Honoring Those We Help
Amber Pleasant /Writing from Chiang Mai, Volunteer with FBR
Throughout the year, many nonprofit organizations will solicit donations from people on their mailing lists. For some people, this can be a nice cleansing process to clear out the excess that seems to accumulate remarkably quickly in our lives. For others, it is a convenient way to dispose of “trash” – stained, tattered clothes, broken house wares, and sometimes even expired food items seem to make their way into give-away bags.
It seems that this same mentality of viewing donations as a convenient means of disposing of rubbish now knows no borders.
Since arriving in Chiang Mai, I have been duly impressed with the vast and diverse collection of people who seek to support the oppressed ethnicities of Burma. There are literally volunteers from around the world who come to the region. Additionally, people send in generous donations of different kinds of supplies that are desperately needed by villagers stranded in the Burmese jungle. However, the donations are not always given in the most conscientious manner. I do not believe donors see what they are doing as insulting, but I would like to take this time to call all donors to be cognizant of the fact that the manner in which you provide help impacts those in need.
Cardboard boxes with a giant label “THIRD WORLD” splashed across the side panel sit at the medical office. Inside these boxes you will uncover a vast, and varied, collection of medical supplies. Some it is useful, but much of what is given is far past its expiration date. It is one thing to donate doxycycline from 2008 – some people are not aware that medicine does indeed expire. However, when you start pulling out used bottles of Pepto-Bismol from 2005, you begin to wonder what that individual was thinking when they placed that in a donation pile (perhaps they accidentally mistook it for the trash bin?).
Seek to empower the people you wish to help. A great step towards accomplishing this comes with recognizing that a person in need is your equal. Would you give your friend something that would hurt them? Expired medicines such as doxycycline grow increasingly more potent with age, and are unusable shortly after their expiration date. Opened, expired bottles of Pepto-Bismol? I don’t think I need to expand upon why that is inappropriate.
Placing a people group in the “third world” category can be quite insulting, and even if it is not insulting, the label is certainly not a conduit to empowerment. The talented and magnanimous individuals in the region continuously humble me, and if anything – I feel inferior to them. Their kindness and hospitality continues to remind me of the fact that we are united by our common basic needs, and I find it beautifully ironic that I came to the region to help, but am probably getting far more in return for my efforts than these “third world” people will ever receive from me.
So next time you prepare a box for donation, consider the message you are sending, and remember that the golden rule also applies to the manner in which you help the global community.
Thank you. Very well written… and much needed.