I just spent a week with the Save the Children team in the middle of Mozambique looking at a large project they've implemented here. I won't go into too many details about it, but it basically aims to educate children and communities about health care and sanitation, while also providing transport for mobile clinics that give out vaccinations to under-5s.
It's a great project with a lot of potential, but what I found most fascinating and devastating is what the starting point is.
The communities that we visited had to be taught to build a latrine and use a toilet. They had never used a toilet before, not even a hole-in-the-ground toilet. They'd previously just done their business anywhere in the bush. This is obviously hugely unhygenic for both the area in which they live, as well as their water supply. They also had to be taught to wash their hands after going to the toilet, and before eating.
The ways in which STC tries to improve their sanitation is by training members of the community (volunteers) who then go from house to house educating the families. The project also exists in schools where teachers are trained and then teach the children. The methods the teachers use are fantastic and tend to be centered around theatre and song. A typical song would have lyrics like: 'If you need to go to the bathroom// You have to use the toilet// And don't forget to wash your hands afterwards// Or you'll get diarrhea'. I saw two plays that the children put devised and put on, basically showing a family who didn't wash their hands or use the latrine becoming ill, going to the witch doctor, not being cured and eventually dying (which happens with alarming frequency). Then they show what the family should have done - used the latrine, washed their hands, gone to the hospital if they became ill.
It was inspiring and very moving, but also devastating that this is the level of hygene that needs to be taught.
I learned an extrodinary amount about health, sanitation and development in those fields, most of which I'm still processing. It's amazing to consider the real scale of poverty - there is no quick fix. This is, to most, quite obvious. But there isn't even one way, two ways, five ways in which to tackle the problem. For instance, they won't be able to bring themselves out of poverty unless there is industry and/or business; they can't have business unless they have an education; they can't have education unless the opportunity cost of going to school is less than the opportunity cost of staying at home (opp costs e.g.s - being too far from the school, having to help on the farm at home, having to sell things for money, having to take care of sick relatives); they can't have an education unless they're healthy; they can't be healthy unless they have sanitation, vaccines, mosquito nets, soap etc; they can't buy those things because they don't have the money or knowledge. And very little of this can happen unless the infrastructure (especially the roads) are reasonably accessible.
And then, the problem is further complicated - what's the point of an education up until Grade 7 (say, 13-year-old equivalent in the West) if they can't continue onto secondary school because it's 50km away with no sleeping facilities? What's the point of having the whole high school education if they can't find work (especially rurally)? What's the point of learning how to read, if there is nothing to read? How effective is the distribution of mosquito nets, vaccines and medicine, when the HIV rate is 20-30% in some areas? How effective is the treatment of pre-natal HIV drugs (which decrease the susceptability of the unborn to HIV from 30% to 10%) when pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea are actually the biggest killers? What's the point of it all, when the rains fall at the wrong time, wiping out hundreds of square miles of crop, leading to famine, or when the river floods (as it does every 3 years) destroying everything and leading to the outbreak of cholera?
And then there's a whole other host of problems that arise from increased development. For instance, the infant mortality rate (death of under-5s) in this area was 30% ten years ago. So families would have five, six, seven children so that some would survive and take care of the parents when they became older. But now that the infant mortality rate has decreased, in some areas, to 15%, families that in the past would have only had 4 children, now have 7. How do you feed all those children? How do you house your family? If a whole community experiences this wonderful decrease in infant death, how does a school built for 300 students with 3 teachers, now take on 500 students with exactly the same resources? Or if the community has been taught to go to the hospital if the child is sick, walking the 16km to the hospital, only to find that they've run out of medicine. On the economic side of things, what's the point of attracting an industry to locate in the area if there are no local people with the education and/or experience to work as anything but labor? In Mozambique, for instance, industries are reluctant to come here because the education level is so low (so they can rarely hire locals) and there is a law stipulating that for every 1 foreigner that works for a company, there have to be 12 mozabicans. This makes it very difficult for foreign businesses.
And then there's the question of what is 'development' anyway? These people are happier than ANY community I've seen in 'developed' countries. Compare the people at the local markets here, and at WalMart in the US and try to decide who's better off. The communities look genuinely happy - wealth is measured in relationships, not in material possessions. Who am I to say 'development is needed, here's what it is, here's how you do it'?
I say this only to highlight the enormity of the problem, not with the actual thought that 'there is no point'. While devastating, it's invigorating and hugely important. It stresses to me the multi-lateral, well planned (and financed) collaborative initiatives that are needed, with very special attention to the needs, wants and expectations of each respective community. I remember reading in a psychology book that happiness and satisfaction is often the result of expectations being met; that sadness and depression is the result of reality falling short of expectations.
There are certain things that I am confident can fit into the definition of 'development' no matter who or where you are. Health is the main one. Just because death and illness are all the more present in 3rd world countries than elsewhere, doesn't make them any less hurtful or tragic. I think the health initiatives of treating people who can't treat themselves, and educating people about what they can do themselves (especially in terms of prevention) are among the most important.
Next on my list would be education. Though I raised the 'what's the point' questions above, I believe that if a whole societ raises their level of education, their lives will improve, not the least of which because an educated population is in a better position to help themselves, rather than receive aid. This is a difficult objective to tackle, and through my months working (and the months to come) I am developing my own thoughts and theories on what the best ways are to approach this.
The last aspect I'll mention on 'development' is the economic element, which I would describe as the existence of choice in what you do with your life. The absence of economic independence, either from aid or from subsistence farming, means that choices are extremely limited, or non existent. This again (even more so) is a difficult objective to tackle and has umpteen different potential 'solutions', from local micro-finance initiatives, to community empowerment through collective farming, to the location of industry and/or foreign investment.
Wow. I just kind of went off on one, huh?
I'll end on a funny little story.
I like to make jokes. Most of youhate know this. In Ecuador, when I was learning spanish, I'd make jokes in class, in spanish. After I'd make a joke, which often wouldn't land (BECAUSE OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER, NOT BECAUSE OF ANY LACK OF FUNNINESS) I'd have to say 'I am joking', which I thought was 'Estoy chistoso'. So, very very often, I'd say 'Estoy chistoso, estoy chistoso', thinking it clarified the issue.
I learned towards the end of my month of learning that 'estoy chistoso' means 'I am funny'.
I'd been saying bad jokes in spanish, followed by 'I'm sorry, I am funny, I am very funny'. I'm such a prick.
(I've since learnt, and used frequently, the correct phrase 'estoy bromiendo').
(Also, I'm now getting the vague feeling that I've told this story before on the blog...)
Estoy chisotoso!
Thanks for reading!
It's a great project with a lot of potential, but what I found most fascinating and devastating is what the starting point is.
The communities that we visited had to be taught to build a latrine and use a toilet. They had never used a toilet before, not even a hole-in-the-ground toilet. They'd previously just done their business anywhere in the bush. This is obviously hugely unhygenic for both the area in which they live, as well as their water supply. They also had to be taught to wash their hands after going to the toilet, and before eating.
The ways in which STC tries to improve their sanitation is by training members of the community (volunteers) who then go from house to house educating the families. The project also exists in schools where teachers are trained and then teach the children. The methods the teachers use are fantastic and tend to be centered around theatre and song. A typical song would have lyrics like: 'If you need to go to the bathroom// You have to use the toilet// And don't forget to wash your hands afterwards// Or you'll get diarrhea'. I saw two plays that the children put devised and put on, basically showing a family who didn't wash their hands or use the latrine becoming ill, going to the witch doctor, not being cured and eventually dying (which happens with alarming frequency). Then they show what the family should have done - used the latrine, washed their hands, gone to the hospital if they became ill.
It was inspiring and very moving, but also devastating that this is the level of hygene that needs to be taught.
I learned an extrodinary amount about health, sanitation and development in those fields, most of which I'm still processing. It's amazing to consider the real scale of poverty - there is no quick fix. This is, to most, quite obvious. But there isn't even one way, two ways, five ways in which to tackle the problem. For instance, they won't be able to bring themselves out of poverty unless there is industry and/or business; they can't have business unless they have an education; they can't have education unless the opportunity cost of going to school is less than the opportunity cost of staying at home (opp costs e.g.s - being too far from the school, having to help on the farm at home, having to sell things for money, having to take care of sick relatives); they can't have an education unless they're healthy; they can't be healthy unless they have sanitation, vaccines, mosquito nets, soap etc; they can't buy those things because they don't have the money or knowledge. And very little of this can happen unless the infrastructure (especially the roads) are reasonably accessible.
And then, the problem is further complicated - what's the point of an education up until Grade 7 (say, 13-year-old equivalent in the West) if they can't continue onto secondary school because it's 50km away with no sleeping facilities? What's the point of having the whole high school education if they can't find work (especially rurally)? What's the point of learning how to read, if there is nothing to read? How effective is the distribution of mosquito nets, vaccines and medicine, when the HIV rate is 20-30% in some areas? How effective is the treatment of pre-natal HIV drugs (which decrease the susceptability of the unborn to HIV from 30% to 10%) when pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea are actually the biggest killers? What's the point of it all, when the rains fall at the wrong time, wiping out hundreds of square miles of crop, leading to famine, or when the river floods (as it does every 3 years) destroying everything and leading to the outbreak of cholera?
And then there's a whole other host of problems that arise from increased development. For instance, the infant mortality rate (death of under-5s) in this area was 30% ten years ago. So families would have five, six, seven children so that some would survive and take care of the parents when they became older. But now that the infant mortality rate has decreased, in some areas, to 15%, families that in the past would have only had 4 children, now have 7. How do you feed all those children? How do you house your family? If a whole community experiences this wonderful decrease in infant death, how does a school built for 300 students with 3 teachers, now take on 500 students with exactly the same resources? Or if the community has been taught to go to the hospital if the child is sick, walking the 16km to the hospital, only to find that they've run out of medicine. On the economic side of things, what's the point of attracting an industry to locate in the area if there are no local people with the education and/or experience to work as anything but labor? In Mozambique, for instance, industries are reluctant to come here because the education level is so low (so they can rarely hire locals) and there is a law stipulating that for every 1 foreigner that works for a company, there have to be 12 mozabicans. This makes it very difficult for foreign businesses.
And then there's the question of what is 'development' anyway? These people are happier than ANY community I've seen in 'developed' countries. Compare the people at the local markets here, and at WalMart in the US and try to decide who's better off. The communities look genuinely happy - wealth is measured in relationships, not in material possessions. Who am I to say 'development is needed, here's what it is, here's how you do it'?
I say this only to highlight the enormity of the problem, not with the actual thought that 'there is no point'. While devastating, it's invigorating and hugely important. It stresses to me the multi-lateral, well planned (and financed) collaborative initiatives that are needed, with very special attention to the needs, wants and expectations of each respective community. I remember reading in a psychology book that happiness and satisfaction is often the result of expectations being met; that sadness and depression is the result of reality falling short of expectations.
There are certain things that I am confident can fit into the definition of 'development' no matter who or where you are. Health is the main one. Just because death and illness are all the more present in 3rd world countries than elsewhere, doesn't make them any less hurtful or tragic. I think the health initiatives of treating people who can't treat themselves, and educating people about what they can do themselves (especially in terms of prevention) are among the most important.
Next on my list would be education. Though I raised the 'what's the point' questions above, I believe that if a whole societ raises their level of education, their lives will improve, not the least of which because an educated population is in a better position to help themselves, rather than receive aid. This is a difficult objective to tackle, and through my months working (and the months to come) I am developing my own thoughts and theories on what the best ways are to approach this.
The last aspect I'll mention on 'development' is the economic element, which I would describe as the existence of choice in what you do with your life. The absence of economic independence, either from aid or from subsistence farming, means that choices are extremely limited, or non existent. This again (even more so) is a difficult objective to tackle and has umpteen different potential 'solutions', from local micro-finance initiatives, to community empowerment through collective farming, to the location of industry and/or foreign investment.
Wow. I just kind of went off on one, huh?
I'll end on a funny little story.
I like to make jokes. Most of you
I learned towards the end of my month of learning that 'estoy chistoso' means 'I am funny'.
I'd been saying bad jokes in spanish, followed by 'I'm sorry, I am funny, I am very funny'. I'm such a prick.
(I've since learnt, and used frequently, the correct phrase 'estoy bromiendo').
(Also, I'm now getting the vague feeling that I've told this story before on the blog...)
Estoy chisotoso!
Thanks for reading!
Probably my favorite post so far - you are really seeing some amazing things out there and I can't wait to sit down with you and pick your brain about it!
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