When hearing the word humanitarian, most of us think of people jumping into third world countries, war-torn areas, and place devasted by natural disasters bringing help. On the surface, humanitarian aid does help but with its help comes some severe issues. Humanitarianism is like a band-aid on a wound that needs stitches and cleaning. Sure, it helps, sort of. The main issue with humanitarianism is that it does not fix any root problems in the communities that they are helping nor do most take into account local customs or cultural/religious practices. In fact, most Christian missionary groups of various dominations will only help those who convert to the “truth”.  There is a reason why many poor end up becoming Christian, and why some nations especially Muslim ones refuse Christian missionaries. It isn’t the humanitarian issue it’s the religious issue at foot, covering up the help of others by converting the poor who have no other means. Muslims are just as guilty at having bad missionary efforts and humanitarian efforts, we can easily point fingers at those Wahabi preachers.

The first issue with Humanitarian efforts is that they end up having the population become reliant on the said help. These efforts can cause self-doubt, humiliation, and dependency issues among the people. I am grouping some missionary efforts under the guise of humanitarian help as well, both Christen and Muslim. When building homes or constructing buildings or wells, the groups will deny locals, they are helping, from providing assistance. Instead of hiring local people to build said structures, foreign teenagers or young adults are building and working. This does not teach locals how to build structures they badly need or provide any sort of economic income for individuals. These groups actively ask the locals not to participate in these programs. Local community support is lessened as people become reliant upon foreign aid and humanitarians. Individuals began to self-doubt their own culture, their own identity, and own community often putting the blame on themselves or their culture. There is no self-reliance, instead, individuals are expected to wait around for the aid instead of “teaching a man how to fish”. Because individuals are not really given any means to make money or learn better building techniques/farming techniques, their economy comes a standstill.

Take Wahabi missionaries in Bosnia, they built mosques and helped the people only if the people hired a Wahabi Imam. Individuals were taught Wahabi Islam and the local customs were striped; culture stripped away to pave way for Wahabi thought. We can see this in rural Bangladesh by men being taught Wahabi and Salafi doctrine, who end up becoming “Arabized”. Christian groups also target the poor, stripping them of their identity and making them become “Westernized”. Not all intention is religiously based. Many of the humanitarian aid acts do cause humiliation in persons, especially if the aid ignores local customs, without directly trying too. Humiliation and ignoring culture can lead the people being helped not allowing more support and not using the facilities just built.  Let’s not forget the humanitarian efforts of Colonialism.  Even more so these organizations keep individuals reliant upon said organizations, disempowering them even more.

The programs issued both by humanitarian organizations, religious organizations, and even governments are toxic for the communities. While for the most part the aid is needed and wanted, how it is inflicted upon the people being helped ends up being toxic. Take for example Afghanistan, I am using Afghanistan because I have had researched Muslim feminist groups before, so in Afghanistan, the US troops would help build schools. These schools would be shut down or unused, what was the problem? Was it because Afghanis were opposed to their daughters from going to school, hated westerners, or didn’t want an education? Yes….and more NO. The local people did not trust the troops and knew that the schools would be shut down by the Taliban, so they felt that it was useless to send their children to get blown up for education. Many of the individuals were very poor and it was easier to marry off a daughter because it was one less mouth to feed. Many of the mothers voiced to Muslim Feminist or Afghani women organizations that these Western humanitarian aids always focused on the girls but mothers didn’t like that their boys were being ignored. What the mothers meant was that the schools opened usually advertised towards girls, which isn’t bad, but parents didn’t want to send their children to a mixed school. Second, the girls were needed to be at home to work, parents couldn’t afford tuition, and boys were often ignored. The uneducated boys who had no skills would end up being recruited in extremist groups. The mothers were more worried about their sons becoming radicals and lacking job skills, while they knew their daughters could just marry up. After local organizations stepped in, in my case Muslim Feminists, these women found the root cause was usually poverty and the lack of skills that prevented “progress”. Many of the Humanitarian groups ignored real issues the people face such as their sons going into radical camps due to their lack of education, the Wahhabi doctrine that steeped in, and lack of job skills. Women used the Quran and hadiths to actually allow schools to open in villages, female medical clinics, and etc. The clinics not only helped the sick but taught the women about proper nutrition and sexual health. These local clinics did not give materials but taught the women so they could in fact teach other women in their village and it worked. Local organizations also took imams of villages and sent them to Egypt’s religious University where the men were educated in Islam by trusted scholars. When the men came back, they were willing to give women rights, women in return learned the Quran for the first time in their own language. These women and imams were able to discuss their own rights through both religion and culture.

There are also many helpful organizations that do help women become economically independent. Studies show that the best organizations for people tend to be from locals themselves, i.e. the Afghani Muslim Feminist. In Northern Michigan, during the early 1900s missionaries wanted the Native people to send their kids to school. Whenever they tried to round them up the kids refused to go. So, the missionaries went to the fathers, but still, the children would not go. They were baffled that the kids would refuse the request of their fathers. It turned out that the mothers were the ones that decided the manner of what to do with their kids, and they didn’t trust the schools. So, the missionaries had to appeal to the mothers. The point is groups that ignore the cultural practices or norms, end up not being successful. The Colonialist motto of eradicating culture does not work, nor does ignoring culture. In most cases it is not just culture that’s the problem, it’s the real root of the issue that’s ignored. Real issues that need to be addressed, such as poverty. A person is not going to care about school or caring for the environment if they can’t get access to food, clothes, health care, or etc.

People are still going to end up being dependent on the government if they are treated as children. This is not a slandering of Humanitarians or etc., by providing food and other goods in extreme crises we do see the good. There is nothing wrong with sending food or help, but we do have an issue with many organizations stealing money and having other motives. The organizations do not take into account why people don’t have access to clean water, why they aren’t going to school, or why they are poor. This may sound harsh, but some individuals like the Afghanis and Natives had very normal reasons for not sending their kids to school. Elders may know where their people could find water, by groups can take the information provided by locals to see how the environment is affected and may affect the people in the future. This helps in providing water that’s sustainable. In Chili, some areas have water laced with arsenic. These villages are so remote that the government can’t provide water tankers, and sometimes laying pipework takes time. A local chemist found a simple, affordable, solution for locals in the meantime. Again, some people may not be poor because they want to be poor. Some individuals face all sorts of issues such as racism, classism, colorism, war, sexism, lack of skills, or lack of education. Organizations have to understand the root of the problem to be successful, again this is why local groups tend to do better because they actually care for said roots.

Other issues are the quality of building materials used by organizations. I will link a YouTuber that helped inspire me on this topic, something that I actually feel deeply about as well. Wells that were built by an organization tended to fall apart in a short period of time due to either the poor-quality building materials and not teaching anyone to help maintain said wells. Schools and other buildings also remain empty because there are either no teachers, no school supplies, no food for the children, and/or no actual money to keep the school running. Teachers may enjoy teaching but the also would like to be paid to teach to live. Farmers are given chemicals for their land that strips the land of its nutrients, making the chemicals necessary for the farmers but poisoning the water. Farmers have asked for better fertilizers but end up becoming reliant on chemicals because it’s the only thing provided to them. Even these chemicals aren’t provided all the time, making their farming useless. Farming tools given to these farmers are also cheap, unable to stand the environment they are sent to and break easily.

I could go on and on about this issue, it is something that we as individuals need to be aware of. It is easy to just give your money to some organization or to your church to “help” people. There is nothing wrong with sending food or sending old clothes for donation. What have to realize is that most of the can goods you give to charities can’t be used, it wasteful. Its best in this case to donate, even five dollars. It might even be helpful to give grab bags to homeless individuals with food, sanitary products, razors, gift card, or even include a number they may call for help. You can give money in the month of Ramadan to those suffering from the Syrian war or Palestinian conflict, they do need the food and clothes. Money and food are not going to solve their problems. They will still be hungry tomorrow and the next day unless the true change is implemented in their refugee camps. You can help by actually looking into the groups your sending money too, it’s okay to donate to food charities. There is nothing wrong with giving money to help out but are you actually helping if you’re just kissing the gushing wound better?