I recently returned from a two-week mission trip to Africa. It was an incredible, but eye-opening experience. My first week was spent in Cape Town, South Africa, working with leaders of an organization called Church in Hard Places. We spent time in the Cape Town Flats, a neighborhood of extreme poverty and gang violence that evolved from the apartheid-era forced transfer of Coloured and Black populations into their “own” segregated communities. My second week in Africa was a completely different experience. Working with a non-profit out of Dallas called Orant Charities Africa, I spent the week deep in the bush of Malawi, a vastly different environment from the urban setting of Cape Town.

I knew about Malawi because my late wife, Melody, had made several mission trips there over the years. Like her, I quickly fell in love with the people. In spite of desperate economic conditions, Malawians are the warmest, most welcoming people you’ll find on this planet. Malawi has the lowest gross domestic product of any country in the world. More than 70% of its population lives below the poverty line of $2.15 per day. The median age in Malawi is 18. It’s a tough place to live.

Thanks to the generosity of friends and family, my wife’s foundation has built four water wells in Malawian villages since her passing in 2023. Being able to pump well water in these villages is a welcome contrast to walking nearly two miles each day to fill buckets from local, polluted rivers. While there, I was reminded of the many conveniences in modern American society that we too often take for granted.

My temporary discomfort there with the summer heat, hordes of insects, unfamiliar food and the constant threat of malaria or cholera was just that … temporary. I found inspiration in witnessing how these people dealt with their daily trials. They expressed no sense of entitlement, resentment or frustration with their circumstances. They forged ahead with their daily tasks, simply focused on survival rather than getting ahead.

After spending many years on the board of the Food Bank and as a commissioner for the Columbia Housing Authority, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the complexities of poverty. Unfortunately, I have never seen deep poverty like what I experienced while in Africa. Issues like affordable housing, reliable transportation and accessible childcare pale in comparison to the constant worry about where your next meal will come from. Aside from a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of maize provided by the government each month, there are no other safety net programs in Africa. Malawians have learned to survive on a lean diet of nsima and beans for their daily needs.

I was impressed by the number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) and faith-based initiatives that have stepped up to provide health care and educational assistance in Malawi. At the same time, my experiences caused me to pause and consider our dysfunctional approach to poverty in America.

I know these comments will ruffle the feathers of those working in the vast network of social service agencies in our community, but the lack of measurable outcomes begs the questions: are we really making a difference in the lives of those living in poverty right here in America? What’s the return on investment for the billions of dollars we dump into povertyrelief efforts? In Malawi, I know that I can spend $5,000 to build a water well that will serve a village of 300. I know that I can spend $800 per year to send a young girl to a private boarding school for her secondary education. These outcomes are measurable and specific. It’s easy to give a man a fish, but where in America are we teaching that same man how to catch his own fish?

I know the argument is more complex than this; however, is there something we can learn from third-world countries with fewer resources? When we see the fraudulent abuses that have occurred under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), one could reasonably assume that we’re throwing too much money at the problem of poverty without demanding measurable results. Too many of us have accepted the status quo of ineffective programs. We’ve ignored the needs of the working poor while allowing the creation of poverty traps that disincentivize any other effort that might allow someone to do something that actually reverses the cycle of poverty.

It’s time to rethink how we address generational poverty in America. Throwing money at a problem rarely makes the problem go away. It just exacerbates an already hopeless situation and prevents others from creating innovative and thoughtful approaches that might actually make a difference.