Topics Justice

Question Eyery year I participate in a not-for-profit-programe that sends shoe boxes with Christmas presents to children from very poor countries in the world. A good friend of mine said this would not be worth doing it, as it is just changing nothing about the poverty in the world. When is it good to put a drop in the ocean?

Accepted:
June 3, 2010

Comments

My Charitable Friend,

I disagree that it is not 'worth' doing, but it all depends on how you measure worth.

Your good friend is correct in saying that shoebox full of trinkets and everyday supplies sent to a child or two won't solve world poverty. Ours is a world in which an estimated five thousand children under age ten die every day from preventable causes. A few shoeboxes won't change that, so it is the effort it takes you to assemble the shoebox is a wasted one because your individual actions will not change the basic dynamics of world poverty.

Yet I disagree. Worth is not just measured by predicted efficacy. 'Worth it' is also about values. By preparing the shoeboxes you take an ethical stand that these children matter, that they are not forgotten, that they deserve goodies at holiday time like other children do.

Values matter a good deal, so your shoebox campaign is important - but not just for your own sense of virtue. The shoeboxes, their contents and what they represent, matter a good deal to recipients.

By the way, getting the shoeboxes together need not be your only activity, if you wanted to address the structural concerns your friend raises. It would also be good to donate a portion of your income to world poverty relief, and get politically informed about what your elected representatives are doing on your behalf for the world's poor.