I've been posting occasionally about charity, and the pitfalls, disasters and misaligned incentives that often go along with it
I'm skeptical of "service projects" (Rotary club, cooking fires, and stovepipes)
Charity - "More Harm Than Good" (from the book Family Fortune - by Bill Bonner)
This is why I distrust most charity
And then I was just talking last week to an elderly relative, who told me the story of her grandmother and grandfather, who lived in central Europe.
Her grandfather had lost an arm in an industrial accident, and couldn't work a normal job. So, it was up to her grandmother to help help earn a living. They were very self sufficient, slaughtering a pig every winter, and growing their own potatoes. But...they didn't have enough land to grow all the potatoes that they needed.
And here's what charity was, back then - my relative's grandmother would do work (whatever labor that was required) for the town where she lived. That town also owned some arable land, which the grandmother was allowed to cultivate with potatoes, in exchange for her labor. And those potatoes (along with pigs, etc.) kept them fed.
She was not an "object of charity". It was a reciprocal arrangement, that involved a lot of (useful) work. And very likely, many people wouldn't even call it charity.
They still had six children. In contrast, the next generation had three, and now, the average is less than one.