A random thought on 'charity'

One of the dilemmas we’re running into with the high school applicants—particularly the girls—is that many of them, as orphans, are staying with benefactors or distant relatives. These guardians often strike a deal with their charges: clean the house, and we’ll take you in (and sometimes also pay for school). Of the girls we interviewed, several were concerned that going to day school rather than boarding school, and relying on the kindness of benefactors, would result in their spending too much time doing housework and chores to focus adequately on their studies.

This is problematic for the students, but it’s also a symptom of a larger social issue. Sure, that benefactor wants to spread around his/her good fortune to the needy orphan. Yet, he/she still wants to get something out of the deal—perhaps to keep the orphan accountable, or perhaps because he/she has unmet needs that a poor girl with few options in life could fulfill. (What is an unmet need, anyway? A cleaner toilet? Fresh cut fruit for breakfast?) Perhaps this benefactor would hire a real servant otherwise, if not this orphan Sudanese refugee student. He/she might think, I’m helping this child change her life. And it’s partly true, no? But not if she can’t get good grades because she is doing chores with the greater part of her free time, in order to earn her keep.

Why is this problematic on a social level? Because while many of the haves will always be ready to give charity to the have-nots, it’s also true that many of those same charitable haves (the so-called well-off) will also always want there to be a ready pool of people to hire for menial jobs like cooking, cleaning, and raising their kids. They want this workforce to be readily available for them while they do other things with their time: travel, make money, or do whatever. They want this workforce to work long and hard, sometimes for fair compensation, sometimes for a bargain. So how can these well-off, well-meaning individuals expect to bring up the poor classes who they profess to want to educate? How can they give them a hand up in life while simultaneously requesting that they stand at attention, ready to sweep the floor or cook the family’s evening meal? By supporting the idea of the orphan girl’s education while (perhaps) resenting the notion of her spending the greater part of her time and energy not in polishing wood banisters but in learning English and math?

I don’t hold the well-meaning well-off in contempt for their wealth, or for their desire to help the needy. I have no right. I think our Creator has a good reason for providing each of us with whatever means we have; I believe in a divine plan. But at some point, I think we all need to look around and take stock of where we are and what got us to where we are. And then I think we need to think about how we can be part of affording others the luxury and the freedom of making the choices we are able to make as a result of what has been afforded to us.