Poor children deserve a place at the table - Canada

Catholic New Times, Dec 15, 2002 by John P. Asling

Opening The Spectator to the community page one recent morning, I was greeted by the sight of a generous, Christian family surrounded by stacks of red-and-green Christmas shoeboxes stuffed with North American treasures destined for children in the developing world.

The headline said it all: "A box full of joy." But for whom? I know that the experience for many of the well-intentioned families filling boxes with gifts is, indeed, one of joy. But, without casting aspersions on the motives of these good people, I have to ask: will the colourful boxes truly bring joy to the children receiving them in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean or Asia?

I don't think so.

When I read the article, I immediately thought of the story that Rev. Lesley Harrison, a former global missionary from The United Church of Canada, told a group of us when she returned from serving in Nicaragua a few years ago. One day, she arrived in Bluefields from her posting in Pearl Lagoon to witness a chaotic scene in a churchyard. A group of children were locked outside of the church gates (the gates were never shut) and were looking in on a select group inside of the gates opening shoeboxes from North America.

Harrison picks up the story: "Inside of the gates were more children, many more. These children were different from those outside of the gates as they each held a box--a shoebox wrapped in Christmas paper. I got a churchworker to let me in and I stood in the relative chaos: some children laughing, many upset, others beginning to cry, a few fighting over what was in their box, a couple passing small items through the gates to little hands reaching in.

"Many of the things in the boxes these children had never seen before, which added to the confusion. There were few adults to guide this experience. Adults, usually mothers, are busy finding and preparing food, washing and minding younger children."

Harrison then spoke to two local ministers who were tired and frustrated from the whole experience. The shoeboxes landed on their doorsteps and they were expected to take the time and the energy needed to distribute them in a fair way. An impossible task!

Many cultures do not celebrate Christmas like us

In addition, there were no boxes coining to the poor community of Pearl Lagoon. "There would never be enough boxes for all the children. Was this what the children of Nicaragua needed for Christmas?" Harrison asked.

The experiences of people in churches and from other organizations doing solidarity work in places like Nicaragua have taught us a great deal about projects like the shoebox operations. We know, for example, that many cultures do not celebrate Christmas in the same way its we do. To send North American glitter is to impose a kind of materialistic North American value on these poor people.

Of course, many recipients do not observe Christmas at all because they belong to other faiths that have their own celebrations. Some shoeboxes offer Christian materials meant to proselytize and many churches no longer deem this as appropriate. Some of these gifts are culturally unacceptable. Toys that require batteries, for example, are useless in countries where batteries are unavailable or unaffordable. Similarly, Pokemon toys going to places where kids have never heard of them are also inappropriate.

Another former United-Church overseas worker, Rev. Janice Van Aertselaer of Saskatchewan (formerly of Kenya), said in a recent article, "There are many stories of some children receiving gifts while others look on longingly, and even some stories of communities fighting over gifts because there weren't enough for everyone." In addition, Van Aertselaer says that the shoebox operations are costly. Shipping, publicity and distribution costs could be better spent on helping recipients meet their basic needs: clean drinking water, food, health care and education. "It seems that this project is more effective at making us, as Canadians, feel good, than it is at meeting the real needs of children in other countries," she said.

The bottom line is that shoeboxes offer a great opportunity for people from wealthier countries to feel good about themselves, and very little for the many impoverished people in the Two-Thirds World. In fact, these efforts keep us from looking at the fundamental issues of justice, fairness grad re-distribution of the world's plentiful resources that are the only long-term answer for poor children here in Canada and in other parts of the world.

Hooked on self-serving, simplistic charity

Shoeboxes at Christmas are but another example of how we, in the wealthier world, are hooked on self-serving, short-sighted, individualistic, simplistic charity.

David Hilfiker, a doctor working in inner-city Washington, D.C., poses this question after nearly 20 years of working in the charity world: "Hidden in every act of compassion toward the poor is the danger that it will perpetuate the underlying causes of poverty. How do we keep our charity from delaying the structural changes that justice demands?"