Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

3.2The challenge of powerlessness to missions with the destitute

Poor people are caught in a web of multiple and interlocking deprivations. Together these combine, so that often even when asked to “participate” and express their opinions or report on wrongdoing, they remain silent. Despite the imbalance in power and being overtaken by shocks and mishaps, many poor people retain their hope and grit to persist. Many emerge out of destitution to reach out and help others. What is remarkable is the resilience that so many show and the way in which they battle against the odds to gain a better life for themselves and their children. A young widow speaks for herself and many others when she says, “Even in times of acute crises, I held my nerves and did not give in to circumstances. My God has always stood with me.”
The challenge when doing missions with the destitute is to build upon poor people’s initiatives, hard work, and resilience in the face of the seemingly insurmountable problems of accessing market opportunities, government services and civil society resources. The challenge for policy and practice is to empower the powerless in their struggles to find a place of dignity and respect in society; to enable poor men and women to enhance their capabilities and claim their rights; to increase their access to opportunities and resources; to enable them to take more control of their lives and to gain for themselves more of what they need.
Given the web of powerlessness and voicelessness, the questions change:

• 
  How can development policies increase the access of poor men and women to opportunities and resources and their freedom of choice and action?
  
• 
  How can poor women and men’s own efforts and organizations be supported?
  
• 
  How can networks and federations of poor people’s organizations (women and men) be heard and represented in decision-making that affects their lives at the local, national and global levels?
  

4The destitute are people experiencing needs

The destitute are people, like all of us, and as people, they experience needs which often “crave” fulfilment. Often these needs can be suppressed, yet they are still there. What do we make of these needs, how should we approach the needs of destitute people when doing missions with the destitute?
The danger is that, in focusing on the needs of destitute people, we may once again arrive at the point where we try to “fix the problem” for them. This is not undertaking missions with the destitute, and will not empower them. Rather, it would force our agenda (however good it may be) onto them, it may create dependency, it could stigmatize people as “the people with the problem that need help from the people who are ok”.
Therefore, while we are called to understand and take note of the needs of destitute people, we are also invited to go beyond this and do missions with them in ways that empower them. Such an approach can be called “strength-based”. Saleebey (2000:5) remarks that such an approach would require us to notice, acknowledge and respond to needs. “Yet, it requires us at the same moment to begin looking for and talking about strengths and capacities. It brings balance to thought patterns and interactions that have previously been only about what is wrong.” For the moment, however, let us focus on needs.
Regarding the needs of destitute people, two statements often seem to be true. Maslow (1954: 45) pointed out: “When we have unmet emotional needs, we often seek physical substitutes. For example, if we need emotional intimacy and acceptance, we may seek sex, alcohol or drugs.” The second statement is made by Kraybill (2005:38): “People always use their best problem-solving strategies to get their needs met, even if these strategies are dysfunctional”.
Offhand we can easily compile a list of the needs of destitute people. Robertson & Greenblatt (1992:4-5), among others, have done just that. They list the needs of destitute people as:

1. 
   The need for temporary shelter (so as not to suffer the physical effects of exposure)
   
2. 
   Food and nutrition
   
3. 
   Clothing
   
4. 
   Protection from sexual victimization (especially among destitute women)
   
5. 
   Protection against legal abuse, including police harassment
   
6. 
   Financial assistance
   
7. 
   Health and medical services
   
8. 
   Help with addiction problems
   
9. 
   Help with low self-esteem and self-confidence
   
10. 
    A supportive social network
    
11. 
    Day activities and programmes
    
12. 
    Leisure and recreational opportunities
    
13. 
    Job training
    
14. 
    Employment
    
15. 
    Permanent housing
    
16. 
    A valued and personally meaningful social role.
    

While such a list is helpful, it would seem that a mere list is inadequate. There is much more to the needs of destitute people than can be listed. Therefore a brief foray into the theory behind human needs and motivation should be helpful. The theory behind human needs has become quite complex and diffuse, yet an understanding of it is essential for missions with the destitute.

4.1Maslow and beyond: ideas about human motivation and needs

Maslow (1954) attempted to synthesize a large body of research related to human motivation. Prior to him, researchers generally focused separately on such factors as biology, achievement, or power to explain what energizes, directs, and sustains human behaviour. He posited a hierarchy of human needs based on two groupings: deficiency needs and growth needs. Within the deficiency needs, each lower need must be met before moving to the next higher level. Once each of these needs has been satisfied, if at some future time a deficiency is detected, the individual will act to remove the deficiency. The first four levels are:

1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.

2) Safety/security: out of danger

3) Belongingness and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted; and

4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition.
According to Maslow (1954), an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if, and only if, the deficiency needs are met. Maslow's initial conceptualization included only one growth need, namely self-actualization. Self-actualized people are characterized by: 1) being problem-focused; 2) incorporating an ongoing freshness of appreciation of life; 3) a concern about personal growth; and 4) the ability to enjoy peak experiences. Maslow later refined the growth need of self-actualization, specifically naming two lower-level growth needs prior to the general level of self-actualization (Maslow & Lowery, 1998) and one beyond that level (Maslow, 1971). They are:

5) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore;

6) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty;

7) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfilment and realize one's potential; and

8) Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfilment and realize their potential.

Maslow's basic position is that as one becomes more self-actualized and self-transcendent, one becomes wiser (develops wisdom) and automatically knows what to do in a wide variety of situations. Daniels (2001:33) suggests that Maslow's ultimate conclusion that the highest levels of self-actualization are transcendent in their nature may be one of his most important contributions to the study of human behaviour and motivation.

A table that summarizes Maslow’s theory helps with the bigger picture:

Deficiency needs (survival needs)

Growth needs

Every lower level of needs must be met if a person is to move on to the next level of needs. When all four levels of survival needs are met, and someone experiences a new lack (or survival need), s/he will act to fulfill those needs. “Survival needs” are: Physiological needs – Food, shelter and clothing Security Belongingness and Love needs – meaning a need for “community” and acceptance Esteem needs – meaning appreciation

People are only ready to start growing when all four of their survival needs have been met. Growth then takes place along four consecutive levels, namely: A need to know and understand – exploring and discovering Aesthetic Needs – a need for beauty and order. Self actualization – to reach your potential Transcendence – becoming involved in something bigger than myself, including helping others to reach their potential

Maslow published the first conceptualization of his theory over 50 years ago (Maslow, 1943). An interesting phenomenon related to Maslow's work is that in spite of a lack of evidence to support his hierarchy, it enjoys wide acceptance (Wahba & Bridgewell, 1976; Soper, Milford & Rosenthal, 1995). Despite the fact that the hierarchy of needs model was not based on any research, it has become one of the most popular and often cited theories of human motivation. Maslow’s model has such theoretical elegance that it has been widely but wrongly accepted, say some researchers (Snow and Anderson, 1987; Soper, Milford & Rosenthal, 1995; Wahba & Bridewell, 1976).

Maslow himself acknowledged that the levels of his hierarchy are not necessarily located in a fixed order, and that for some people self-actualization may be more important than physiological needs. (Self-actualization can be defined as finding self-fulfillment and realizing one’s own potential.) He also recognized that not all personalities follow his proposed hierarchy. Furthermore, Maslow noted that a need does not have to be completely met to be satisfied. Beyond these seldom-cited “exceptions” to the hierarchy of needs model, it may exhibit more fundamental flaws. Researcher John Sumerlin and his colleagues (Sumerlin & Norman, 1992:469-481) concluded that meeting Maslow’s physiological and safety needs is not a necessary prerequisite for self-actualization, after finding fewer differences than anticipated on the self-actualization scores of homeless men, involved in a daily battle for shelter, food and safety over an extended time, and college students.

The few major studies that have been completed on the hierarchy seem to support the proposals of William James (1892/1962) and Mathes (1981: 69-72) that there are three levels of human needs. James hypothesized the levels of material (physiological, safety), social (belongingness, esteem), and spiritual needs, while Mathes proposed that the three levels were physiological, belongingness, and self-actualization; he considered security and self-esteem as being unwarranted. Alderfer (1972) developed a comparable hierarchy with his ERG (existence, relatedness, and growth) theory.

Alderfer's Hierarchy of Motivational Needs  

Level of Need	Definition	Properties
Growth	Impels a person to make creative or productive efforts regarding him/herself and his/her environment	Satisfied through using capabilities in engaging problems; creates a greater sense of wholeness and fullness as a human being
Relatedness	Involves relationships with significant others	Satisfied by mutually sharing thoughts and feelings; acceptance, confirmation, under- standing, and influence are elements
Existence	Includes all of the various forms of material and psychological desires	When divided among people one person's gain is another's loss if resources are limited

At present there is little agreement about the identification of basic human needs and how they are ordered. For example, Ryan & Deci (2000:68-78) also suggest three needs, although they are not necessarily arranged hierarchically: the need for autonomy, the need for competence, and the need for relatedness. Nohria, Lawrence, and Wilson (2001) provide evidence from a sociobiological theory of motivation that humans display four basic needs, to: (1) acquire objects and experiences; (2) bond with others in long-term relationships of mutual care and commitment; (3) learn and make sense of the world and of ourselves; and (4) to defend themselves, their loved ones, beliefs and resources from harm. The Institute for Management Excellence (2001:1) proposes that there are nine basic human needs: (1) security, (2) adventure, (3) freedom, (4) exchange, (5) power, (6) expansion, (7) acceptance, (8) community, and (9) expression.

Notice that bonding and relatedness constitute a component of every theory. However, there do not seem to be any others that are mentioned by all theorists. Franken (2001:45) suggests that this lack of accord may be a result of the different philosophies of researchers rather than of differences among human beings. Therefore, it seems appropriate to ask people what they want and how their needs could be met rather than relying on an unsupported theory. For example, Waitley (1996:23) advises having a person imagine what life would be like if time and money were not an object in one’s life. That is, what would the person do this week, this month, next month, if he or she had all the money and time needed to engage in the activities and was secure that both would be available again next year? With some follow-up questions to identify what is keeping the person from making it happen now, this open-ended approach is likely to identify the most important needs of the individual.

There is much work still to be done in the area of human needs before we can rely on a theory to be more informative than simply a means of collecting and analyzing data. However, understanding thoughts and ideas on human needs is an important part of doing missions with the destitute. It provides an outline of some important issues that must be addressed if we really want to empower people to SHALOM.