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Why Development Assistance Matters

So how has development assistance from the United States made life better for Catherine and her family so far? The funds helped to drill that borehole, so Catherine and Bernadette have only a 10-minute walk to safe water. They can now attend school for free because Zambia has received debt relief, for which Bread for the World members have been particularly strong advocates in the past 10 years. The children at Chalimbana are receiving anti-malarial medication in a country where malaria is the number one killer of children under the age of five.

These are blessings, as Catherine and her grandmother know well.

And yet…

The family will soon be eating one meal a day. Catherine and Bernadette, and most of their classmates, will try to study as their empty stomachs rumble. Mr. Longwani will pray that those computers will one day make the 5,000-mile trek from England to Zambia. He will hope that some of his students are admitted to secondary school, and can find the funds to attend. Catherine hopes so, too.

To develop a country like Zambia in a sustainable way is to create a web of assistance and opportunities that bolsters the determination and dreams of its people. If Grandmother Catherine can get an irrigation pump and more seeds, then Catherine and Bernadette will be well fed and able to concentrate on their schoolwork. If Mr. Longwani can provide computers, Catherine can learn how to work on them. She may do so well that she will secure one of the coveted slots at Chongwe secondary school. If further debt relief is granted to Zambia, secondary school fees could be eliminated.

Where might Catherine's life lead from there? 

Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters is asking our leaders in the United States to create a better web with our development assistance programs, one that most effectively reaches people in greatest need and helps countries like Zambia meet the Millennium Development Goals. With so much yet to do, more funding for poverty-focused development assistance is critical. But this funding also must be better coordinated. On a fundamental level, none of Catherine's dreams might come true if her grandmother is not able to grow enough food to feed the family. And there are millions of Catherines across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. 

A 13-year-old orphaned girl in a rural village in Zambia can open her Bible and proclaim her faith in the Lord as her stronghold. Surely we who are blessed to live in the richest country on earth can speak out to our nation’s leaders and ask them to help Catherine—and so many children like her—discover what her future holds.