Give a Man a Fish. Period.

“Give a man to fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

This is a popular saying that has been encouraged in the face of short-sighted efforts at sustenance aid. Humanitarians used to think that giving people food was all that they had to do. It was a constant discipline of aid, aid, aid every single day. They did not even consider the option of training these people with job skills and subsequently the ability to get food on their own. This thought revolutionized the theory of food aid.

And yet, I think that this thought has possibly run its course. I mean, I understand the theory of it. I totally do. I understand what it is trying to teach. I understand where it is trying to go. And I agree wholeheartedly with it. In a perfect world, we would have the time and opportunity to “teach people how to fish”. But this isn’t a perfect world.

We do not have the time, the opportunity, or the right situation. There are people starving to death in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and other areas all over the world. First, these people do not have the time to be taught any job skills. They do not have time to plant and harvest any food. They do not have the time. They are dying TODAY! They are going to die TOMORROW! There is no time. Second, even if these people are trained, their economies do not have enough jobs. Even if you have job skills, there are no jobs available. Also, the land is not good in some places. There is no opportunity to grow anything – or fish or hunt or gather – because of drought, famine, poor land management, etc. There is no time. There are no opportunities. It just doesn’t work.

So we need to change our thought process. We shouldn’t change it back to the very beginning. And we shouldn’t ignore what we now know. But we need to rethink what we are doing. We need to change our mindset. Here is the vision that we need to follow and the wisdom that we should heed given the current situation.

“Give a man a fish. Period.”

This has to be our mindset. It should be as simple as this: people are dying; they need food to live; those who have food need to give them food. That’s it. People are starving and dying every single day. No more theories or long-term goals or college strategies about the best things to do. No. There is no time. There is no time at all. People are dying. We need to help them. Now. Period.

So let’s change our mindset to this:

Give a man a fish. Period.