I have spent my adult life confronted by people asking me for money on the street. In college in Washington DC, as a young graduate in Cairo, a grad student in Boston, and in the various countries of Central Asia. I have a policy now on who I give to, and why I do it. It’s the combination of some great advice I received from a Georgetown professor* and my own knowledge of development and poverty.
Here’s the policy:
I don’t give money to children. I will give them food if I have it, but I don’t give money. Children should be in school, not out earning money on the street. I don’t want to encourage children to beg, or their parents to send them out to beg. In accounting terms, children should not be a profit center – especially not in this way – and I am not going to contribute to it.
I don’t give money and expect it to have any long-term impact. Five dollars or a banana isn’t going to change anybody’s life. It will buy their next meal, or their next beer. It will make this day a little better for them. That is all. When I give money, I give it with that understanding.
I have a budget. I spend ten dollars a week on giving money to people who ask for it. It doesn’t come out of my charitable contribution budget, because I use that for donations that will have an impact. It has its own line in my budget.
If you had to name that line in my budget, I guess you could call it humanity. I give because I don’t want to become someone who ignores the pain of others. We’re all human beings, together, on this planet, and it’s only an accident of luck that means I can give and not receive. I recognize that, and so I give. If I was hungry and alone on the street, I wouldn’t be worried about sustainability, I would be worried about dinner.
That’s it. That’s the policy.
Note #1 – The story my professor at Georgetown told our class: He was in a North African Country – Algeria, I think – and he was very uncomfortable with all the beggars on the street. He’d plan his walk to his university to avoid them. He didn’t look them in the eye. He never knew if he should give. Then, one night, he was walking with an Algerian colleague. His colleague stopped suddenly in the middle of their conversation, and crossed the street in order to give money to a beggar. My professor realized then he needed to find a way to be equally compassionate himself. He went home and told his wife about it, and she suggested a weekly budget for him, and that is what he has done ever since. And also what I do.
Note #2 – I have a friend who used to have a weekly budget for giving to the homeless, when he realized one day that $10 a week is $520 a year. Now, ever January, he writes a $600 check to an organization that works with the homeless and he never gives money on the street. That seems like a reasonable and pragmatic approach to me, but it doesn’t suit my own heart.
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Anthony Giannoumis, Chasing Carly and Pernille Bærendtsen, Alanna Shaikh. Alanna Shaikh said: New blood and milk post – giving on the street http://bloodandmilk.org/?p=1666 […]
So, do you give money to children after school hours, on weekends, or during public holidays? What if the child is begging for money to attend school?
Sorry, those questions aren’t serious. It is just that I find the post a bit silly. It seems like it might appear on the Yahoo Lifestyle website alongside ‘5 tips for fitting into your summer bikini’.
5 tips for giving money to people on the street
1. Don’t give to children
2. Create a weekly budget for it
3. Keep this budget separate from other charitable giving
4. I can’t think of a four or five, so maybe the title should be ‘3 tips for giving money to people on the street’
In my travels and work abroad I always find it interesting how people try to rationalize giving, or not giving, to people on the street.
In your post you talk about humanity and making the day a little bit better for the person. You don’t really talk about your feelings.
Personally, when people ask me for money I feel awkward and guilty. I give money to alleviate these feelings.
I think it is important to have a “philosophy” for giving- especially when traveling overseas. Every country is different but 2 experiences really hit home for me. One was being approached by a young girl holding a baby that had been drugged to look near death in Phnom Penh. The other was getting to know some small children in Bali and eventually learning they were sent to the street to beg rather than go to school (they eventually admitted it to me as I got to know them- the original tale was that they didn’t have school that day). We need to think about how our simple actions can create greater issues and dependencies.
Thanks for posting this Alanna, and for your practical down-to-earth thoughts. I don’t think there are any easy answers, but it’s definitely an important topic to think about – it’s so easy to either ignore completely or try to dismiss with rational arguments.
For sure each person is going to come to their own conclusions, but I think the important thing is to think through the issues honestly and not avoid them.
Thanx Alanna, for putting words on something which is sometimes an abstract feeling – a mix up of shame, uncertainty and looking at ourselves from the worst angle.
I lived in East Africa for 5 years, and also tried to make rules. Mainly because I will not ignore a person or look away when someone is approaching me. On the other hand, obviosuly, I couldnt give money to all people asking during the week:
http://pernille.typepad.com/louderthanswahili/2009/05/every-morning-of-the-working-week-i-drive-through-the-same-45-kilometre-scenario-along-the-ali-hassan-mwinyi-road-from-re.html
There is no easy answer to it, and I believe each person must work out his or her own way. I appreciate the openness in this post.
Pernille
Hi Alanna,
Thanks for the post, I think this is something that everyone who considers themselves compassionate has an obligation to think about and come to terms with whatever they then choose to do. I think we both agree that ignoring or shunning another human being is at best extremely rude, and is decidedly not the appropriate course of action.
I went to college (and still work) in Boston, where I’ve worked in a homeless shelter for some time, and know that one can get more than several free, nutritionally sound, calorically satisfying meals at several points during the day every day of the year. Being homeless is not the same as going hungry, at least in Boston, Mass. Thus, I do not give money on the street; instead, I volunteer a few hours per week and feed far more people than I would with $10/week.
In other countries the culture of begging is different, so perhaps it’s appropriate to change your outlook according to your current location. I agree, there is no easy answer, but if you’re assuaging guilt, you might as well be effective.
Marcelo – It’s not about guilt for me. I don’t feel guilty, or awkward when confronted by people asking for money. I feel sad.
And I give to them because I want to practice generosity, and I want to be someone who responds to people in need. That is inherently selfish, I realize – it is about me and not the recipient. But I don’t believe it injures the recipient, and as I said before, I don’t deduct it from my real giving. So I don’t think it hurts anyone even in the sense of opportunity cost.
In Boston, the homeless people asking me for money (mostly in Chinatown, where I worked) were quite clearly mentally ill, and I was doubtful they had the mental regulation to get to a shelter for a meal. (In Boston, by the way, I didn’t only give money on the street. I also volunteered at breakfast at The Women’s Lunch Place.)
You approach sounds like that of my friend I mentioned in the second note. It’s logical and ethical and I have no argument with it, but I don’t think it would work for me.
You’re also right that it is all about context – here in Dushanbe there are quite a lot of elderly people on the street. They are not homeless, but they are too old and weak to get jobs, so they beg. Their families have abandoned them and emigrated to Russia, and their soviet pensions are worth about $3/month. Kyrgyzstan has an NGO to help them: http://www.babushkaadoption.org/. Tajikistan doesn’t, and pretty much everyone who passes these people gives something. It is not a long term solution but it keeps them alive.
I live in India and being confronted by a beggar at traffic light or in a railway station is part of daily life here, particularly where I live. That part about not giving money to children, however, really made me think. Thanks!
I also struggled with what to do when I lived in Ethiopia and it was very much an issue of compassion and sadness as well as a realization that it just as easily could have been me. I didn’t have a set philosophy and my giving was random but this makes me think that I should sit down and think about it more and find something I can work with. Your ideas are a good starting point.
I have the same politics about this issue. It was great to read it. Let me say also that is better to give money to the most disgusting people, this get you more compassionate because incriase your empathy, and you should never wait gratitude, beggers hate the people who give money to them, they have proudly also.
Never feed the bums.
That should be your mantra. Giving to beggars – regardless of age or place only rewards and encourages the begging. The best you can do is not give to them, period. If you want to be compassionate, get involved and get a person off the street and into a productive life. If you can’t commit to that level of involvement, keep on walking. Any other resoonse will cause greater long-term harm than good for the beggar.
Remember – it’s NOT about you, it’s about . I would have hoped you knew that already.
Sadly, my comment was garbled. I meant to say it’s not about you – it’s about them. And yes, I expected better from you.
Wayan – I was expecting someone to call me on this, since I kind of skimmed over it in my the post and my long comment.
While there is an element of selfishness to making decisions based on who I want to be as a person, I also think that there is value to giving people what they are asking for. Not giving them what you think they really need, but what they see as their needs. It is how I would want to be treated myself.
I strongly disagree with this statement “If you can’t commit to that level of involvement, keep on walking. Any other response will cause greater long-term harm than good for the beggar.”
I don’t have the resources to house a starving Russian grandmother, and she doesn’t have the ability to get a job and feed herself. I do have the resources to make sure she eats for a few days. I don’t think that causes her long-term harm.
I believe giving to children causes long-term harm, which is why I don’t do it.
Really an interesting approach, having a budget. I live in an affluent neighborhood so this is mostly theoretical for me, but as a progressive observant Jew, I view giving $$$ directly to the needy as a mitzvah, a commanded act. therefore i am being given an opportunity when I give someone money. The way I think about it, when I go to neighborhoods where this is common, is that I won’t miss it but it will make a difference to that person. I try not to judge – and I am a very judgmental lady. Hence it becomes a spiritual moment, not just a practical decision. Thanks for sharing your ideas about it, especially about kids in the developing world.
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