Heads Together
White Man's Burden -by William Easterly
(Quote)
"There are big problems globally:-1 billion adults are illiterate (In Haiti) The present government seems to consider poverty and ignorance of the people as the best safeguards of the security and permanence of their own power. The illiteracy and powerlessness of the majority of the population had condemed Haiti to underdevelopment long before the Duvaliers and IMF (International Monetary Fund) arrived and it still does today.
The difficulty of foreign aid agencies is that a bureaucrat is controlling the thermostat of the distant blanket of some poor person who has little ability to communicate whether she is too hot or too cold. The bureaucratic planners get little or no feed back from the poor so the foreign aid recipients get some things they never wanted and don't get things they urgently need. Searchers (NGO's) can do better by getting out in the field, talking to the poor designing feedback mechanisms such as sruveys and experimenting with what works in local conditions"
How thankful I am that even before we read Easterly's must read manual for any foreign aid worker, we were led to "the ground" in Haiti to listen to what the Haitian women said they wanted and formuladed our plan based on their input to execute it. That is how our literacy program was birthed and has been nurtured to this day. By listening and respectfully partnering.
Today, Sunday, we spent the afternoon and better part of the evening in dialogue with our Haitian staff. We are all in agreement our program is in a place where it needs some polishing and additions. Our staff never lets a meeting go without commenting on how different our group is because we (the foreigner) sit with them in a circle with no one higher or lower and plan together. What a joy it is to always receive this compliment. What a travesty this is what sets us apart and makes our approach in Haiti unique.
This year we will move even more as a unit. We are striving to eliminate any kind of hierarchy while maintaining respect for each person's job as equally important including what PWP does in Canada. Haiti is still very much a tribal society where people expect one person to hold all the cards and dictate what they can do -from the family level where the man of the house is in a position over all other members right through community organizations, churches, political groups and on up to the top Presidential position. Even though promoting equality doesn't seem like rocket science, it is monumentally challenging to achieve here. Petrified barriers that have been ingrained for centuries can seem as permanently pounded into place as a Baobab tree.
Yesterday, we all agreed to make it a prime purpose of our organization to engender freedom of speech, especially for the women who are part of the PWP literacy program. Yes, we are here to provide the practical aspects of learning to read, write and perform basic mathematics. However, even with that skill, much needs to be done to encourage people to have the confidence to start hacking away at those old Baobab roots of oppression. This is what the methodology called "Reflection Circles", that all our teachers incorporate within their classes is poised to do. We are meeting tomorrow to brainstorm on how to use this in an eve greater capacity with our students.
Tet Ansanm, nou kapab -Heads together, we can do it.
Posted on Thursday, August 26 2010, at 9:47 AM.