Right, mostly because they live in contries with rather incompetent government. But once you get correspondence going the chances improve because now there can be some mentoring.
The best sort of mentoring is what some volunteer IEEE members do in South America. There, lots of people die from lung diseases because they read using kerosine lamps at night. So they install a few solar-battery-LED thingamagics in the first 2-3 huts while some of the more clever villagers look at how the work is done. Then, they hand the toolbox and the materials for the next dozen huts to the villagers.