When I worked in international development I noticed that this principle seemed to hold true in the developing world as well. In fact, we encouraged the poor to be generous with the little they had, even though they were living in extreme poverty themselves. But the act of giving creates a spirit of empowerment and dignity that is often hard to come by in such situations. For example, in one of our programs we supplied a pig to every family in an area of rural Rwanda - but the hope was that when the pig had babies, they would give the first 10 piglets away to other impoverished families, who would then do the same. The initial investment was ours, "the West," but from then on it was up to those Rwandan peasants and farmers to reach out to the poor in their own communities. We heard some remarkable reports from the families who had been helped - about how they had started working together more and looking out for each other, and about how they now realized that they had something to offer! The problem with aid is that it can teach the poor that they have no resources themselves - that they are powerless. The truth is, the poor have much to offer - even if it is just the clay under their feet that they can use to build bricks to construct a house to shelter a widow. When the poor are empowered through their own generosity, entire communities can be transformed. In fact, a few years after the initial gift of pigs, the Rwandan community was transformed to the point that they formed a co-op and built a pork-processing plant that now supplies pork to the Rwandan army. Their kids are all in school, their farms are flourishing, and they are reaching out to help others in surrounding communities break out of the cycle of poverty.The generosity of poor people isn't so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In fact, America's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What's more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does.
"The lowest-income fifth (of the population) always give at more than their capacity," said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. "The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give."
In Ethiopia, we heard similar stories about people who were literally on the brink of starvation being generous with the little they had. When it was time to prepare their one meal of the day, they would remove a handful of rice from the meager amount they had and set it aside to give to someone who had even less. This act of generosity in the face of such dire circumstances completely blows me away, and makes me wonder how I would act in the same situation. Would I hoard, saying I had to look out for me and my children first? Or would I trust that my needs would be looked after if I made giving a priority? Or would I take an even bigger leap and say "Even if my needs aren't looked after - even if I starve - I will still live with a spirit of generosity."
While I hope I am never faced with such a stark choice, it does make me re-examine my own attitude towards charitable giving - as we struggle to make mortgage payments, pay off car and student loans, and save for our children's education. It's at times like these when we are tempted to start hoarding - but what we really need to do is take our cue from the world's poor and continue to give sacrificially to those who are in even greater need.
