Help Where it is Needed

A CC-130 Hercules tactical transport prepares to take off for Haiti.


There are many countries around the world that need help. Their people live in abject poverty, their governments are corrupt, and hopelessness and fear are a way of life. These countries are ignored. There are so many of them and so few resources with which to help. We wring our hands and say how terrible it is that people have to live that way and then we go to Tim Horton's for our daily coffee and gossip session.
But then something changes. A tsunami comes out of the blue, a volcano erupts, or a major earth quake hits. Suddenly, the world wakes up to the tragedy and aid pours in, mostly from the USA, the UK, and Canada, but help arrives, and it should.
The people of Haiti will get some housing re-built, roads will be repaired, food will be provided and the injured and maimed will get some relief, probably short term. And in a few months or years what will be left will be a few NGO's (non governmental organisations) doing what they were doing before. They will be fighting poverty, child abuse, neglect, disease, malnutrition and disease. A new born baby will be abandoned at the orphanage, it will be cared for, and then a caring compassionate family from Canada will adopt and give it a new life in a free and wealthy country. The biological mother of the child will again get pregnant and will again abandon the baby at the orphanage and the circle will go on.
It is no wonder we turn a blind eye. We like permanent solutions. We want to fix it once and for all and then move on to the next problem that we can have a crack at solving.
'Power To Change' is taking a fresh approach in Guatemala. There are teams of professional men influencing government and business leaders in that country. They are showing them that justice and morality is a win/win. The 'flavour' of a country comes from the top down. When the leadership understands that every one will be better off, including themselves, then corruption is cleaned up, and a real change can take place.
Haiti needs a good dose of this kind of help after the Hercules cargo jets leave for home.