There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to helping the poor. To truly help people, we need to understand the root causes of their poverty. Further, we have to evaluate whether our methods are addressing those root causes or only exasperating broken relationships within ourselves and the people we serve. In this video, experts at the Chalmers Center explain the differences between relief, rehabilitation, and development aid and give us some tips for discerning which type of aid will serve a community best in their given circumstances.
Similarly, in this podcast episode, Sara Beth Fentress, Executive Director of 127 Worldwide, discusses the difference between relief aid and development aid in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. At 127 Worldwide, we are committed to the upstream work of preventing family fracturing, but there is also a time for meeting an urgent need. Join us as you too process how to best care for the vulnerable in your life!
Reflection Questions:
- How can we determine whether the materially poor need relief, rehabilitation, or development aid?
- Can you think of a time you’ve preferred a “pre-packaged solution” that Jerilyn Sanders describes over a long-term, difficult commitment to relationships? How might the outcome of your service have changed if you focused on people over the project?
