Education or a well?

Recently I heard a story which really demonstrated to me the value of education over materials. A colleague of mine sponsors a village in Africa. He has helped them with projects like building a schoolhouse and other basic needs for the community. Currently they walk two kilometres to get water, and the materials and equipment needed to build a well in the town is too expensive. He asked them if he wanted to donate $40k towards a project, would they prefer local wells or OLPCs and they said they would go away and consult with the rest of the community. They came back committed to OLPCs, and their reasoning was that although getting water was inconvenient, through education the kids of this generation can grow up to better help the town in the long term. They value education way above and beyond basic structural improvements because education delivers a better future.

This story to me really illustrates how much we need to get beyond an aid mentality (they don’t have food, we will give them food) to an enablement mentality (they don’t have food, we will teach them how to grow food). I’ve heard loads of stories of food being shipped to impoverished countries and then is dumped in the sea because it takes the means of making a living away from local farmers, and creates a dependency on external resources. If the “developed” world wants to truly help “developing” nations, we need to stop being so arrogant about what they do or don’t need, and actually ask them.