Poverty

Most of the time when we think of aid, we only think of the good that comes from it. By all means, aid is great, it has been so helpful to many people and really provided great short-term results for developing countries. Like I said these results were short term.  One of the biggest long term problems in Haiti has been underemployment and unemployment. The United States has been the number one aid giving country to Haiti, they give around $460 million.  So we can ask ourselves that even though Haiti has receive so much why is it still an impoverished country? The country continues to have a terrible economy and is one of the worst governed countries in the world. Isn’t all the aid meant to help them get out of the poverty, and help the country grow?  Haiti is thought of as a fragile state, the government has been corrupt in how they use the money that was given by the aid services.

So how can we solve the problem of poverty in Haiti? Is the answer to stop giving aid, or to stop any trade so that the government will have no money to use for the wrong reasons? No, we must try to get to the people, the uneducated. Although there are laws that education is mandatory for all Haitian’s it has never been executed and this is where we seen another issue rise from the lack of education. No matter how much money is given to a country if the people don’t know how to use it, or save it then they will get nowhere. This is why education is so important in the development of a country.

This is my idea, first of we have to target the younger children, those who are at the age where school is vital and a necessity. Once we teach the children how to be responsible and how to maintain themselves, we are setting out the path for the future. A second idea is to start projects, ones that are completely funded by the aid. This is where the combination of the aid that is still required and the projects could change the future economy and turn Haiti to start on a path to becoming a developed country. The projects involve training the “workers” but paying them, there would be different fields of work to accommodate for all the people. The workers will be trained not just on how to work, but how to spend money wisely. Once they have ‘graduated’ from the training they are set to lead in the training, or given the opportunity to join another business, which has joined with the program. When they work in the business they will get paid a good salary and opportunities for promotion, eventually they may be able to start their own business creating jobs for many more people. Through educating the people, we can help Haiti become a developed country, and leave their current state of poverty.

The Vicious Circle

We all learn about the 'circles of life', the food chain, rain cycle the list can go on and on. Ultimately in every circle the end will be at the beginning, it just keeps on going on forever and ever. That is until something stops it, something big and worthy of change must occur. This is my dream, I want to be able to change the circle of illiteracy. From previous blog entries you might know that I have a passion for Haiti, to help you get an idea of the size of Haiti, picture Maryland. Although the same size Haiti and Maryland are very different. A worrying fact that I have come across is the illiteracy rate in Haiti, but with the same amount of schools as in Maryland the question comes racing through my mind. Why are 52% of Haitians still illiterate? In the small country of Haiti, there are over 15,000 schools! If there are so many schools then why is the percentage so high? This is where the vicious circle comes around and man, it really is a vicious one. So we'll begin from the very bottom of this circle, the baby. A baby girl, lets call her Lucy. Lucy is born into a family that is below the poverty line, meaning her family is expected to survive on less than $2 a day. Lucy's family already has 3 children she is the fourth child, and probably not the last. A few years have passed and it's time for Lucy to go to school, except the average cost for a student to go to school is $350. This is almost half of her families income, so Lucy will not go to school. Instead Lucy is sent to the streets, these streets will become her school, where she will be educated. The people who work on the streets are the ones who didn't go to school, the people who just learnt what they needed to survive. Lucy learns the art of trade, cheating, violence, and the life of the uneducated. Another few years later, Lucy meets a man, they fall in love, get married, and have children, none of which can go to school. Then the circle starts all over again. Except there is even another circle in this education mystery. Teachers. Government teachers are some of the worst paid in Haiti, they have been known to go without pay for long periods as long as 6 months. So here's the problem, why work hard when you don't even get a penny for it? The teachers are not committed to work, they don't want to push themselves when they know they won't get a decent salary. The average teachers salary is $150 per month, this is a good salary in Haiti, but only when it comes through. Some teachers aren't even qualified, and the majority of teachers are the few students who graduate from high school. So the teacher gets under paid, or not paid at all, she is lazy in her work doesn't try at all. The students don't learn, they leave school knowing next to nothing, but are qualified to do almost any job they desire. They go to become political leaders, but most of what they have learnt has been from the streets, where corruption is the only culture that is known. That leader exploits another teacher and leaves them without pay, with no motivation the teacher does not help the students and so on, so on. What if? What if is the question that I ask myself. What if there was a way to crack this circle, to change the future? Why are we leaving the children of Haiti to the street for their education? Unless we break this circle, the illiteracy rate, and Haiti as a country will not advance.

Prices within the Missionary Field

     Over the years more and more missionaries have been going overseas and spreading the message of God. Although this is a great help to the command from God to make disciples of all nations, it was become harder and harder for missionaries to raise support. As the Law of Demand states, the more of something that there is the less amount of money it will cost. Even though this is loosely applicable to missionaries I think that I am presenting a valid theory when I say. Due to the high amount of missionaries that churches may support, will cause the churches to have less to give to each missionary in order to support another missionary family. So the more missionaries there are the less money there is to give them, just like the Law of Demand. Missionaries often join agencies in order to get tips on financial support and in many cases help with financial aid. “Agencies usually require you to raise your own financial support. However, they guide you in this process, giving you materials to give to potential supporters and helping you describe what you'll be doing. Once you're accepted by the agency, they provide your supporters with tax-deductible receipts.”

     Not only do missionaries have to raise support for themselves and their families, for the amount of time that they are overseas, from expenses such as; schooling, to groceries and gas money. Many missionaries have projects to plant and build up churches, or schools and this is where the money and economics of the country in which they are in comes in extremely handy. For example if a family is in a country in which has multiple churches that are teaching God’s word then there is no point in using their money to attempt to expand it when it is already there. The economics of the country ultimately decides whether a project is feasible or not. If the economy is plummeting to the ground and there is point investing in a property or land, then it does not matter if your home country had a good economy because that it not where you are.

     Although the prices among the missionary field such as salaries and plantations, may vary depending on the mission organisation that one is with, the pricing of building or starting a church is still something that missionaries have to consider deeply before developing.

     I would like to build an orphanage/school wherever God calls me, to do this I have to not only understand the economics of the country that He has chosen for me. But I have to find the best possible way to use the aid that I am receiving in a way that will make it stretch out so that it works for maintaining my family and also giving me enough to develop the project. God calls us to be careful with our riches here on earth, and that is something that many people forget.

Source:

http://www.askamissionary.com/question/3

Free Enterprise and Government Control

For this blog I am going to write about the government control and the regulations on missionary families and the spread of the gospel, which is what I would like to go into as my career. Missionaries can be stationed anywhere around the world, therefore I am going to write about the country that I would most like to go to. God commands us to “Go and make disciples of all men.” For me I would like to go to Haiti and minister to the orphans and women who suffer from HIV or other diseases.  For a missionary spreading God's message is one of the main goals in their ministry, and that is why the Government control is a huge problem in many countries. For example, how can someone talk about Christ when they aren't allowed to say his name in public? Haiti, on the other hand is mostly Roman Catholic so speaking about Christ is not prohibited. For countries like Haiti it is important to get government permission to be a missionary, mostly this is due to regulations that the government might have on evangelizing. The Haitian government is a Republic government that allows it’s citizen’s to have the freedom of choosing their own religion and it is easy to evangelize on the streets and anywhere else. For missionaries in Haiti it is simple and common to get missionary visas, as long as the person has a valid passport they are allowed into Haiti. After an incident in 2010 where American missionaries took some orphans to the Dominican Republic and were charged with ‘kidnap’, many Haitian’s have been wary of missionaries that enter the country. Like any other poorer country Haiti is in need of educated economists that will help with decision that will benefit the country as a whole. After the earthquake in 2010, Haitians have struggled to rebuild their country and have lost many of their free enterprising local businesses. Another problem that has caused the Haitian economy to be at a standstill instead of increasing is the lack of trustworthy banks. The economic system that they follow is the free-market economy, an economy based on supply and demand of the people. There is a lot of corruption not only from citizens but also from the government, leading to the governmental control to be quite serious in some cases. I think that missionaries can help the Haitian’s government to grow and evolve to be a prosperous nation and help the leaders to consider the entire country as a whole instead of their own selves.

We need to be reminded to pray for these countries so that they would see less corruption, and more growth in their economy.

An autobiography by Ani ;)

I am a girl. I am 17 years old and I have lived in Peru for 2 and a half years. Life for me has been full of twists and turns, goodbyes, hellos and jam packed with tests of faith. I like to make people smile and I also quite enjoy smiling myself. Some of my favourite things to do are; talking, hanging out with cool people, telling stories, more smiling, listening to music, making strange sounds, attempting to play an instrument but failing miserably.....resorting to playing air instruments. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to accidentally do extremely awkward things. Some of these 'awkward' things are making ridiculous faces that end up scarring many innocent citizens of the world. Sadly this has become a common event and can be observed multiple times a day.  I would like to travel the world and help as many people as possible, hence why I would like to be a missionary. 
In this blog I will talk about the economics knowledge that one must know when being a missionary, especially in foreign countries that may have a completely different economic system.
The End. 
 A.C.L