The differences in lifestyles between citizens of the United States and most people living in “third world” countries is as stark as the difference between black and white.
What most Americans consider to be the level at which someone is “poor” would be a looked at as a level of significant wealth in many other countries.
This week, two representatives of Change Agent Network, Inc. – an organization dedicated to helping improve the futures of impoverished citizens of the west African nation of Liberia – visited Houston, after students at Houston Elementary School participated for the past several months in a fundraising program benefiting the organization. Both of the visitors have ample first-hand experience with the reality of life in Liberia; Change Agent Network founder Eric Wowoh is a native of the country, and Missouri chapter president Heath Vogel grew up there as the son of an American missionary couple.
Both shared many insightful ideas from a perspective only someone who has spent significant time in a place like Liberia could have. Wowoh said it would probably benefit most Americans to spend some time in a Liberian’s shoes.
“I’d like to see a problem exchange program,” Wowoh said. “You can let us have your problems for a while and you can have ours. But with all due respect, what I tell Americans is they have a luxury problem, and it’s a problem that only exists in the mind – it’s a mindset.
“To me, no poverty exists in the United States. Even the poorest people have a safety net; there are food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, and even some cash coming from the government. There are churches, non-profit groups and other groups out there to help.
“The poorest people have a cell phone, a car, and some even live in a two-bedroom house. They can even afford to buy a pack of cigarettes, and a pack of cigarettes is what, three bucks, five bucks? You can’t call that poverty – it doesn’t fit into the definition of poverty internationally. By American standards, they create that so people can believe there’s poverty.
“If you want to see real poverty, then let’s have a problem exchange.”
To Wowoh, even inmates of U.S. prisons live in the lap of luxury.
“We could even do a prisoner exchange,” he said. “American prisoners have beds with fresh pillows and a mattress, carpet on the floors, they eat three good meals a day, and someone does their laundry for them. If we did an exchange, we could just turn the Americans loose when they get off the plane and see how they do. We’d just say, ‘you’re a free man, go to it.’ They would really learn how good they have it.”
One of Wowoh’s goals in operating Change Agent Network is teaching children the concept of giving. An offshoot of the network is Change for Change, a program that allows kids to contribute toward the construction of schools and school facilities in Liberia, through the donation of coins.
“It’s a way of teaching them to give as soon as they have the resources,” Wowoh said. “If a child has five dollars, and they are able to give a dollar out of five, that tells you they have that spirit of giving at an early stage. If it’s not a part of them early, they’re never going to be able to do it when they get older. They might have a million dollars and struggle to give five thousand.”
Vogel believes many people react negatively to the idea of helping others in far away places, but that’s because they don’t understand that something like Change for Change can help alter the way kids approach problems closer to home when they grow up.
“One of the common things you hear is, ‘we have enough problems here,’” he said. “Sometimes we say that, but we’re not dealing with those problems. I think this opportunity will help instill in the hearts of a future generation an attitude that will make a difference here in the U.S.”
Wowoh believes that while Americans are too often coddled by government, the opposite is true in Liberia. He thinks answer to that double-edged problem could lie among young people.
“In America, the government does way too much for people, and in Africa they do nothing,” Wowoh said. “Neither is a good solution, so what we would like to see is a balance being struck. I think the children can help.”
Wowoh has also overseen the creation of a computer school in Liberia, stocking it with many units that were destined for the trash heap in in the U.S.
“Desktops are old fashioned now, so we take them to where they’ll continue being used,” he said. “Precious things to American people are like your bank account, and your job, but things you consider junk are treasured by people in places like Liberia.
“I call it, ‘yesterday’s trash of the American people is tomorrow’s hope.’”
While many U.S. schools are steering away from textbooks in favor of using computers, schoolbooks are a rarity in Liberia. In turn, Wowoh and company funnel as many as possible that have been deemed past their usefulness in America to Liberia, where they’ll be considered a window to the world.
Vogel said it really comes down to Americans’ ignorance about what is lacking and what isn’t.
“In Africa, you have a material poverty,” he said. “But because of that, you have relational wealth, because the people band together. In the United States, we have material wealth, but I really believe we also have relational poverty.
“We just don’t know what it really means to be poor in a material way, and we’re so focused on material things, technology, and modern conveniences, we don’t realize how our relations with others are suffering.”
For more information about Change Agent Network, Inc., log onto www.canintl.org.
Email founder Eric Wowoh at ericwowoh@canintl.org.