Page 92 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 92
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 92
However, that special Providence that watches over children manifested itself on his
behalf and through a peculiar set of circumstances he came into one of our relief
camps where he was taken up and cared for. These are but two of the many stories
one could tell,
I think I have said enough to impress you with the absolute necessity of
supporting such families and individuals, right through until such a time as their food
supply might be assured. Indiscriminate giving of occasional meals or money to
people who then have to be abandoned and left to starve, is to say the least
unsatisfactory relief distribution. On the other hand, with limited funds and practically
unlimited need, a selection of persons who are to be kept alive and an abandonment
of others to death, becomes a painful necessity. This to me has been the hardest
task of all.
In order to make easier this task of selection we decided upon a labour relief
scheme, or in other words that we should require people to work for the relief they
received. At first glance this seems a strange method, of distributing relief. To
require that a person, reduced to abject destitution, and weak from a long period of
insufficient food, should be forced to work for the food they received!! But when you
have been through the experience yourself you may get a fresh angle of vision. By
what principles or methods should you be guided when you select A. as a recipient
for your relief and you very definitely sentence B. to death in with-holding from him
that aid which brings life to A?. Labour relief very largely eliminates that painful
necessity of selection. You offer in selected districts, an opportunity for all who are
willing to enroll themselves as labourers, food in return for their work, It goes without
saying that the question of the work accomplished is always secondary to the main
purpose, that of getting the food to the deservingly needy. And it also has the distinct
advantages of keeping away, to a large extent, those who are able to fend for
themselves and yet who would not hesitate to come and cadge if the relief was to be
obtained simply for the asking; of educating the people to help themselves; of
keeping them mentally and physically employed; and of producing some effort of
public utility. We were guided in our selection of the districts in which to operate bv
the following four principles :
First. Relief operations should be undertaken in those districts where the causes of
famine were primarily resultant on drought.
Second. Where there was a reasonable absence of banditry.
Third. Districts into which it was possible to transport grain.
Fourth. Where there were reasonable prospects of realizing a harvest.
Guided by these four principles we eventually found ourselves operating in fourteen
districts of Kansuh. For the first few months of our efforts we remunerated the
However, that special Providence that watches over children manifested itself on his
behalf and through a peculiar set of circumstances he came into one of our relief
camps where he was taken up and cared for. These are but two of the many stories
one could tell,
I think I have said enough to impress you with the absolute necessity of
supporting such families and individuals, right through until such a time as their food
supply might be assured. Indiscriminate giving of occasional meals or money to
people who then have to be abandoned and left to starve, is to say the least
unsatisfactory relief distribution. On the other hand, with limited funds and practically
unlimited need, a selection of persons who are to be kept alive and an abandonment
of others to death, becomes a painful necessity. This to me has been the hardest
task of all.
In order to make easier this task of selection we decided upon a labour relief
scheme, or in other words that we should require people to work for the relief they
received. At first glance this seems a strange method, of distributing relief. To
require that a person, reduced to abject destitution, and weak from a long period of
insufficient food, should be forced to work for the food they received!! But when you
have been through the experience yourself you may get a fresh angle of vision. By
what principles or methods should you be guided when you select A. as a recipient
for your relief and you very definitely sentence B. to death in with-holding from him
that aid which brings life to A?. Labour relief very largely eliminates that painful
necessity of selection. You offer in selected districts, an opportunity for all who are
willing to enroll themselves as labourers, food in return for their work, It goes without
saying that the question of the work accomplished is always secondary to the main
purpose, that of getting the food to the deservingly needy. And it also has the distinct
advantages of keeping away, to a large extent, those who are able to fend for
themselves and yet who would not hesitate to come and cadge if the relief was to be
obtained simply for the asking; of educating the people to help themselves; of
keeping them mentally and physically employed; and of producing some effort of
public utility. We were guided in our selection of the districts in which to operate bv
the following four principles :
First. Relief operations should be undertaken in those districts where the causes of
famine were primarily resultant on drought.
Second. Where there was a reasonable absence of banditry.
Third. Districts into which it was possible to transport grain.
Fourth. Where there were reasonable prospects of realizing a harvest.
Guided by these four principles we eventually found ourselves operating in fourteen
districts of Kansuh. For the first few months of our efforts we remunerated the
