A train winds through a Sri Lankan jungle.

Passengers, mostly Westerners, sit on benches, and lean against windows. The rhythm of the track lulls them to sleep.

Later, the train approaches a station, and the passengers wake to a man handing out lunches. When the train comes to a stop, it is completely surrounded—by children. The passengers are stunned. The children, clambering over one another, are reaching up, asking for food.

The passengers quickly collect their lunches and hand them through the windows to the children below. Relief sweeps through the train. A good deed has been done. A crisis has been averted.

Until it becomes clear that there are not enough lunches for all of the children.

As the train leaves for the next station, the children are left to fight among themselves for the remaining food. Relief turns to grief. A good deed unravels. And another kind of crisis is created.

These are the recollections of The Matale Line’s founder, who, as a 13-year-old boy, watched the scene unfold. A scene not unlike those that unfold countless times around the world each day. Another example of the quick fix. Hearts in the right place. Solutions that create more problems than they solve. The Matale Line is a small stretch of track in Sri Lanka. To us, it will forever serve as a metaphor about the difference between the simplistic notion of “charity” and what is really required to effect change in the world.