A Hand-Up Not A Hand-Out

"The poor are victims and need handouts.” There’s a conventional axiom that’s false.FCOP exists to help people meet their essential needs, but not by creating dependency. I can hear the critics, "But you depend on handouts to feed the orphans!” True, we need help, and we receive it from our partners, but we don’t raise our kids to to be dependent, we raise them to be productive. That’s why, when the cost of living has more than doubled in the past 15 years, our cost for supporting an orphan home has stayed constant.Every year we become more self-sufficient. Everyone needs a hand-up when they are down, but not enslaving dependency. The most extreme example I saw of that was in Laos during the Vietnam War. One of my best friends was a “Refugee Relief Coordinator”, his famous statement was: “What refugees need is a swift kick off the back of a truck!” His heart wasn’t as hard as it sounds, he’d supply them with tools and basic food supplies, but then turn them loose on a plot of land. Others in his position built government owned housing and gave them all they needed to live a simple life.After a year or so the one’s put off the back of the truck had built houses, cleared land and were making a living, they learned to help each other. Those on the government housing projects were still there with their hands out.  The Philippines just went through a terrible disaster. They need a hand-up, just like we’ve received from Reach Now International.[nggallery id=1185]