Does donating items like clothes, hygiene supplies and money towards food really help Third World countries? No, it makes them dependent on free items. Why pay for food or clothes when First World countries will give it to you for free? This is hurting Third World countries’ economies and inhibiting the country from becoming anything other than a poor nation.

Self-sustaining is an adjective defined by Webster Dictionary as “maintaining or able to maintain oneself or itself by independent effort.” This frequently used buzz word, self-sustaining, is what organizations, volunteers and mission trips need to focus on. You can give a hungry man a banana and he will be satisfied, or teach the man to plant, tend and harvest a banana tree, and he will satisfy an entire community. In many Third World countries, they just need the guidance of a trade so they can at least make enough money to support themselves.

(Mangoes harvested and canned by the children at the orphanage. All photos by Love Takes Root)

A non-profit organization, LOVE Takes Root, is focused on developing the La Concorde Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti by assisting them financially until eventually they can become an independent, self-sustaining organization. In Haiti, where 80 percent of the population lives in poverty and 40 percent are unemployed, it is essential for these people to be trained in a trade or receive an education so they can lead their country in economic independence. LOVE Takes Root is constructing a primary and secondary school where students outside of the La Concorde Orphanage can tuition into these schools, and constructing a medical/dental clinic where Haitians can receive medical care.

The schools and clinic will provide income for the institutions themselves, but also for the La Concorde Orphanage. This is not only making the orphanage self-sustaining, but providing education to the children at the orphanage and children in Jacmel. The clinic is administrated and organized by trained Haitians, therefore providing jobs to those trained in the medical and business administrative fields. In the evenings, the school holds sessions to instruct women on how to sew efficiently so they can make money by selling their products they sew. All these steps have taken years for LOVE Takes Root to establish, but their ultimate goal it not to fund the La Concorde Orphanage, school system and medical/dental clinic forever, but rather give them a firm foundation, the tools to build and grow, and give them the opportunity to thrive. As spoken by Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This is what LOVE Takes Root is establishing.

(LOVE Takes Root Clinic)

Of course, this approach may not work in every situation. Yes, there are times when food, clothing and supplies are necessary to provide immediate relief, such as following a natural disaster or conflict situations. International Federation of Red Cross and World Health Organization are some of the most popular emergency relief programs that have truly saved millions of individual's lives around the globe. There is a time and place for emergency relief but there should always be a push for impoverished regions to become sustainable once again or for the first time.

(Couple of the boys at La Concorde Orphanage)