Summary
44Zoe's Ark, for those who have forgotten, was a small French charity that was formed by a car club in 2004 to help victims of the Southeast Asian tsunami. In 2007, members of the group were arrested in Chad after trying to fly 103 "orphans" from Darfur to France. As it turned out, the children were neither from Darfur nor orphans, and six members of the group were given prison terms for trying to steal local children.
This isn't to say that these short-term volunteers don't mean well, that no good at all arises from their efforts, or that people who go on these trips aren't changed (although recent research shows the changes aren't as deep or long-lasting as proponents hope). But cumulatively and over time, these short-term trips can end up doing the opposite of what these volunteers hope and pray for -- instead of helping poor people rise out of poverty, all this free assistance only ensures that they will stay mired in that condition.This is especially true in Haiti, which before the earthquake was reported to have over 10,000 charities. All of that free help has led to what Jonah Goldberg called, in the Jan. 23 Free Press, a "poverty culture." Or, as a Haitian man told me during a visit there in 1998, it's turned his country into "a nation of beggars."See the full content of this document
Extract
When Help Just Makes Things Worse
44Zoe's Ark, for those who have forgotten, was a small French charity that was formed by a car club in 2004 to help victims of the Southeast Asian tsunami. In 2007, members of the group were arrested in Chad af...
See the full content of this document
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