Recently a very well-known Mommy Blogger traveled to Bangladesh with a non-profit organization dedicated to child and maternal health.

Immediately following her first post from the developing country, the UK news publication The Guardian ran an article labeling her trip another example of “poverty tourism” in which “westerners [are] flown to dirt-poor regions to solemnly observe the impoverished in their natural habitats.”

The article noted that what often happens with blogging trips is that the bloggers write lengthy, gut-wrenching, emotion-filled posts that motivate readers to act, but then offer little tangible way to take action other than simply signing a petition.

“Where blogger-engagement projects often fall down is in closing the deal: having aroused the empathy of an engaged audience, they fail to provide something potent for people to do next.

“If you’ve just read a post about children working 14 hours a day scavenging material from towering heaps of putrefied waste, you probably want to do something more effective than signing a petition or sending an email to your elected representative; but frequently, this is all that’s on offer.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I doubt there’s much that’s more frustrating than getting your emotions all stirred up, only to be left helpless with no way to do anything about what you’ve just learned.

You should know that at Compassion we don’t want you to feel helpless — we’d rather you feel empowered. We don’t want you to feel discouraged, but encouraged that you are able to make a difference. And not just a small one. That’s why we focus on offering you so many different ways to get involved.

As our President and CEO, Wess Stafford, often says, there are two main reasons why people do not take action:

1. They don’t know what to do.
2. They don’t know whom to trust.

We want to be the answer to both of those questions.

One way we do this is to offer trips to see our work around the world. Our sponsor tours, vision trips and blogging trips, however, are all carefully and strategically designed to empower participants, not incapacitate them.

For the record, we refuse to engage in anything even remotely resembling poverty tourism. While other organizations may ask you to simply sign a petition, we want more from you … much more. We want your passion. We want your heart. We want your deep, God-given desire to change the world. And we promise not to leave you helpless.

We’ve found that one of Satan’s favorite tactics is to make you feel impotent. To get you to believe that no matter what you do, it won’t make a difference.

It’s our goal to eradicate that feeling. How are we doing?

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Obviously, there is a little more to it than that. But at its core, that’s all that is happening, isn’t it?

On second thought, what if that’s not all that’s happening? What if, to a certain degree, we are reverting to something that goes much deeper, something that bubbles up from the deepest corners of our spirits and souls? What if we are simply remembering something?

Read the gospels much? I try to. 

When I began thinking about the poorism, the first thing that came to mind was …Jesus. Let me tell you why.

Repeatedly throughout the gospels, when Jesus first calls his disciples, when he is approached by the rich young man, whenever he is asked about the kingdom of heaven, He says, “Come follow me.”

“Who first started following,” I asked myself. 

To the best of my knowledge, it began with the disciples. Perfectly healthy, employed and financially comfortable men. Perhaps suburbanites … if they were married.

Interesting.

Where was Jesus going that he wanted people to follow? 

According to Matthew 4:25b he went to “…Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, to Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (ESV). 

In other words, all over; far beyond the reaches of his backyard, hometown and comfort zone, if I had to guess.

All the while, being “followed” (v. 25a).

Two questions down, one to go. 

Why? Why did they follow? 

I suppose the fact that he was literally performing miracles in front of them might have been compelling. But, from a cultural perspective, he was also claiming to be the Son of God; the Messiah. And, as history has shown us, that didn’t go over too well. 

It was offensive to many, blasphemous to others, and absolutely absurd to the Pharisees. All around, a fairly radical claim. 

And like today, you are guilty by association, so to follow him was to believe him. A dangerous path to tread if you cared about your reputation.

But still they came. They followed. They were captivated. 

I can’t help but think that as appealing as Jesus must have been, there had to be some draw to where he was going and what he was doing. His followers ranged in social status, and they willingly followed him to places they had never been.

Is it crazy to think there would be some degree of curiosity to see the other side of the tracks?

Without demeaning the poor, I wonder if the wealthy were simply thirsty for the reality that they had so long been deprived of. Whether it was for their protection or not, many, like today, were segregated from the poor, the afflicted, the sick and the hurting. 

Could it be that the hearts of the wealthy were not wholly consumed by their monetary funds, but were simply uneducated on the depravity of the masses that surrounded them?

What if they followed Jesus because no one else was brave enough to take them there? What if they followed Jesus because they wanted to help make a difference, to go back to their homes and spread news of need? What if Jesus inspired them to see souls instead of sickness? Is that poorism?

Granted, nowadays people are literally profiting off of the poor by exploiting their desperate situation to a mass consuming public. But then again, why now? Why are the wealthy taking trips now when, like most of America, their wealth is actually diminishing? 

It’s not logical. It’s not rational. It’s not fiscally sound. 

I wonder if the hearts of so many, given the country’s economic circumstances, aren’t breaking for those who are losing so much more than their 401K plans. I wonder if the eyes of many Americans aren’t being opened for the first time to the vapor that their wealth has now become and to the weight that their spiritual lives should have been long before they had to hit their knees. 

I wonder if perhaps the Lord is not reminding us what the first followers truly looked like. Drawn out, taught and challenged to do something about that which is so conveniently shoved under the rug. 

In the same way that the Holy Spirit will simply not leave you alone when you come to know Him, could it be that coming to know the poor and destitute will inspire action?

Because following alone cannot be the end result. Christ didn’t simply walk around from town to town and look at those in need. He met their needs.

He touched them, healed them, spoke to them, loved them and set them free. 

He calls us to do the same. And if you feel as inadequate as I do sometimes, no worries. He has equipped us with all we need. All we have to bring to the table is a willing heart and obedient spirit. 

So, if you’ve been sheltered in the way that I have, perhaps a trip would be good for us. Not to gawk and stare, but instead to open the eyes of our hearts so see the souls of those who crave the same things we do: love, acceptance and help.

In the same way that a shepherd must break the leg of a wandering sheep, maybe the Lord needs to break our perception of reality in order to use us in bigger ways. 

It is an undeniable thing, I think, within every human life to want to have an impact, to want to leave a legacy.  But I also think, we get in our own way; we don’t venture out because we don’t want to get lost.  

But if we don’t dare get lost, we will never know the saving grace of a God who has promised to deliver and lead us out of the wilderness.

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My team is responsible for bringing you the stories that talk about our child development centers in Asia, such as A Day in the Life of a Child Development Center Worker or A New Beginning for Eric, as well as hosting the sponsor tours that visit those same centers. So the fine line between educating the western world about the plight of the poor and exploiting the poor by profiting from their misery is something I have to consider everyday.

Stories like this one, which talk about the reaction of slum residents to Slumdog Millionaire, remind me how important it is for us to be sure that we are maintaining the dignity of our children, their families and their communities as we share their needs with you.

Rather than “shock and awe,” our hope is that our stories and your visits to our child development centers bring you “reality and relationship.” Sometimes the reality is shocking. Our children come from the poorest of poor situations. That is their reality. To get past the shock, we emphasize relationship.

With Compassion tours and visits, we try our best to avoid the “zoo experience” – just looking. We spend time at the child development centers doing activities and interacting with the children to help develop deep relationships.

Getting to know your child through the letters you exchange is so important to understanding his or her reality, but also in seeing them beyond their environment – Compassion-assisted children have hopes and dreams for the future.

I just wrote “Compassion-assisted children” because I realized I have been calling them “our children.” And that’s the key! That’s the way to stay on the right side of that fine line – between education and exploitation.

I know I speak for all of us in Compassion Asia when I say these are our kids and we will treat them as such.

I’ve lived in China for over 15 years. Very little I see in the slums shocks me. But I do still experience awe, and the awe is in how our church partners and you, as sponsors, are helping to lift children out of poverty. Thank you for what you do.

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Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of Jamal Malik, an orphan from the Mumbai slum who gets a chance to compete on India’s version of TV’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (For those of you who are worried about a spoiler, don’t be. In the opening scene you find out that he makes it to the final question.)

Of course he is accused of cheating, as everyone assumes there is no way that someone from the slum could know the answers to so many trivia questions. The movie shows Jamal’s life in a series of flashbacks based on the game show questions, and explains how he knew the answer to each question.

It’s a fascinating concept for a movie. Thought-provoking, funny and often heart-wrenching, it is superbly executed.

Anyway, going into the movie, I had a rough idea of what it was about: a young man from the slums of India. Based on that, I figured that there would be a certain amount of poverty-related imagery. What I didn’t expect, though, was how deeply I was affected by the slum scenes.

Scenes of Jamal’s life reveal abuse, prostitution, drugs, violence … all the circumstances that typically characterize a life in poverty. Though it was a necessary part of the story and none of it was gratuitous, at times it was difficult to watch.

I found myself wondering what others in the theater were thinking. Was this the first time that some people in the theater have seen poverty like that? Did they realize they were seeing reality or did they think it was “Hollywood-ized”? Were they as profoundly affected as I was?

Then today a friend sent me this article about slum tours in India. Apparently the success of the movie has led to an increased interest in the “slum tourism” business in India. People see the movie and then want to see the “real thing.” The article contrasts the movie to the real-life slum tour:

While the show offers Jamal a route out of the gutter, the tour makes a beeline for the squalor from which his real-life equivalents strive to escape: the excursion’s “highlights” include a stop at a stall of six toilets that serves 16,000 people and a stroll alongside a river so black and septic that it oozes rather than flows.

I mean, really?? Ridiculously overcrowded toilet facilities are an “attraction”? I have a hard time accepting that people actually pay to see that.

For those of you who’ve been around here a while, you might remember our previous discussion about poverty tourism. This article showed me how conflicted I still am about this idea.

On the one hand, I think these poverty tourists are despicable for engaging in this overt exploitation of other people’s suffering. On the other hand, they are getting a close-up, powerful (and hopefully life-changing) view of poverty that few get the chance to experience.

So here is a question for you to ponder …

In the case of poverty tourism, does the end justify the means?

In other words, is it worth exploiting the poor in their helpless, and often hopeless, situation if it ultimately changes someone’s heart towards the poor?

I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this one.

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You might have read about it in the news.

Companies are now offering poverty tours. Basically, wealthy people can pay money — sometimes a lot of money — to go see what life is like for those living in poverty.

One article I read recently calls it “poorism” — a catchy phrase for this idea of visiting a developing country and viewing those living in poverty as a tourist attraction.

Poverty tourists go as a group, following a tour guide as though they are seeing a museum exhibit or an attraction at an amusement park. One of the companies, the other article mentions, after a day of viewing poverty even treats the wealthy guests to a gourmet dinner as a culmination of the evening.

Sickening, right?

Yeah, that’s what I thought too. But I very quickly was struck with my seeming hypocrisy.

In thinking about the articles, and what it is about this trend that bothers me so much, I couldn’t help but think about our “vision trips” and sponsor tours, both core components of our marketing strategy. How are our trips any different than what these articles talk about?

Are we, through our exposure trips, simply promoting another form of poverty tourism?

We take groups of wealthy people overseas to see poverty firsthand. Many times on these trips we walk as a group of foreigners through a slum, observing how the poor live.

We look at the dilapidated shacks and dusty, rutted roads. We take photos and video of those living in poverty.

Yes, we spend time at projects or homes, loving on whatever children might be around. We stop and pray with single moms and overworked fathers. But we are still taking a group of people through the slums for the purpose of exposure.

And then at the end of the day, or the end of the trip, we return to our lives of wealth.

So tell me…is what we are doing on our trips different than what I was so quick to condemn in these articles? Is there a difference?

I think there is. That difference is in the answers to two questions:

What is our motivation for going in the first place?
and
What is our response when we get back?

How we answer these two questions makes all the difference between our trips and those mentioned in the articles above.

Are our hearts broken into small enough pieces that we come back changed? Do we go back to our lives as they were before, or will we make a profound change because of what we saw? Will we be become a voice for those we saw who are suffering in silence?

If we don’t – if, after exposing ourselves to the poverty and suffering of others, our lives remain the same – that is when it beomes poverty tourism.

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