When a remote area of South Sudan was resettling from the long-running civil war in 2001, tens of thousands of returnees were threatened by the upcoming rainy season without food. A small team was dispatched to assess and prioritize the needs of internally displaced people (IDPs) resettling in a corner of South Sudan. (Sudan continues to have the largest number of IDPs in the world, even without exact numbers from half the country.) I was part of the team in a village of 1,000 residents, where roughly 30% were orphaned children whose parents had been killed in the war or died without medical care.
Our team was horrified when we learned that lions actively hunted in this area, killing children daily without protection of shelter or family. As a result, protecting the most defenseless residents became our immediate concern. Elsewhere in Africa, top-down Western aid builds orphanages in such situations, but I knew the Western and African concepts of family and “orphans” are different. There are already so many orphanages that the website orphanage.org lists dozens to solicit donations and encourages readers to check back because “orphanages are being added frequently.” You can even be an orphanage tourist for a week!
Ubuntu is an African concept of interconnectedness, of a collective belonging and understanding of interdependence. In different regions of Africa it has varying rights and responsibilities, and I was unsure of the application in this remote place. I asked the village’s women’s council about who was caring for the orphans and they admitted there wasn’t enough food to share. We went on to discuss food security and our NGO’s role in helping the IDPs resettle. We promised food assistance for their transition and planting resources and asked if they would they take these children into their homes as part of their family, since the orphans were from their tribe. They readily agreed it was their responsibility, as these were the children of extended family members. With this agreement in place, within weeks all but five children were connected to extended family members that cared for them as their own children.
True to our word, our NGO brought in emergency food supplies, then seeds and agricultural tools. A year later, insufficient rain created a temporary food crisis and we again brought in supplemental food supplies to help them get through. Our commitment was to the village, that they survive the transition to self-sufficiency.
Within a short time of our first visit, there were no more lion attacks on helpless children and we never heard another word about the hundreds of orphaned children. The village has grown to about 15,000 people and today they grow the food they need. By making a commitment to this village, we helped the village to take care of its own challenge. And there was no expensive, Western-style orphanage institutionalizing them until adulthood and no long-term expense. Furthermore, the culture of this village has remained essentially undisturbed. The village leaders can be proud that these children have become part of their ubuntu connections and been raised by relatives speaking their own language and taught the ways of their people.
When aid solutions are empowering and consistent with local values and culture, in my experience they are less expensive, sustainable and more respectful. Interventions can help people get back on their feet to find their own way, not one imposed by aid organizations with agendas or expensive, delaying overhead. Let’s stop pretending that aid work can be ignorant of local values and culture; this is an essential part of constructive aid work.
12 Comments
That’s a great anecdote. I’ve heard about international orphanages in regards to volunteerism and donations, and this is a great story that addresses a good number of issues.
I agree with your concluding statement regarding consistency within culture, values, and practices, but I have a question about your work: how long were you there learning about the customs and history of the region or researching elsewhere before you felt you could work with this organization? and how long had this team been in the village, or how long had they been working like this? With all the discussion going around about experienced volunteers and specialists, I’m interested in how your experience and the team’s experience developed in this process.
After all of that, I look back and wonder why not a single individual in that community could not make the same connection your NGO could make? The only part I saw as necessary is that you could go to the UN to set up the food distribution. I doubt the locals would have had the clout you had in requesting that.
You don’t mention how they were transitioned from food handouts to self-sustainability. Who did that? How was it done? How long did the transition take?
Yes I’m unconvinced too; this reads like a puff piece.
(1) Who’s “pretending that aid work can be ignorant of local values and culture”?
(2) Has anyone looked at what happened to these kids down the line?
(3) If the people “readily agreed it was their responsibility” then why didn’t they do it beforehand?
(4) How much did this all cost?
Thanks, this is a great piece. I have been building a relationship with an orphanage and really care about the kids. Yet I’ve also been educating myself (with some gentle nudges from friends) about better alternatives. I think it’s an important task to help people understand there are other and better options, and most “orphans” have family they could go to. In fact, the definition of “orphan” in many countries is “one or more parent has died.” And, as you must know, many kids are brought to orphanages by their parents in hope of giving them a better life, but life with family (even in bad conditions) is better than growing up in an institution. As with many causes you champion, once again you are siding against the forces of powerful marketing campaigns who have cute faces and aren’t afraid to use them, and once again I’m cheering for you to succeed in raising awareness of hard truths.
I just read the earlier comments. I agree more details would be in order, and expect you have them ready to share. I stand by my support of your intent here.
@Sterling, et al,
The skills and experience of the assessment team were not that different from many who work for aid agencies and other NGOs. Cultural sensitivity is not unique to this situation or this team. This intervention was an opportunity to help one village in a way that kept them from becoming dependent on long-term aid (an orphanage) and made them proud to be taking care of their own children. I wrote this to encourage other practitioners and academics that creative solutions can work – this is just one example.
In my experience, aid solutions often imply there are unlimited resources. This NGO was able to help the whole village get back on its feet, not just these children, by encouraging a village-based solution. This NGO monitored the situation and continues to be involved in helping people of South Sudan in some atypical/out-of-the-box ways.
Here’s some more on Diane Bennett respecting local values – and Bible distributions: http://www.servantsheartrelief.org/EveningText.html
This post reminded of this article on whether funding orphanages creates orphans (http://informationincontext.typepad.com/good_intentions_are_not_e/2009/06/does-funding-orphanages-create-ophans-.html), and the effort to keep the children in their community is sensible.
Like the others, I would love to know: Were the food shortages the only reason that the orphaned kids were not looked after? And how did this transition to independence from donor support happen? Did they just have a year or two of good rains, or has there been a more structural transformation?
Ben, I’m sure the Bennetts will fully respect any animist practices and beliefs and would never try foist their own and imported Christian beliefs on any animists or muslims, and give those people the same support!
Ben – Thanks. Funny how the truth is often stranger than fiction:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/46226
@Adam Jackson
It’s my experience that aid work often comes in with prescribed solutions regardless of local values and culture. Orphanages are just one example.
To address your next question, to our knowledge, these children continue to live with these families and many attend our school in this village. They have been totally absorbed into the fabric of this community. I met a girl five years later that had benefited from our intervention and she was going to school and becoming a productive member of her village. She was willing to say she was an orphan, but she does not feel like a victim or separate from her community.
This village had been destroyed by the civil war; people were living in the woods worrying about survival and didn’t realize there were so many orphans. This team came as they were rebuilding the community and timing was propitious to learn of the extent of the problem and to address it in a way that worked for everyone.
In general we work with village leaders to create community-based solutions. This area has Christian, animist and muslim believers and we distribute relief goods, provide medical care and basic schooling to all, regardless.
To our costs, it did not cost us anything more than what we would have done anyway – help them grow food and get them emergency rations to tide them over until crops were ready for harvest.
Dear Mrs Bennett,
I really hope you never ever have to come and help my culture. Because according to my local values, it is highly offending to talk about yourself in the 3rd person, as you do on your website.
And on-topic, blowing your own trumpet, well, according to my local values, stinks like horse shit.
But Mrs Bennett, maybe it is time for a reality check: Every NGO can and will proudly publish such “success” stories, if invited.
Even the world bank boasts that India and China are lifting millions out of poverty because of their loans & advice.
Therefore Mr. Easterly,
are we now going to get self-glorifying posts by (non-exhaustive list) :
- Unicef
- Save the children
- Oxfam
- Usaid
- President Mugabe
- …
I am sure all of the above can convincingly argue how well they are fighting poverty, while respecting local values.