Today we visited an organization that supports orphaned and vulnerable kids in a poor community. More than 300 children arrived to enjoy the undersized playground and also to receive a small giftbag from our visiting team.

Here is what the playground looked like. I was struck by the contrast with my own kids’ playground in our own backyard.

With so many kids to use the three little jungle gyms, kids stood in queues to get a chance. Stronger kids pushed past the little ones out the way. Weaker kids often missed the chance to have a fun turn on the good jungle gym.

Afterwards, we handed out a small gift bag to each child. We had brought enough bags, and we drew with a marker on each child’s hand to make sure they didn’t come back for second gift. Yet by the time all the gifts were handed out, there were 150 children left without. We were fortunately able to make a plan for these 150 children, but what went wrong here? It seems like other kids not part of the organization, had snuck in the property and pushed in front of the queue.

In the poor community, kids quickly realize that those in the back of any queue do not get anything. It’s the problem of a few goodies shared among many people. In a poor community, only those who push in get the goodies.

This is a happy story about us giving to kids, but in one sense it has a dark side. We can use this “dark side” to learn two lessons when working in the poor community: Firstly, let’s be wise and make double-sure that gifts go to those they were meant to. Let’s put simple, clear controls in place whenever we give. In this case we should simply have had someone stand at each entrance to stop outsiders getting in.

The second lesson is concerns when we judge people in poor communities when they push in or even take goodies illegitimately. Yet, we played a role in their cheating. In our well-meaning giving, we have set up a system that makes it easy for people to cheat. Because we are being nice, we expect everyone not to cheat. This is not the moral high ground. It’s unwise, and it causes the right people to lose out and the wrong people to be rewarded.

In every step we take in the REWX, we make sure that controls on when and who gets money are simple and consistently applied. This is wise, and it’s the only way to make a sustainable difference.