written Thursday, 31 May 2007
One of the things I like about Peace Corps, in comparison with a lot of other development organizations, is that it focuses on helping communities to do things for themselves, rather than coming in with piles of money and doing things for the community.
So I told myself when I came here that I want to stick with that model and not be giving people handouts, even though I am a "rich toubab", because handouts are not a sustainable solution to problems here (and also because my Peace Corps allowance isn't big enough to allow me to do very much other than cover my basic expenses, which is what it is intended for).
But theory has collided with reality, as I found out that one of the people here who has been very friendly and helpful to me couldn't afford to send his wife to her pre-natal checkup or to buy whatever medicines the nurse prescribes her. So I gave him the money, which only amounted to a few dollars.
It may not be solving the problem in the long term, and I really think people should consider whether they can afford to feed their kids and provide them basic medical care before they decide to start having kids, but I couldn't let the mom (who has also been very nice to me) and her baby go without something they needed just because it wasn't a "sustainable solution", when it was so easy for me to help out.
I hope I did the right thing.
1 comments:
Here's another conundrum: What if a neighbor is clearly, obviously dying of malaria, can't afford or can't get to anti-malarial treatment, and you have a big supply of anti-malarial pills in your med kit? Do you (as Peace Corps requires) refuse that person medicine on grounds that you don't really know it's malaria, or that the pills might cause a bad reaction. Since you're not a doctor, you can't really be sure. But on the other hand you might actually save a life? Me, I'd lean toward the saving of a life. If Peace Corps administratively separated me for that, I could live with it.
By the way, when you say that people shouldn't have more kids than they can afford, you're maybe over-simplifying something that's very complicated. In fact, after about age 6, kids are a net economic advantage to the family in most of the rural communities Peace Corps serves (primarily as farm and household labor). Having lots of kids may not be good for a country, but it can be a good strategy for an individual family in the long run.
Anyway, thanks for the interesting discussion.
David
RPCV
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