Interviews

6-16
So I finally started my “real job” here, sort of. It’s about a million times clearer now what my main tasks will be for the summer. And the really major ones are learning and observing, leaving the more task oriented things still a little fuzzy around the edges. I say that, but I really do have a lot of details at this point, it’s just hard to predict where it will all lead. Basically, in every community that Food for the Hungry works in, they partner with a local church (and try to partner with local leaders, with varying degrees of success, apparently) to carry out their programs. And the programs vary from place to place, as each community, church, and group of leaders and families differ. Here in Santa Queteria they partner with Razon United Methodist Church and do dozens of different things. The beautiful part about it though, is that the line between where FH stops and Razon UMC begins is blurry. In fact, no one I talk to really seems to be able to define it for me. Together (and sometimes separate) they fund children’s school fees, give out school supplies, run feeding programs, train local health advocates (Nana Magda is one!), run health fairs, sports fests, do camping trips (sounds like what we would call retreats), run Bible studies for children, teach about nutrition, do a variety of micro-finance and micro-enterprise, some vocational training, give scholarships to college (which is way too expensive for most of these families to afford), and train church members to lead bible studies in the community. My job is to interview pretty much anyone who gets touched in this process: sponsored FH children, their parents, church staff, community leaders, etc. I’m attempting to give a rough picture of how well (or if) FH is meeting its stated goals amongst its target groups. And I’m supposed to find success stories from the program, and write about them. And there seems to be amazing successes! Tonight at church I met an FH child, named Karen, who just graduated college with a degree in computer science. She grew up in a slum. She leads worship in her church. Her parents couldn’t afford school supplies for high school, let alone college tuition fees. Amazing! Of course, my “study” is far from scientific, quantifiable, or statistically sound. But I don’t think God cares much about numbers. I think He cares way more that one of His daughters was lost and is found. That His body rose up from far away places like the US, Japan, and Canada and did not overlook the hunger of one poor little girl. And because of that, she has a bright future. Seriously!

Now, what’s the catch? And I’m afraid, ladies and gents, there is one, even in such an awesome ministry. And here, it mostly seems to be that FH has limited resources. They can’t keep replicating their programs around the Phps. without more funding. So either the interns who are supposed to be finding sponsors need to find a few million more, or something has to give. Eventually, FH pulls out of every community they partner in. And here in Sta.Queteria, they are pulling out in a year. No one is really happy about this here in the Barangay, those funds are going away, and a lot of their help is leaving. At first, I was really unhappy about it. It sucks. Why should some children get the support for their entire schooling and others have it pulled out from under them? Well, let me try to explain, as I’m try to understand it myself. First, everyone complains that the poor are dependent, that they just take hand outs, and that they do not look out for themselves because they rely on others. That is sometimes true, and this is, in some ways, a firm stance of FH saying that they will not let people build permanent dependence on them. Second, by phasing out one center, it allows them to start a new center in a community that also desperately needs their help. And instead of training a new staff person and raising their budget, they can just move an already trained, experienced community level staff work from the phased out center to the new one. Third, FH doesn’t want to be in the communities forever. Their ultimate goal is not to grow and grow, forming programs in every community until they are helping millions and millions of people around the world. Their goal is to end poverty! One of their main ways of doing that is through training and lifting up strong churches and community leaders who can increasingly meet the needs of their own community, without outside help. So why is FH pulling out of Sta. Queteria a good thing? Sure, it’s a hard thing, and it leaves fewer resources for these people, who desperately need any help they can get. But that’s not all that they leave behind. They leave trained community health advocates. They leave families with vocational training, hog raising projects, and financial savings skills. They leave dozens of repaired and improved houses. They leave mothers who now know more about the health and nutrition of their children. They leave children who have a better understanding of the importance of their education and a deeper relationship with Jesus. And perhaps, the best thing that I have seen, they leave a strong church behind, that is ready to step up in FH’s place. Mrs. Makhil, my interpreter, told me she is one of only 2 original families (most of whom were middle class) left in the church. The rest have moved away. It sounds like Razon UMC was dying, increasingly losing members as they fled the growing poverty around them. And yet, when RUMC partnered with FH, they started growing like crazy. Why? Because mothers who know that their children can get free nutritious food at a church will go to that church. And when there are free health fairs, they will bring their families. And when they can get training in making candles or raising pigs, they will see that these people are serious, and they will keep coming. And when they join Bible studies, and small groups, and choirs, and train to lead Bible studies they become the church leaders. And Mrs. Makhil and Pastor John tell me they are searching for overseas donors who will replace the funding they are losing from FH, because they do not want to stop helping pay for children’s school fees or to end the scholarship program. I seriously doubt that 10 years ago this church would have even considered such an undertaking. FH might be leaving, and they may leave a community that is sad to see them go, but they do not leave that community helpless. They have given it tools and training and love and knowledge and helped its families and churches and leaders to reach their own potential to meet their own needs. And that is a beautiful thing.

PS
If you don’t know what microfinance and micro-enterprise are, I’ll do my best to do a quick review. For those who know, don’t make fun of my terrible explanations. Micro-finance involves giving small loans to the poor, often through giving to a small group as opposed to just one person. For example, a $100 loan might be given to start a small store. Or frequently, poor people can be trapped in a tight circle of borrowing. For example, a woman might have to borrow $1 a day to buy produce in a village to sell in the city. Although she makes $2.50 from selling the produce, she must pay back $1.50 for the money she borrowed in the morning, and she loses a huge percentage of her earnings, simply because she can’t afford to save up the capital to buy the produce on her own. Microfinance helps people break out of these cycles. It’s also been one of the most amazingly effective ways of battling poverty anyone has ever found. The last Noble Peace Prize went to the guy who really got the process going through the Grameen (sp?) Bank.

Micro-enterprise is very similar, just that it ties loaning small amounts of capital and/or materials with some sort of vocational training and/or a specific economic activity. For example, here in Sta. Queteria, FH does a hog-raising program, in which they “loan” people a hog, the families raise it and sell it, and only then owe back the price of the hog to begin with.