myself in a place I never imagined I’d
be in the blistering heat and humidity
the south of Thailand surrounded by
flies and the stench of death walking
through fields filled with bodies trying
to find something of value to offer into
that horrible chaotic mess
we had just been rocked the day before
by a giant tsunami I’ll never forget it
rewind five years and I was walking
downtown Ottawa down the street I had a
good high tech kid going on it was
Christmas time there’s a winter chill in
the air I probably had about half my
mind on my work for that day and half on
my beautiful baby girl waiting for me
back home how in such a few years that I
find myself in such a different place
well it’s a long story and I did be
happy to go for coffee with any of you
and tell you but for tonight let me just
say I was made aware of a need that
broke my heart and I decided to do
something about it in the work that we
now do and have for 13 years on the Thai
and Myanmar border I have encountered
some of the saddest situations of abuse
families surviving on garbage dumps
people’s lives ripped apart by predators
and traffickers and even choices parents
have made to give away or even sell
their children I have sat with eaten
with and tried to console victims and
with others honestly I’ve just cried
without any idea of what to do I want to
tell you about how passionate I am for
this I am passionate to see people
lifted out of poverty I am passionate
about seeing them brought to the place
where their have a sense of dignity and
they’re no longer dependent on handouts
I am also a firm believer in the power
of giving to change us the giver to
release us from these small worlds of
consumption that we live in and redeem
our society’s soul that’s why I bring to
you today this mess
please stop giving to charity let me try
that one more time please stop giving
too bad charity why do I find myself
lately telling as many people to stop
giving to charity or to take a really
good look at what it is that they’re
giving to as I’m telling others to get
off their butts and get generous well
I’ll tell you I have seen the damage
that good hearts big checks and bad
ideas can visit on the poor our
experience is overseas so that’s where I
want to take us today to look at some of
these areas so first of all don’t give
to charity if the charity implements and
sells you on ideas that we have already
rejected for ourselves okay another big
topic I want to focus on one that’s very
widespread and as a dad honestly breaks
my heart so I want everyone here to
close your eyes not scary at the very
least it’s your first now for the day I
want you to picture your children if you
have children and at an age where
they’re innocent four or five years old
life is ahead of them there’s a joy in
their step now if something were to have
happened tragically to you or your
spouse or your partner that you are not
able to take care of them what would you
do where would they go how would they
feel what it ever enter your mind to
sign them over to the state and watch
them be led off and institutionalized
well we have done this just not with our
children and not too long ago you can
open your eyes now
Australia’s stolen generation Britain’s
lost children and as we’ve heard
Canada’s residential schools through
children innocent children we harmed
whole cultures and communities in ways
that will take many many generations to
heal well but at least that was the past
we’ve learned from our mistakes haven’t
we have we today individual
charities churches that even volunteer
tourism will pour money into the exact
same sorts of things whether they’re
called orphanages children’s homes
residents in developing nations we are
harming children when we know better I
remember the first time that we took our
team in to do assessments in orphanages
overseas we have social workers that do
this and what we found time and time
again where little kids filling rows of
bunks telling us how much they missed
their families yes their families nearly
80 percent of the children that we
encountered had families that they could
be living with and yet they were in
residential care I remember this one
little girl she was about six years old
about the same ages I had a daughter six
at the same time what she told us was
what made her most sad is that when she
was sick her mommy wasn’t there to
comfort her her mom lived maybe two
villages over but she would rarely see
her what we found is this is a common
place all over the developing world
children as young as 3 to 4 years old
who could be living at home stuck in
residential care and believe me I’ve
heard all the excuses from founders
funders directors on why these things
exist well these children are from very
poor families we need to help them or
there’s no adequate education in their
villages we need to bring them here or
well if we have them here we can bring
them to church and teach them about God
more easily
you know what these should sound very
familiar to any of us who are familiar
with our own dark history I even found
there was one American funder who told
me when I met him over there at one of
these orphanages who said if we don’t
have these children here all of them
will be sex slaves and I looked at him I
said really all 300 he was very missed
he was misinformed on this it was
absolutely untrue but it sure makes a
good fundraising line doesn’t it there
are cases of course and will you deal
with these regularly where children are
not able to cope in their situations
there’s abuse act of abuse and neglect
going on and there are temporary times
where we need to intervene and come in
but this should only be temporary
resident care should be the absolute
last option after everything else is
explored and then even then it should be
temporary children should be with their
families in their communities within
their cultures not taken out there was
one lady I remember that came to our our
organization and brought her little baby
this is the first time it happened and
happened many times after cutest little
thing and she said I want you to take my
baby and our staff have been trained in
how to deal with this and how in family
preservation and how to help people in
communities in their cultures and so she
simply asked this lady a question don’t
you love your baby
the lady was taken aback and then she’d
burst into tears the answer was obvious
she followed it with a second question
and this is a question that most of the
orphanages that I’ve known would not ask
they would book the child in she said
what can we do to help you raise your
child
sometimes all mom needs is a little help
that week a little respite care a little
help with food perhaps there’s something
going on the home that needs some sort
of counseling or care or maybe there’s a
resource that she has access to that she
doesn’t even know just because a family
is a poor family doesn’t mean it’s a bad
family and that they can’t raise their
kids on their own okay
second thing don’t give to charity when
the charity caters to donors at the
expense of effective sustainable
transformation or the cost of human
dignity we know now that throwing stuff
at problems only perpetuates poverty it
makes the problem bigger whether it’s in
the macro decimation of whole industries
across Africa when we thought we were
being
generous and being good rather than
opening up business opportunities for
Africans we threw a bunch of stuff in
and patted ourselves on the back and we
wrecked things for them or a small
noodle shop in Asia who’s forced out of
business and can’t feed his family
because we’ve done charitable food
deliveries I remember 2013 I had a
charity director come to me with a
really interesting problem he said we
have a huge container full of stops
sitting in the port in Bangkok but we
can’t afford the import fees the story
goes something like this a group in
Australia had wanted to help them help
poor children they were they wanted to
send some stuff for them so things like
what do we have here toothpaste
toothbrushes soap that would be good
when the director tried to explain to
him that everything that they wanted to
send a cute little toy was already
readily available locally and at a
fraction of the cost
well the donor pushed back he said
simply sending a check even though
you’ve told me that this would be more
helpful to empower local things and
local initiatives wouldn’t give us the
type of experience that we’re looking
for when we give it wouldn’t give them
the type of experience that they were
looking for as far as I know that
container is still stuck somewhere in
the port in Bangkok dumb right well I
don’t know if this is seem familiar to
some of you here as I’ve been packing
this this year families across Canada
the US and other wealthy nations will
collect enough stuff going out to stores
like Walmart Toys R Us
Costco Shoppers Drug Mart to fill a
small box these boxes will be collected
put into shipping containers and sent to
poor children overseas if the children
happen to open the box and we’re curious
enough to look they might see that half
the stuff in this box is actually
manufactured in their country or a
country next door at a fraction of the
cost
the happy Canadian Packer paid for it if
they happen to have an uncle who sells
the same sort of stuff in a small shop
next door to feed his family they might
also hear how its impacted him in 2015
one organization one program alone
claims to have sent over 10 million
boxes from wealthy families to poor
families 10 million
I’m sure the Canadian Packers felt that
they’ve done a really good charitable
deed and had actually been able to have
fun with it and teach their children
about the charity I don’t even know
where to get started on this which angle
to take there’s so many we’re businessí
people here let’s do them out ok say a
box like this cost twenty twenty-five
dollars to fill no not the not the
shipping not the salaries not all of the
other things the marketing that goes
into running this massive program just a
stunt that’s effectively two hundred and
fifty million dollars a quarter of a
billion dollars that rich nations have
diverted from poor nations economies
they get our stuff and we get to keep
the money now that’s a great trade deal
that’s just one organization there are
countless groups sending anything from
soap to shoes to even used milk bags
overseas now I understand that my grasp
of economics is probably quite limited
there may be some economists squirming
in your seats the main point I want to
make is this that if we are truly
committed to eradicating poverty like we
say we are and really being responsible
citizens stuff is going in the wrong
direction another big point I want to
add on to this is the problem of
perpetuating wrong thinking that stuff
fixes problems that we are necessary
saviors and that people in developing
nations are helpless without us
okay I did not come here to bash
charities I love charities I work with
cherries I even run a charity so it’s
always easy though to point a finger
isn’t it it’s fun well what are you
doing when you’re pointing one finger
that way what’s happening three fingers
pointing right back at you is it
possible that we the donors are the root
of this problem it is hard to do charity
my friend mark reminds me says well
Allen you know it’s a golden rule he who
has the gold gets to make the rules and
very much so for charities charities are
always under budget under pressure under
massive scrutiny not only to do what is
good for the people on the ground but
also to dance to the secondary tune
trying to capture your attention trying
to make you feel good by offering you
things maybe a trip to build a family a
home in Mexico what do you think that
does to the local industry maybe to go
and visit your child in an orphanage or
have your company’s logo or plaque put
on an orphanage law none of these things
actually contribute to the programs
they’re at very least distracting and at
times can be downright damaging so how
can we be good donors you know the first
thing it really really generous we’ve
been going downhill Canada for the last
ten years on our generosity don’t be
scared to be generous however look into
what you are contributing to what are
they doing on the ground are they
actually coming alongside communities
and families to empower to lift them to
a place of dignity and pride and hope
for the future or are they perpetuating
poverty in a way that creates its
ongoing dependency on us one of the
asset tests that I like to say is if my
children if the tables were flipped in
my children were on the other side of
this what I want them receiving this
program may be you have a blank thing
like how am I supposed to know this well
there’s ways to
I know if you really want to there’s
things you can read there’s things that
you can look at there’s people you can
ask to say is this what we want to
contribute anything else we invest in in
life whether it’s the next car are the
tires for it or a retirement savings we
ask for input how much more important
when we’re impacting potentially
multiple generations of vulnerable
children their communities and their
families we need to look into it it may
also in looking into it
be the very thing that makes you aware
of a need that will break your heart and
lead you into an amazing next adventure
it’s like it did for me as we enter into
this next 150 years as a generous giving
nation let’s get really really generous
but let’s be charity wise let’s make
sure that we’re being wise even picky to
be a part of what works not what hurts
thank you [Applause]