Beggars

A little while back, after thinking once again about beggars1, I decided to get practical and ask facebook "What is something useful or nice that I can have on hand to give to beggars?". Forty-one responses later I had a much better idea of what to do. People started by suggesting giving muesli bars, dried fruit and nuts, bananas, beanies, socks, gloves, bottled water, and marbles for the kids. Then the Colombians weighed in ;).

Here's an early suggestion: "find a local organisation already helping these people and direct him to it, go with him, volunteer your services or money to the organisation as they know best how to help. i used to carry bread & buy meals for people but later found out that even food, they (some, but how do we know which some) even manage to sell food to get cash for other things."2 

These sort of comments made me think that it's probably best to give stuff - not money - to beggars. So I've been carrying around some muesli bars and packets of dried fruit and nuts (nice and light!) and giving them to the people I come across. It's straightforward, it gives you an opportunity to speak kindly to these people, and you've actually helped in some small way (well, that is unless they sell it for drink, but I'd prefer to err on the side of trust and generosity). And it's stopped me being scared of these people. 

But what about those people who are disabled or elderly (like the man who begs most afternoons at my train station)? The Chilean government does provide them with a pension, but I'm told that it's not enough to live on. I could just do what I do for the other beggars, but what if the gentleman at my station is too frail or too out-of-the-loop to access an NGO's services?? Or what if there isn't an NGO in my local area? Perhaps supplementing his pension by giving him cash would be a great thing to do.

The jury's still out on this one. One of my friends thinks this is the good and respectful thing to do. But others think it's unhelpful. One friend said that 

what i would do is ask around people who work at the train station how genuine his situation is. Whether they see him buying food etc or if they ever see him drinking alcohol etc . . . . I don't know if I'd ever go back to ever giving a beggar money but i think I'd prefer to buy them things to empower them another way ie the old frail man who 'appears' to not be able to get himself to an ngo service i would prefer to work out how i and others could come together to get him into a decent retirement place and fund his care.

Another advised me to "ask him what he most needs - and get it for him. At least then he will HAVE what you purchased, as long as he is not so far gone as to exchange it for drink, which a lot do. Yes, money in cash is empowering, but in my experience, people begging on the street are rarely without vices... and rarely have the self-control to spend cash on food". And so I did just that with the man at the station the other day and he said he would like some clothes. I told him "maybe" but I do plan to gradually buy him a few things (if I can push past the awkwardness of buying men's clothes :/). 

I'm also finding out about what government/NGO services are available in my area, so I can work out if he really does have the opportunity to access their services. Then I might let him know about them, or maybe even go along with him, you never know. I've also got the idea of funding a retirement home hovering around in the back of my mind, but I'll spend a good while getting to know him first. Oh yeah, that's the other thing I've been doing - having a passing chat with him each day. As well as giving him dried fruit and nuts and - sporadically - remembering to use the more formal "usted" form with him as a mark of respect. He seems to be a lovely man.


H/T Mel, Chris, Sally and others

1 I used to only think about this stuff on a big, systems level, but now I think that the Bible calls us to care for the actual people who are part of our life. (Of course we do this in the context of (a) the church community with all its different gifts, opportunities and responsibilities, (b) the knowledge that the poor will always be with us, and (c) the knowledge that easily the best way you can care for someone is to give them the gift of life with Jesus for ever.) Now I don't see serving poor and disadvantaged people as my particular gift/calling, but I do want to be a 'good Samaritan' to the people in my life. I want to live with integrity and love. This means that I need to work out how to help, not poor people in general, but the elderly gentleman who begs most days at my train station, as well as the other random individuals I come across. 

2 "Part of the reason for this is because "Colombia has organised beggars. There is no welfare for the sick and disabled but people, not unlike drug lords, but with people not drugs, organise groups of people to beg and the person who is their boss takes the money at the end of the day and the people actually begging get to have somewhere to sleep. So you may not actually be helping anyone's welfare by giving directly to these people". Happily though, I'm told this doesn't happen in Santiago. 
Another suggestion concerning kids begging was: "there is often an unscrupulous adult nearby "prostituting" them because it is well known in 'the business' that young famelic faces get more money out of the punters than old ones . . . . If you see one who looks genuinely hungry, get him a yoghurt or empanada and stay there while he eats it, or it could never touch his lips". (I haven't seen any children begging here, though I have seen them working.)