As someone who is interested in a career in global health policy, I found Poverty, Inc. fascinating to watch. The basic ideas of the documentary were nothing new to me; I’ve read a lot about how many well-meaning aid organizations end up having little positive impact (and sometimes a negative impact) on the communities they want to serve. I also knew that looking at impoverished people as incapable of making changes in their lives inevitably leads to failure. I didn’t realize, however, quite how widespread this problem was until Saturday. I hadn’t considered how complex the economics of poverty truly are, so I was happy to gain an understanding of poverty from this perspective.

Many of the examples the documentary highlighted were really powerful, but the part that stuck with me the most was about the Haitian orphanage system. Apparently, 80% of kids that live in most orphanages (which are usually started by westerners) have at least one living parent. The parents don’t have the money to feed their kids or send them to school, so they bring them to the orphanage in the hopes of giving them a better life. According to the documentary, in some large families it’s considered almost a privilege to go live at the orphanage. Parents can come visit their kids once in awhile, but a lot of kids are eventually adopted by wealthy westerners. This system appalled me, because not only is it entirely dependent on the whims of wealthy, foreign people, it’s forcing parents to make a decision between giving up their child or letting them go hungry. The American couple who set out to address this problem have had great success in creating jobs for parents, and I hope that this progress will continue.