Untangling the Web of Poverty

This workbook is written for those who want to help make this world better for people living in poverty. Sometimes, our well-meaning help causes unintended and unfortunate results. This book takes the reader step by step through principles that help a person or community pull out of poverty and develop for the long term. It shows the difference in short term hand-outs that give relief for the moment and in long term development that helps free people of the obstacles to their own development. It also includes a Bible study showing what the Bible asks each of us to do about poverty, and a section explaining reasons why people are poor that need to be addressed before one can overcome it. Principles of development are evident in the lives of some persons and in some communities, and principles of poverty are widespread in others. What makes the difference? What principles can we live by to help stop some of the suffering in this world? The author has spent 60 years living and working with the poor in seven countries and in four states of the U.S. This book is not based on academic studies, but rather on things she saw and felt living in impoverished situations herself in order to better understand and be a friend with some of the most desperately poor of the world. Known in many circles as a captivating story-teller, the author, Sarah Corson, takes you into the lives of the poor showing the reader many of the problems the poor face which we need to understand if our help is to be real help. With her husband, Ken, and their four children, they have lived in a jungle village in a South American jungle, in an urban slum in Central America, among rural poor, both black and white, in the Southern U.S., and in many other situations. Sarah and two of their children were captured by rebel soldiers in a revolution in Bolivia, lived with her family in a dirt-floor, bamboo hut, with no electricity, or clean water source, some 45 miles over mountains on a muddy (or dusty) road from the nearest doctor. They had no vehicle or phone service. She, her husband, and son almost died of hepatitis, typhoid and typhus. We can say that if anyone has earned the right to be a voice for the poor, Sarah Corson is that person. In this workbook, she has written some of the most important things she has learned from this journey into the world of the poor which she and her husband have traveled for sixty years. Sarah says, "It is simple things I share in this book, and yet they have profound implications. Poverty is very complex, but the things I share are the biggest obstacles I have seen in the lives of the poor. If they can be overcome, I believe that the poor, be they materially or spiritually poor, will be able to grow and develop to the fullest of their potential. I believe these simple things will help people who want to help, be better facilitators or enablers for development and healing in their own communities and wherever they serve." In 1979, Ken and Sarah Corson founded SIFAT (Servants in Faith and Technology/Southern Institute for Appropriate Technology) to train church and community leaders to show God's love in practical ways. SIFAT is an inclusive, non-denominational Christian non-profit institution trying to unite those who have resources and skills with those who have never had such opportunities, so that together we can join hands and hearts and overcome suffering and poverty---whether spiritual or physical. Our lives can make a difference in the part of the world we touch. Untangling the Web of Poverty will give readers insights into how to make their efforts to help really count for positive change.