There’s a popular saying in the world of development work:
“Don’t give people fish. Teach them how to fish.”
It sounds empowering.
But I want to share a deeper, more painful truth I’ve come to learn.
Especially here, in Curaçao.
Maybe real help…
Is not about giving people fish.
And not even about teaching them how to fish.
Maybe real help is daring to ask,
“Why are you here with me in this boat?”
That question, asked with radical trust,
with no judgment, with real presence. That’s the shift.
Because here’s what I’ve seen, again and again:
People don’t just want techniques.
They don’t just want training.
They want to be seen.
Heard.
Held in a space safe enough to explore a question they may never have been asked in their life.
That question isn’t answered in one conversation.
It’s not a quick fix.
In my experience, it takes at least nine months for most people to even formulate the first honest version of their answer.
So what do we do?
We ask the question.
We stay in the boat.
We make sure we catch just enough fish to keep them fed, safe, and strong enough
to come back next time.
Because you might be the first person in their life to ask that question and mean it.
And maybe, just maybe,
that’s where real development begins
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