grow to adulthood knowing exactly what that culture has taught them. They have learned to survive by whatever means is necessary, whether it be hard work, stealing, lying and cheating or a combination of some or all of the aforementioned. And when it comes to staying alive, there is no limit to what a person might do and justify as being necessary.
History: History is a big player in these cultures. The interactions that they have had with people within their society and outside their society as it relates to their culture of poverty play a big role in the “skills” they have developed trying to survive on a daily basis. In many of these countries, the “outside” influence has had the most significant impact, due to the fact that their own country has not been capable or in some cases willing to help them. This has not only made them dependent on the outside help, but also greatly influences their methods of asking for and obtaining that help. Let me give you an example. In India, outside “help” has been the single greatest source of aid in their cultures of poverty and while those helping I am sure have always meant well, they have taught the Indian people living in these cultures some very bad habits.
Much of this has come from the ideals behind the way we give being “lost in translation.” One example of this is when Christians in the past have told preachers that we have trained that they are willing to fund the Church based on new baptized individuals at $10 per month for example. The well meaning “donors” simply did this as a way of funding the planted congregations based upon their growth, but the preachers simply saw this as being a price tag on the conversions. SO….they learned that in order for their congregation to get the money it needed and for they as individuals (still poor) to get what they needed to care for their families, that they just needed to inflate their “baptism” reports to reflect more conversions…thus more money. They then learned to recruit more preachers, start more congregations and taught them they same methods, but required the new preachers to give them a “cut” of the monthly money.
This has bled over into the orphanages and some aspects are directly related since many orphanages are started by local Church congregations and in some cases the preacher of that congregation is also the director of the orphanage. The direct bleed over comes in the form of the director believing that the more orphans he reports, the more money he will receive.
The other half of the problem is that history has also taught them that Americans and other westerners are not nearly as willing to help them personally as they are willing to help them in their charitable or Christian and Evangelical activities. In fact they have learned to be afraid to ask for more money for salaries. So, instead, when under pressure from family members or inflation or emergencies that we all have, they have learned that it is easier to lie about the number of baptisms or the number of orphans in order to get the money they feel they need to survive and take care of their families.
Then, they tell others…not only how to get money from potential western donors, but also how to fool them when someone comes to visit. The methods that they have learned are pretty sophisticated too. They recruit and pay parents to borrow their children for inspections. They recruit and pay other “orphanages” to borrow their children for times of inspection. They purchase items for the purpose of making it appear that “x” number of children are living there, etc., etc.
But…we have to be careful, as Americans, and citizens from developed nations, not to attach the same meaning to their actions as we would people from our own culture. In other words, we have to be careful, not to expect these people to live up to our standards of ethics…at least not initially, because it is a learning process and one that is up to us to teach them.
Churchill once said, upon returning from a visit to India, that the people in that country hold honesty in such high regard that nobody ever uses it.
While speaking in jest, he was closer to the truth than he might have imagined and even our loyal translator has told us that there is “no such thing as a completely honest Indian”…only varying levels of dishonesty. Of course this too is his perspective and not entirely accurate as of course there are honest people in that country, like anywhere else in the world…but it is a country of great poverty and social and religious inequity, all of which breed desperation and therein, dishonesty.
It is our job to recognize two things…that their levels of dishonesty are directly proportionate to their level of desperation and that it is still not acceptable.
WORKING IN A CULTURE OF POVERTY:
So what do we do? Should we hold to our high moral and ethical principles and simply not do “business” with them and in such simply ignore the plight of the orphans in countries such as this. Or do we teach them that helping people is an honorable profession that comes with personal reward AND that honesty, real honesty also comes with personal reward and THAT reward is directly proportionate to that honesty.
It is a fine balance between truth and compassion that we must walk if we are to be successful working in these countries…whether it is to teach them about Jesus or to care for their orphans. We must learn new ways to show them that there is no price tag on the value of a soul, and that there is no price tag on the value of a child’s life. We can only do this by “starting from scratch” in the way that we deal with them on a day to day basis through our charitable activities in their countries.
We have to show them that we are compassionate, but that we demand honesty; complete honesty in order to work with them and that makes it very hard.
When it comes to the orphanages, Orphan’s Lifeline International has spent ten years developing “trade secrets” in our inspection process. These trade secrets have been hard learned and are very closely guarded for a very good reason. If leaked, they would backfire on us because they would simply teach the orphanage directors how to deceive us in more sophisticated manners. Because of this, we don’t tell them how we know or really what we know other than simple facts like: “You claim to have 24 orphans in your children’s home, but our investigation has shown that you only have nine orphans currently under your care.”
This way they know what lie they were caught in, but not how they were caught and we simply refuse to tell them how when they ask…and they always ask or even try to make several different statements with several different possibilities of how we may have discovered the perceived truth they are trying to justify. This is a “fishing” activity that they are also very good at. Not only can they potentially learn how not to get caught next time, but they can then come up with “reasons” why we are wrong.
The balance though…compassion and truth…demanding honesty, but not abandoning the children that are there or the desperate people that need to be taught compassion, forgiveness, AND honesty, all the while making sure donor funds are being spent as intended…on the orphan children…that is the tough part.
We don’t pretend to have all of the answers here at Orphan’s Lifeline…but when it comes to this we all feel we have some excellent policies in place that DO have that balance…
We don’t just cut people off…and in doing so, fail to give them forgiveness, send them off to scam someone else and abandon any children they ARE caring for. At the same time, we do not allow them to get away with the dishonesty and we cannot put our donor’s money at risk either. That is why we are so strict with our assessment and investigation procedures. It is also why we have “probation” policies from the beginning of funding an orphanage, as well as for when there are “infractions” against our program policies. Those infractions might be false reports regarding the number of children, false initial applications, not following our programs regarding the quality of food and / or education, etc….the list goes on.
Really, all we ask is that the orphanage director be honest with us from the very beginning and our policies are designed to promote that honesty without putting a price tag on the children…and along the way we teach them honesty and forgiveness as well. We want them to be telling other current directors or potential directors that honesty pays…instead of how to rip off the American Christians…and we are becoming successful in doing just that. The word is getting around…and fewer and fewer “scammers” are even applying with our organization. And as for those who try to skim by buying cheap starchy food, or over report the number of children in their care…they are taught that we will catch them and they will be held accountable…AND that they will only receive the money according to the REAL honest budget they must submit each and every month.
It is our job here at OLI, not only to be sure that YOUR money is spent as it was intended, but that it is doing the most amount of good possible. At the same time it is our job to teach the desperate people living in communities of poverty all over the world, that they don’t have to cheat, lie or steal to be taken care of…and that in fact, JUST the opposite is true. They can be honest, help their own people and be comfortable and secure in their own homes with their own family all at the same time.
We will continue to work to constantly improve our programs including this element to be flexible and efficient in each and every country we work in…for the sake of our donors…the children…and the people that care for them.
