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OH man this infuriates me. I’ve spent time volunteering in two different locations (Bolivia and Haiti), both were great experiences for me, but I only feel tha

by bargl 11y ago

OH man this infuriates me. I’ve spent time volunteering in two different locations (Bolivia and Haiti), both were great experiences for me, but I only feel that my time in Bolivia really benifited the people there in the long term. I spent about three months on the ground in Haiti after the earthquake. I wasn’t a first responder or anything, I actually arrived 6 months after the earthquake, so most of the emergency relief was over. I left during some unrest and was told not to return by the nuns there for fear of my safety. I regret not going back to this day. After that I went to Bolivia for 6 months. There I was a teacher and mentor to some of the more rural communities. Again, both were great experiences but we actually helped in the Bolivian community in a long term manner, where as in Haiti, we didn’t really help anyone, we just floundered like fish out of water. Which is what I think most people were doing. The reason I think this was the case for most NGOs in Haiti is because of the bias that is expressed in the article. NGOs come to work on the Haitians not with them. I was there to sell them a bill of goos, and not to ask what they needed. This was made very clear by one example. I was shown a “groundbreaking” new technology, where you could assemble a house from simple materials made of compressed wood that would stand up to hurricane force winds. The issue is that it wasn’t something the Haitian people wanted to use. When we showed it to them they seemed baffled as to how this was a permanent house. They all aspire to the same things we do, that is a solid 4 walls and roof over our heads, not just temporary shelter. The shelters ended up being a dead end project that floundered because we couldn’t get Haitian support, and I left feeling that I had been more a burden then a support for my friends in Haiti. In contrast my time in Bolivia was focused and intense. We were working for the nuns in Bolivia, not on them. The goal of this project was to build up a school on the shoulders of American volunteers and then leave the community when it was stable, and when the nuns said they didn’t need us anymore. In the beginning of the program the volunteers taught core math and science courses and they were integral to the operation of the school. 10 years later (during my time there) we taught basic English classes and visited the neighboring communities. It was rewarding work, but we could see that soon they would no longer need volunteers. After about 20 years of volunteers in this community the school was self-sufficient and the nuns let us know that they didn’t need any more volunteers. The main difference between our success in Bolivia and relative failure in Haiti was customer buy in. In Haiti we were working on the people not for them. The trust (as stated in the article) wasn’t there and the Haitian people were not leading the effort. This led to some very beautifully created architecture that the people didn’t want to live in. In my opinion the goal of any NGO should be to build self-sufficiency in a community so that it can stand on its own. The Red Cross didn’t do that. There are organizations out there that have (even in Haiti) if you’d like some references on how to donate to a meaningful charity read Mountains Beyond Mountains and help Paul Farmer out, or just donate to Partners in Health. Note: I have no affiliation with him or his foundation. I do have more anecdotes, but I’ll leave it at that for now. Edit: Re-Wrote the whole thing. Thank you nate_meurer, I hope this is clearer, if not please let me know where I can clean it up and I’ll try to get it right. The original in comments in my response to nate_meurer.

chkuendig 11y ago
I wrote a longer comment below. I think one of the reasons for the lack of cooperation with the local were completely exaggerated fears of civil unrest and diseases. See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/magazine/how-not-to-report-on-an-earthquake.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/magazine/how-not-to-report... These myths come with consequences. Rash decisions made in the heady days after a disaster, when everyone is committed to the response and the money is flush, are fiendishly difficult to undo. In Haiti, fears of insecurity led to a militarized response that concentrated too much assistance in certain parts of the capital, poured money into defense and security measures when it would have been better spent elsewhere and often treated survivors as threats rather than people to be helped. The Haiti responders’ desperation to push food into the quake zone helped increase the size of the post-quake displacement camps as people gravitated to the handouts. [..] And the ensuing fixation on those camps as potential sources of infection meant responders were looking in the wrong place when, nine months later, cholera was seemingly introduced into Haiti by a contingent of United Nations peacekeepers — from Nepal, coincidentally — starting an epidemic that has killed more than 8,900 people and has yet to be fully contained. [..] The sum of all this was an uncoordinated and improvisational relief effort that failed to work with Haitian institutions and people, or to strengthen the Haitian government to face future calamities. Those missed opportunities continue to haunt the country.
nate_meurer 11y ago
I can tell you have rich experience and strong opinions, but your writing is so unclear I can't understand what you're saying. I have a vague idea which of your experiences (Haiti or Bolivia) was positive and which was negative, but the reasons are unclear. Would you be able to clarify a bit?
- bargl 11y ago
  Thank you, I'm going to re-write this. I was angry when I wrote the first draft and just posted it. I've decided to post the original here just so that people can read what was originally there, even though it wasn't very good. Original Below OH man this infuriates me. I spent about three months on the ground in Haiti about 6 months after the earthquake. Ii was both in Port Au Prince and Cap Hatien. I am no expert on how to make donations and aid help in a long term manner, but I have seen two different attempts at this. 1) My time before Haiti and in Haiti, American's were telling Haitians how to fix things. They were thinking without consulting their "customers" and doing so in a very authoritarian way. I saw one project, where they came up with compressed board houses that they could live in permanently. When we showed the result of 100s of man hours to the Haitians you know what they said? We want a permanent house. 2) In Bolivia the nuns were given American teachers to teach the students instead of requiring them to pay Bolivians. But the GOAL of this program was to remove the teachers over time. My sister was at the same site about 2 or 3 years after inception. She taught Biology, Math, Science, Etc to all of the High school age kids. There were 4-6 volunteers. When I went there 10 years later we were teaching middle school kids English and traveling out to the boonies (because Okinawa Numero Uno was no longer the boonies) to teach, and play with the kids to give the parents a break. 2 years later they shut down the program. It was the sadest and happiest moment I've had regarding missionary work. They no longer needed American teachers. This community had grown with a culture of calling white people "Teacher" even the adults and now there were no more Teachers going there. What was the difference? Customer buy in. Just like a successful company, in Bolivia they worked for and with the nuns(and people), in Haiti they worked on the nuns and people. It appears that the red cross did the same thing by not hiring Haitians to higher positions of power and giving them control over their own lives. If you read Mountains Beyond Mountains, written about Paul Farmer you'll see someone who went and worked with his customers to an extreme level.

by bargl 11y ago

chkuendig 11y ago

I wrote a longer comment below. I think one of the reasons for the lack of cooperation with the local were completely exaggerated fears of civil unrest and diseases. See http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/magazine/how-not-to-report-on-an-earthquake.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/magazine/how-not-to-report... These myths come with consequences. Rash decisions made in the heady days after a disaster, when everyone is committed to the response and the money is flush, are fiendishly difficult to undo. In Haiti, fears of insecurity led to a militarized response that concentrated too much assistance in certain parts of the capital, poured money into defense and security measures when it would have been better spent elsewhere and often treated survivors as threats rather than people to be helped. The Haiti responders’ desperation to push food into the quake zone helped increase the size of the post-quake displacement camps as people gravitated to the handouts. [..] And the ensuing fixation on those camps as potential sources of infection meant responders were looking in the wrong place when, nine months later, cholera was seemingly introduced into Haiti by a contingent of United Nations peacekeepers — from Nepal, coincidentally — starting an epidemic that has killed more than 8,900 people and has yet to be fully contained. [..] The sum of all this was an uncoordinated and improvisational relief effort that failed to work with Haitian institutions and people, or to strengthen the Haitian government to face future calamities. Those missed opportunities continue to haunt the country.

nate_meurer 11y ago

I can tell you have rich experience and strong opinions, but your writing is so unclear I can't understand what you're saying. I have a vague idea which of your experiences (Haiti or Bolivia) was positive and which was negative, but the reasons are unclear. Would you be able to clarify a bit?

bargl 11y ago
Thank you, I'm going to re-write this. I was angry when I wrote the first draft and just posted it. I've decided to post the original here just so that people can read what was originally there, even though it wasn't very good. Original Below OH man this infuriates me. I spent about three months on the ground in Haiti about 6 months after the earthquake. Ii was both in Port Au Prince and Cap Hatien. I am no expert on how to make donations and aid help in a long term manner, but I have seen two different attempts at this. 1) My time before Haiti and in Haiti, American's were telling Haitians how to fix things. They were thinking without consulting their "customers" and doing so in a very authoritarian way. I saw one project, where they came up with compressed board houses that they could live in permanently. When we showed the result of 100s of man hours to the Haitians you know what they said? We want a permanent house. 2) In Bolivia the nuns were given American teachers to teach the students instead of requiring them to pay Bolivians. But the GOAL of this program was to remove the teachers over time. My sister was at the same site about 2 or 3 years after inception. She taught Biology, Math, Science, Etc to all of the High school age kids. There were 4-6 volunteers. When I went there 10 years later we were teaching middle school kids English and traveling out to the boonies (because Okinawa Numero Uno was no longer the boonies) to teach, and play with the kids to give the parents a break. 2 years later they shut down the program. It was the sadest and happiest moment I've had regarding missionary work. They no longer needed American teachers. This community had grown with a culture of calling white people "Teacher" even the adults and now there were no more Teachers going there. What was the difference? Customer buy in. Just like a successful company, in Bolivia they worked for and with the nuns(and people), in Haiti they worked on the nuns and people. It appears that the red cross did the same thing by not hiring Haitians to higher positions of power and giving them control over their own lives. If you read Mountains Beyond Mountains, written about Paul Farmer you'll see someone who went and worked with his customers to an extreme level.