My perceptions of “the poor” as portrayed on television and in the popular media were changed after my visit to the child I sponsor through World Vision (WV).Pictures of impoverished children, and “a dollar a day could save this child’s life” are great hooks for the tender hearted, myself included. This type of advertising and campaigning emphasises those requiring emergency relief aid. But this is just one part of what organisations like World Vision do. They also do a lot of development, which is what I went and saw.
Development is not, as the adverts may have it, about saving people from immediate starvation, but setting up systems, providing infrastructure, resources, and training to hopefully improve quality of life.
The Area Development Programme I saw was near Batticola and targeted a community of Tamil people affected by the civil war. Years of fighting had left the people poor and the community lacking in resources. With funds from the sponsors, World Vision had since built a library, a pre-school, a dentistry, wells, and toilets. WV also provides crop assistance (donates seed), helps implement various income generating activities, helps the community obtain loans, and initiated a group saving plan. Money donated directly helps the sponsored child who receives regular medical checkups.
The development is not meant to be a “welfare” or handout based approach, but a collaborative relationship. Importance is attached to community ownership of donated resources and projects, and sustainability. The programme is planned to run for so many years and then WV pulls out, hopefully leaving the community with more resources than before and the skills and desire to manage them and other initiatives started under WV supervision. The development is run like any other commercial enterprise with business plans, targets, budgets etc.
World Vision is a Christian based organisation. To work for World Vision employees must be in agreement with the organisation’s Christian ethos and participate in devotions (the day’s visit started with a devotion). It did not seem at all an evangelical organisation, and provides aid and development assistance to people of any religion.
[begin spiel]
I think it is easy to get caught up feeling bad for the world’s poor, but this may be merely a Western perspective. Although materially poor they can be a enthnically distinct, unique people, with their own skills and identity created in relation to their situation. They themselves do not play the sympathy act but adverts portray them as such. They should be allowed their own atonomy and make their own decisions in concert with the developed world, as opposed to the developed world thinking they need help and walking in willy nilly. The Christain missionaries assumed they were doing the good by “bringing the natives God”, we shouldn’t be too quick to automatically assume we are doing people in the developing nations good by bringing them the modern God of Western development and its ideals. When and where is development appropriate? What are appropriate ways of providing development assistance? What do the people really need, if anything? It is indeed a sensitive, political, emotional, complex issue.
[end spiel]
The Day’s Visit
The day began with a Christain devotion at the World Vision HQ. Afterwards we went out to the project. I was shown a new avenue of trees lining the road planted by WV, a pre-school, dentistry and library built with WV funds.
Where the family lived, and indeed most of the village, the ground was covered in sand like a beach. They had a small fenced off area. A tour around the premises revealed the smallest of kitchens, which was no more than a concrete slab on the ground, one wall and a roof. The sleeping quarters were also very small – a concrete slab for the family of 5, with a roof and four walls. The flashest building was a toilet newly built by WV – and my money! Whoa hoo. I should have made a point to use it.
As I approached the house I was greated by a crowd of the family and lookers-on. They placed a huge flower necklace on me and invited me in. So this is what it’s like being treated like a king – I wasn’t expecting such a grand welcome at all. Inside a tarpoline had been set up and a very spicy meal prepared. We ate and I spoke to the family through one of the WV people – the family members didn’t speak English, and I hadn’t picked up any Tamil (the majority of the island being Sinhgalese).
