As tourists, it is hard not to be touched by the big eyes and outstretched hands of impoverished children forced to beg on the streets. It is very easy for we who have so much to want to help those who have so little. But giving children on the street money is more insidious than many would think. There is a growing awareness of this real problem, and it is one of the themes of my first Cambodian novel, A Clash of Innocents.
As many know, my own charitable impulses in Cambodia have led me to work closely with the educational shelter, Anjali House, in Siem Reap. The Director of Anjali House, Sam Flint, has been interviewed in the recent New York Times/International Herald Tribune article which focuses on this question of what are the best, and worst, ways of helping the world’s most needy children. This excellent article can be found here. What can be the harm in giving a few pence to children on the street? Please read the article and let Sam explain it to you. And then, if you decide you would like to find out more, you could do worse than starting with Anjali House’s own website, not to mention the description of my own program here.
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| courtesy of the Seattle Times |
This is such a serious issue, Sue, and one that just doesn’t get highlighted that much. I have worked for short periods in India, in New Delhi and the street kids there are something beyond belief. And yet the local people I was working with just said, ‘don’t give them anything’, their argument being that the kids would keep hardly any of the money and basically all of anything they collect gets kicked back to the people ‘running’ them. And yet it is very difficult to look at poverty like that and not want to react to it directly.
I know how hard it is, Joe, and that’s why it’s so important. I have certainly been guilty of doing it myself. the trick is to find other, better ways to help. Maybe there should be cards with addresses of shelters, school etc we can hand them instead of money. They’d hate it and probably throw it away, but at least we wouldn’t feel like we were ignoring them….