Well I've just returned home from what was a really good week back in Colombo, where we held a Psycho-Social Support (PSS) Workshop. After 2 years of Community trauma counselling there, the local team saw the need to continue supporting communities emotionally beyond the trauma of the tsunami but in general life issues.
There are so many reflections i could give but the thing i wanted to write about is an eternal question within development circles that came up a lot this week...On our first day we asked the group, what are your hopes for your community? And the response that hit me was.. "to change the receiving mentality of our community"...The sheer amount of money and material aid poured into the tsunami response has changed communities, and i would argue not in a healthy or sustainable way.
On the other hand, during our workshop we spent a couple of afternoons in IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps just outside Colombo that had been hit by the tsunami and it must have been one of the poorest tsunami communities i've visited. My heart was really broken by the stories of a number of the families we chatted to. A young lady our group visited really impacted upon all of us. Her husband had recently gone to prison and now she lives in the camp with her son who is 3 and she is 5 months pregnant. She told of how her husband had never been in trouble before the tsunami but he had started hanging out with people that were not good for him since. She shared of how her son cries for food and the support of her neighbours who are now helping feed them. Compared to areas in the south i've been to previously such as Hikadduwa, this area seems to have recieved very little assistance at all in the last 2 1/2 years. The camp was at the back of a buddist temple and the houses were very simple and life there still very temporary.
So where do we find the balance between material assistance and remaining true to the belief that these communities do have capacity within to collectively change thier situation? Whilst the communities maybe not able to change the hard employment situation that they face, and the material aid, liveihood programs, mobile clinics that other areas have would all provide huge benefits to that community, there is also a lot they themselves can do to improve life there in the camp...But the later often takes a bit more time, and time journeying with people, to show them that they can infact bring about change themselves and hope for a better future.
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3 comments:
hey thats cool... its a tough question too...
it is so important to build peoples knowledge of their own capactiy but sometimes the help is just really needed in a material way...
Maizie, You're so right. I mean the Army was build on the foundations of giving that helping hand. But we have to make sure that our ministry doesn't become about simply giving things. Its about changing lives.
The exciting thing was seeing the volunteers who do the weekly visits to thier communities realise that that the programs that are existing more around material aid are simply entry points into the community and they should be teaming up with the other projects going on in some way.
I think thier relationships can play a key part in helping the community take ownership of the underlying issues and therefore be a key component to successful community ownership of projects and community driven change.
If you think about the church models and how they express mission here in Melbourne...is it just me or have we almost got 2 extremes going, ones about giving lots to as many as possible, and ones determined to simply focus on the relationships.....?? Too harsh a distinction?
yaha, it really is all so interlinked, it does seem to be out there that the only way to go is to either one or the other when really if we want to peoples lives to change for the long term then we have to strive for that fine balance between meeting needs materially relationally and spiritually.? I mean I think the thing is that obviously that is really hard to do but I dont think its impossible. Its like the vehicle for change actually happening is all these things being linked not constantly boxed and seperated?
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