The Poverty Cure documentary offers great insight on what all is happening in the underdeveloped countries of our world, and how we can be proactive in making a lasting difference in these countries. One underlying issue of these countries' inability to grow is ironically foreign aid. Researchers have found countries receiving foreign aid quickly become reliant on the help and do not see the purpose of building any enterprise on their own. While foreign aid companies have good intentions, they are unintentionally causing harm to the recipients at the same time. For example, Peter Greer shares a story of a church who donated many eggs to one town for a long period of time; while the town greatly benefitted from the donations, a local egg farmer quickly lost his business due to the sudden free supply of his product. After financially struggling to keep his business alive, he decided to let go of his company since the town no longer had a need for his eggs. After moving on for good, the church ended up selecting a new town to receive their handouts and the farmer's town was suddenly left empty handed, without any free eggs or any business to buy eggs from either. This exemplifies how foreign aid corporations can have genuine ambition to help those in need, however once the help subsides, the recipients do not know how to provide for themselves anymore. Multiple speakers from the documentary additionally noted how no third-world country becomes a first-world country relying on aid. This observation alone completely transformed my personal opinion on foreign aid. As helpers, the best way we can ensure developing nations are cared for, while still being encouraged to grow, is to invest in small businesses in as many communities as possible. Providing loans to small businesses will not only boost the community's economic prosperity, but it will additionally create more employment opportunities as well. From there, small businesses will turn into medium-sized companies, the economy will continue to build upon itself, and the country as a whole will learn to be significantly less reliant on aid. As long as large, foreign aid companies are giving away free handouts, no country will learn to invest in their own economic growth and their chances of development will continue to diminish.
Source: Scionka, S. (2016). It's time to Rethink Poverty. Povertycure. from https://www.povertycure.org/.
