President's Blog

I confess that I was fully prepared to play the scold about the new television series “The Philanthropist.”   While I don’t watch a lot of television, I figured since my work is related to the subject matter of this series, I should give it a try.

I was pleasantly surprised.  There is a great line when the Nigerian doctor, played by Bonnie Henna, says to the protagonist, played by James Purefoy:

“This isn’t about helping me or anyone else, is it?  This is about you playing the role of the charming rich businessman who travels the world, getting his hands just dirty enough to go back home and tell his American friends how meaningful his life is compared to theirs.”

It is a stinging and true statement.  Purefoy’s character readily admits to his motivation and then spends the rest of the episode trying to move beyond it.  Only then can he really accomplish any good.   

There’s a lesson for all of us who do this work:  be honest about our motivations.  That’s a question I struggle with all the time.  Why do I do this work?  Why do you?

(Check out The Philanthropist.  It is on Wednesday nights on NBC at 10pm in my time zone.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo5nXjj-sqw

Last week I returned from visiting Episcopal Relief & Development and NetsforLife® programs in northern Ghana. Now I remember why I do this work!

In each village the elders and the women gathered to tell us their stories of lives transformed.

Atewini struck me as an elegant and dignified woman, as she stepped to the microphone.

She told me that she was embarrassed that she couldn’t speak English and that she hadn’t finished school. But that she wanted me to understand how her life had changed since becoming part of the women’s empowerment program under the auspices of ADDRO (Anglican Diocesan Development and Relief Organization), our partner in the Diocese of Tamale.

Atewini’s first step was to take out a small loan (less than $100) that allowed her to set up a business to parboil rice that she was able to sell to her fellow villagers. With the profit she made from this business, she was able to buy some farm animals, including some goats, a pig and a cow.

Once the goats had multiplied under her careful husbandry, she sold a few of them to put her children in school. They excelled—they were no longer hungry and could devote time to their studies.

Atewini told me with pride that her eldest child is now attending university and the other is in secondary school.

She is rightly and fiercely proud of what she has been able to accomplish for herself and her family. Her children are now fulfilling and indeed exceeding the dream that she had for herself.

Such wonderful things can be done with so little.

The most recent issues of National Geographic (June 2009) and Foreign Affairs (May/June 2009) have excellent articles on the global food crisis and hunger.

The National Geographic article does an excellent job laying out the challenges of feeding a world where “For most of the past decade, the world has been consuming more food than it has been producing.” The author goes on to remark that in 2007 there were only 61 days of food available in stockpiles at the current rate of food consumption.

The Foreign Affairs article contains some excellent recommendations for the Obama Administration on how to restructure U.S. food aid policy, including recommendations on trade policy and aid. The article concludes with the extremely persuasive argument starvation and food crises can lead to political instability, as was the case in Haiti last year.

No pun intended, but there’s a lot of food for thought in these articles. What do you think about the points the authors are making?