Covering a Hole doesn't Fill it!

Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. Evolution of various industries and businesses, people brainstorming and innovating, creative minds up and about trying to draw money out of consumer's pockets through various ways of persuasion, enticing and eye catching goods which are more of wants than needs.

A city where you have to be so strategic and kin to have your way on the roads as the Boda bodas and taxis ferociously maneuver over cars and pedestrians, rather jaywalkers, with no second thought.

The common language being the horns of the vehicles and loud sermons of the hawkers. Don't get me started on the random speakers that kiosks and shops have put up of someone loudly advertising what they sell or the services they offer on a loop.

Everyone, and everything is everywhere but there are also homeless victims of circumstance who do nothing but stare! (...rhyme intended) yes, I'm talking about those that live on the streets!

Street children, mothers, families even the disabled spend their days, if not captured by the police, begging for money or food from the vehicles in traffic. Teenage mothers carrying babies with tied cloth around their shoulders dehydrated as ever in the scorching sun. Some pick up some sort of rags and try to dust the vehicles with the hope that this would move the driver or passengers enough to reward them.

Some are offered with money, others are given snacks (of which some times they don't even accept them because they prefer money)

And in my early days I used to feel so sad whenever I was in a car and the adult Im with just passes them by. The question whenever my mum rolled up the windows and locked the doors was, "why doesn’t she give them?" "Doesn't she have a heart?'

And I used to say to my self when I get any money that I would always give them as much as I could but time went on I started to learn that these street people some times choose to stay on the streets.

Many organizations try to come up and help, of which some have been impacted greatly and have changed the life of many street children and mothers, as for others, they just run away from them and hide. And even though you just roll down your window and bless a man with 1 million shillings there's a very high chance that he is going to make sure he spends that money and return to the streets and be there again for more immediately after.

Some of the children on the streets have been taken up by peer influence and have been forced into certain things like drugs. And most of the time they feel like that's the only life they want to live and are not willing to change no matter how much they earn off that street.

To me, that's more painful than driving past them whenever they beg on your window. I'm not saying that helping them is not a good deed because trust me,God will reward you immensely when you give to the needy. But to what end are you helping this person? Would you want to invest or help in something that is going to just stay in the same situation? You would probably like to see your aid come into full effect where by not only is he getting nourishment for the hour, he is also not going to come back on the street.

The message I’m trying to bring home is this:

Covering a hole doesn't fill it!

And as the saying goes, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

This also applies in your life dear reader, many times we try to fix problems by taping them up with immediate decisions that bring up temporary satisfactions yet we should invest time and wisdom into searching out how to deal with something permanently.

Going for countless overnights, and getting slain will not give you Deliverance but the Revelation of Jesus Christ and His finished work at the cross for you will!

Getting a full time job and working your legs and hands off, with money flying out of your bank account before you even see it will not solve your financial issues, rather, investing time in financial education and learning about acquiring more assets than liabilities to create cash flow will!

Having an all-nighter cramming for the next day's exam will not help you achieve sustainable excellence in your studies but investing time prior to assess the strategies suitable for you to understand concepts like practice and consultation and following up on each topic with your teacher or friend rather than waiting for them to pile up will!

Giving money to that one person begging on the street will not eradicate the street people on the streets of Kampala but understanding, studying and investing time and resources on how to generate ideas that benefit the community or even the whole world will.

“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”