As we all know, the purpose of a charity is to raise money and/or goods with intent to donate those goods to someone or something that needs them more than we do. In the year 2016 alone more than 350 billion dollars were donated to a charitable cause worldwide. 

Most of this money is donated to the sick and the poor. Many people in desperate situations rely on charities to live. This dependency on charities brings up the question, what would the world be like without charity? In my research, I am going to emphasize the impact on third world countries such as Africa. I will also discuss a few examples of toxic charities in the United States to emphasize my points and to make my paper more relatable to the readers that live in first world countries. Surely Africa will struggle initially but in the long run will taking away charity donations be beneficial to the development of Africa as a self-sustaining nation.

In third world countries, such as certain African countries, the economic development and self-viability is at an all-time low. They are not producing much of what they use. A heavy majority of the goods and services that the people of these countries consume are not produced/provided by themselves. Rather, they are donated by people in first world countries that have enough money to give a few dollars to charity to help people in need. But, little do they know, there donation might do more harm than good. The items being donated seem to be helpful at first but after further inspection are not very well thought-out. 

Michael Matheson Miller is a researcher that wanted to look at the hidden effects of providing people with free services. He went to a small, poor village in Zimbabwe and interviewed one of the locals that used to own a small chicken farm. When Miller asked the man what happened to his business he told him about how a first world “charity” ran him out of business. This man worked hard for a living and when he finally saved up enough money he bought himself a half-dozen chickens and built a chicken coop in hopes of starting his own business where he sold eggs to his neighbors at prices that they can afford. His business was successful. He would raise chickens and sell the eggs for profit at the same time as he provided his struggling village with a new steady food source. Small business’ like his help third world countries provide for themselves so they do not rely on donations to live. This man’s business not only helped him make a living but it also helped the people of his community because he provided jobs to potential villagers that have no way of making money otherwise. The business was getting to be very successful so he spent money on more chickens in hopes of further expanding it. One day a shipment arrived from the united states with enough food to feed the village for a couple of months. This was very good news to a majority of the village because they were able to eat without struggling to buy enough food to feed the family. But, to the business owners this shipment was devastating. As you can imagine, after the food shipment came in no one bought any eggs until all the free food was gone. This donation had a bigger impact on this village than any donator could have possibly imagined. In the following weeks, the business owner had to fire all of his employees because he was not selling enough eggs to pay for their labor. Shortly after that the man went completely broke and did not have enough money to pay for food for the chickens to eat and they all died. After the food from this “donation” was all gone the village was much worse than when they started. Nearly all food suppliers in the area went bankrupt and out of business. The unemployment rate is up, the food supply is down, and the quality of life has plummeted. 

This man’s story is very eye-opening. It shows how charities that seem to be doing the right thing are actually damaging the quality of life in poor regions of the world. But, not all charities are bad. Charities do help people in need. In 2015 over $35 million dollars were donated to Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Although communities in this region have the lowest quality of life out of any region in the world, the quality of life is actually raised during the time periods that were recently after charitable donations. People in areas like this do truly need outsider help in order to survive. Which leaves us to question what kind of charity is good charity, what kind is “toxic charity”, and what we can do to help. 

I think that the solution to this charity crisis is best put into words by Robert Lupton, the author of “Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help, And How to Reverse It”. We need to listen to what the people in need want, focus on community and focus on development. Rather than sending them an abundance of something that we have excess of we should ask them what they want and what will truly benefit them in the long run. We need to focus on the community rather than the individual and put what is in the best interest of the community first. If the community is doing well then the individuals do well. We need to focus on developing these communities so they can support themselves. We need to teach these people how to provide for themselves as a community. He also says that there is no easy fix to most things. We need to pay attention to our pace and make sure we don’t get ahead of them and overwhelm them. 

In other words, rather than giving people food, teach them how to thrive. Listen to them and their ideas. They need hands on help. Not our shipments. If someone wants to have a garden, go help them build it and invest in the start-up. Invest in local businesses! If business owners have more money and product they can afford to hire more labor. If more labor is hired them the unemployment goes down and the community starts to do better as a whole. Sending in huge donation shipments kills businesses. Rather than giving money to food donation services give money to charities that fund small businesses and educate the people. 