DEFINING POVERTY AND THE RESTORATION OF HUMAN DIGNITY

DEFINING POVERTY AND THE RESTORATION OF HUMAN DIGNITY

While the term “poor” is used to describe PIH adoption of a preferential option for the destitute, we recognize that it could be narrowly used to box those who are struggling to fulfill their potential into a permanent and inescapable classification, further demonizing, albeit involuntarily, those who we strive to serve. We often use the term “most vulnerable” to indicate a transient status, less intrinsic to the individual’s qualities and conditioned by external deprivation of opportunity. Also, it is important to consider is that different cultures have different interpretations of what “being poor” means.

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The opposite of poverty is not wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice.

- Bryan Stevenson, Founder of Equal Justice Initiative

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While poverty is often described as accidental or—at times—the result of lack of individual entrepreneurship, we see poverty not only as the absence of material goods, but also more broadly as the deprivation of equal opportunity. We become conscious that such deprivation is indeed the result of systemic and intentional mechanisms that are designed to deprive entire populations of the basic chance to thrive, usually to benefit the accumulation of wealth and power of more privileged groups. This type of “poverty” is made visible to us every day in the communities we strive to support, and it is usually the end product of centuries of colonial, postcolonial and neocolonial abuses, such as slavery, pilfering of natural resources, labor exploitation, discrimination, and racism.

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Social justice work is not done exclusively for the poor but benefits all, since is the way to create a new, more just society that everyone can enjoy. Restoring dignity for the most vulnerable is the way to restore humanity for all.

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Awareness and condemnation of oppressive forces, however, is not enough to enable us to fully take sides with the most vulnerable. We must also bear witness to the suffering and seek their perspective. Proximity to those we serve is crucial since listening to our patients and their families is the only way to hear their needs as we would our own, to walk a common path, and to glean from their lived experiences the solutions to injustice. This perspective is what pushes PIH’s work beyond charity and into solidarity. The fight for social justice becomes then a shared experience, a leveled vantage point from which decisions are made not “by the privileged, on behalf of the poor,” but “by the poor, for the poor.” This is what we mean by PIH’s policy of accompaniment, and it naturally anchors our work at the epicenter of daily suffering: the local rural community.

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The poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible.

- Gustavo Gutiérrez, The Power of the Poor in History