What does UNOH mean by poverty?

We read the bible’s understanding of poverty to be more about lack of power than mere cash. Poverty therefore includes destitution, but also includes marginalisation, exploitation and oppression. Therefore when we talk about responding to poverty we are talking about seeking to transform a sense of being marginalised to a sense of belonging, from exploitation to empowerment, from oppression to freedom in Christ to make choices.

It is not helpful to compare people’s misery. Saying things like ‘these people are not poor enough to deserve my help’ is not only judgmental, but also it undermines the basic command of Jesus to love our neighbours as ourselves. Further, those who we may consider to be undeserving of help have a habit of being Jesus in disguise. Lepers in Jesus day were considered to have deserved their lot because of their choices.

Where UNOH chapters need to make choices about which neighbourhoods to move into, we compare and contrast the following:

• Are there higher than average numbers of indicators of poverty? These include:

unemployment or under-employment

domestic and other violence

drug abuse

illegal activities

disabilities

truancy among school kids

scared elderly

refugees

• Are there neighbours we know who are ‘gate-keepers’, willing to invite us in, and help us to orientate, settle and make our contributions in the neighbourhood?
• Do we have UNOH workers who can connect with these neighbours and have passion/skills for these neighbours and the issues they face?