Firsthand Experience

Here is a great post from fellow Trojan ONE-er, Sarah Hivner, on her firsthand experience in one of those countries that we're striving to help through our organization:

"I grew up in India and want to share some of my first hand experience of the extreme poverty there and why it is so important to spread awareness of poverty and do all we can to eradicate it through ONE and other organizations. One of my most vivid memories of poverty is flying into Mumbai airport. As you begin to descend, for miles and miles all you can see are slums. Efforts have been made in the past to clear this land of the illegal slums, but where would these thousands of people go? They just come back to the areas around the airport where no one who has any money wants to live because of the noise pollution and the poor condition of the land.
I have had many more personal experiences. At almost every single traffic light in cities in India there will be children waiting to come up to you to beg or try and sell something (that they might have actually stolen). I could just give them money and help them outright? Wrong. Money is not the solution. Most of these children are being controlled by older people; siblings, parents, other adults who are using them. It is a fact that people are more likely to give to children than anyone else because they are just children; so many times the children and women are the ones who are begging. I know many times if I gave children money they will go back to there "owner" who will force them to give up the money. At the same time I am conflicted because many of these children are begging for money because they have a certain quota to meet everyday and if they go home at night and have not met that quota they get beaten. So with children who beg for money I hated saying no, but at the same time I didn’t want to give them money which would probably end up being mis-spent by other anyway.
I think it is important for individuals to work through organizations who know the best ways to effectively eradicate poverty, because I feel many times it is hard to know whether you are really helping or hurting a situation."

Thanks so much to Sarah for sharing her experiences with us.
Fight On!