Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Being a resident of Peru, how many times per year do you travel abroad?   1 2 3 4 or more?

By Alix Farr

Movie stars do it.  Professional football players do it.  Members of royal families do it.  Singers from the Top 40 charts do it.  They take time off from their busy schedules of movie premiers, awards ceremonies, and restaurant openings to grace the developing world with their presence.  Candy is distributed to hundreds of open and crowding hands, pictures are taken with flies and babies, and videos are made for MTV to be shown as an evening special after the latest episode of Cribs.  

But what about the rest of us, burdened by our own empty wallets and mounting piles of bills?  In the midst of a financial crisis, a question is slowly creeping into the minds of the globally conscious: will philanthropy become a luxury for the rich?

Bono, one of the most iconic (and successful) celebrity volunteers, chanted a slogan on one of his visits to Africa, calling for Americans to “turn compassion into cash!”  As compelling as his mantra is, it may be falling on deaf ears as many Americans participate in a growing garage sale culture, wondering if they can turn their old maternity clothes and spare microwaves into cash instead.   

Peru will certainly not be immune from the wave of economic chaos sweeping the globe.  According to research done by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Latin America will most likely suffer from drastic declines in export revenues and foreign direct investment over the course of the next few years.   

Now, more than ever, volunteers and financial donations are needed, but who left among us can imagine giving up time from our already jeopardized jobs to assist with such idealistic endeavors as feeding the hungry and caring for an ailing planet?  Angelina Jolie or Prince Harry, perhaps, but the concept of volunteering is much easier if you are about as likely to go bankrupt as Peru is to winning the football World Cup.   

So does a globalized credit crunch mean that altruism will go the way of the Lehman Brothers?   

Though few hard statistics exist to show the relationship between the state of a country’s economy and its population’s level of goodwill, there are a few organizations that have tried to assemble some data on this matter.   

Bluefrog, a fundraising agency, found in the United Kingdom that people who have supported charities financially in the past are not yet planning to cut back on their donations given the current state of the economy.  Respondents do say, however, that it is very unlikely they would support any new charities.   

Gallup Polls conducted in the United States during the last recession from 1989 to 1991 suggest that the average American household donated 20% less to charity while facing personal financial struggles.  These polls also showed that, in total, Americans spent 440 million fewer hours volunteering in 1992 than they did in 1989.   

These statistics do not apply to the rich and famous, however.  In a 2008 survey by Prince & Associates it was found that 6 in 10 Americans worth over $30 million were planning on increasing their charitable contributions this year.  Good for them.

But how do we ordinary individuals with incomes considerably less than an eight-digit figure keep a downturn in the economy from becoming a slump in our philanthropic spirit?

Maricarmen Valdivieso, coordinator of the Interamerican Development Bank supported organization Nexos Voluntarios in Peru, comments that even with financial problems, anyone who has a computer to read this is much better off than a vast majority of the world’s population.   

The humbling act of assessing our own problems in comparison with what most of the world experiences is the first step to realizing that even in a credit crunch, we always have a little to give.   

After all, Mother Theresa, the woman the entire world has deemed a saint, managed to live a content and generous life off of very little by way of pocket change.  Even when she won the Nobel Prize in 1979, she donated all of her $192,000 winnings to help fund her charitable work with India’s sick and poor.   

Though few would rush to sell their house and take up quarters with the lepers of the world, there must be something about the Mother Theresa story that serves as more than just a “good person” cliché.  Can she not actually inspire in us a desire to act rather than to just momentarily bask in the warm fuzzies of her noble life?   

If the concept of altruism survives this financial crisis, it will be because millions of people have used this opportunity to reassess their priorities and have found that a desire to help the planet and its humanity has come out on top.   

Nexos Voluntarios, Valdivieso says, has thankfully not yet seen a decline in the number of volunteers who step through the door of their Miraflores office, optimistic and enthusiastic about their mission to give with open hands to those who could be some of the worst effected in an era of fiscal instability.

But organizations like Nexos can only exist through donations of time and money.  Let’s hope they don’t just survive this potential recession of charity that lies before them, but can instead thrive because of the philanthropic spirit of all humanity- millionaires and ordinary people alike.

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2 Comments

# Robert Gates says :
2 January, 2009 [ 12:44 ]

Is there a program for volunteers from the US to teach Engish?
If so where can I obtain information.

# Alix Farr says :
15 January, 2009 [ 11:14 ]

Robert, Nexos has a program to teach English.  E-mail coordinator@nexosvoluntarios.org or google "Nexos Voluntarios" to get more info

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