South America is a very poor continent, and you will see all sorts of poor
beggars. The poor are ubiquitous in
South America. You can see everything from motherless children to grossly
deformed cripples, begging on almost every street corner.
Most South America countries have limited social welfare systems, and hundreds
of thousands of people for forced to resort to begging, prostitution and crime
in order to survive.
Some tourists enjoying playing the role of the dumb American
and handing-out $1 bills to the poor.
Take a bite to help the poor
If you are approached by a beggar asking for money for food and you suspect that
they may use your money for drugs or alcohol, the easiest thing to do is to pop
into a store and buy them a sandwich.
However, always take a bite before handing it to them, as we have watched
beggars immediately exchange the sandwich for wine.
Witnessing poverty firsthand
It’s hard not to be moved by the abject poverty, and we recommend that you carry
a large roll of five dollar bills to hand-out to the poor. Many of the street
corner vendors earn less than $3 per day and it’s wonderful to watch the
mother's face light-up when you hand them a five dollar bill!
Give the gift of livestock
According to our local guides, many of the poor people in South America do not
handle cash well, and it’s sometimes best to buy them small farm animals. You
can buy a case whole box of chickens for less than $5 and a whole family can
have eggs and food for a long time. Plus, the chickens eat harmful bugs and
their manure is very high in nitrogen.
Most city folks don’t know that it’s really easy to gift-wrap live chickens.
Chickens have a darkness reflex and they go into a zombie-like state when the
lights go out.
We stopped a local market and paired up sets of two laying hens with a nice
rooster, placing the threesome in vented copy-paper boxes. Laden with 18
chickens sleeping soundly in their gift boxes, we set forth to the village. At
the edge of town we stopped and got out of the car and directed our driver to
give one box each to a worthy family. Perfecto!
Have your donation make a real
difference
If you are not lucky enough to be near an impoverished village and you want your
donations to go to people who really need your help, check out
www.heifer.org, a great
charity to give live farm animals to the poor. Every penny counts and even $5
can make a big difference to a starving family.
For a huge treat, spend $500 and give a family a live cow, the gift that keeps
on giving. They can drink the milk, use the manure for fertilizer and breed it
to provide a cow for their neighbor. In Peru, you can donate a baby Llama so the
family can harvest Alpaca, and your donation goes directly to those who are
in-need.
 |
This is an excerpt from the book
South America Insider Adventures by Rampant TechPress.
This is the definitive guide for the U.S. American
traveler who seeks to safely explore South America.
You can order it directly from the publisher and save over
30% at
this link. |
Extra Poverty pics:
|
|
This is an excerpt from the book
South America Insider Adventures by Rampant TechPress.
This is the definitive guide for the U.S. American traveler who seeks
to safely explore South America. You can order it directly from
the publisher and save over 30% at
this link. |
|
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