Is This the Way to Help Malawi?

Resilience and strength of Africa and its people-TAN :The Afro News

The headline in our local community paper caught my eye. “Rotarians join church members for humanitarian trip to Malawi” Reading on I learned that eight members of the two groups had left on a two-week house-building trip to Malawi in support of Lifeline Malawi, a Canadian humanitarian medical relief and development organization that had already set up medical clinics in “outlying areas, rural villages, where there’s absolutely no access to health care at all,” according to one of the participants. “The poverty there is just amazing,” she said, noting it’s the fifth poorest country in the world.
Who would argue with working to provide health care in remote regions of a nation with high poverty? Not I. But how the help was to be offered, that disturbed me. “We’re going to build a home while we’re down there for a medical worker…What happens now is they have a hard time attracting trained medical personnel because once you have an education, you don’t want to live in a mud hut in a village. Our team is going to build a proper home.” The house will be made of brick and will have solar lighting, she noted.
Visions of noble pith helmeted suburbanites followed by their African bearers trekking across the veldt to save Africans from themselves flashed across my imagination. Did they believe that Africans, whose ancestors built the pyramids, were so lacking in construction skills that eight middle class city dwellers needed to show them how to slap a brick house together in two weeks? Having lived in Ghana I bridle at any suggestion that Africans desperately need foreign expertise to live in their own land. Africa’s farmers, builders, business people and other professionals are the world’s experts at living in Africa. They survive, even thrive, where outsiders given the same resources would perish.
Ah, resources, (read “money”), there’s the rub. If I were the President of Malawi I’d say, “Please send money so our people can be hired to build the housing required. We’d love to see your smiling faces as tourists who spend money in our hospitality industry but not as day labourers, thank you very much.”
My letter to the editor expressing such thoughts was printed with an editor’s note reading, “Story should have included mention that locals will also be hired to help.” Okay, cancel the pith helmets and bearers but the question remains, “How can generous people best help others in need?” First, buy goods and services locally rather than importing them. If there is a local shortage identified by the host country offer to contribute donated money to help establish local suppliers and training programs for service providers. Second, offer help in a way which respects the dignity of those being helped. The story of Ruth in Hebrew Scripture is a case in point. Observant Hebrews were commanded not to harvest all of their crop but to leave gleanings for the poor. Wealthy landowner Boaz instructs his harvest crew to let Ruth glean even among the standing sheaves and to pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles. Ruth is helped in getting food for herself and her mother-in-law in a way that honours her self respect and gives her meaningful work.
I hope that the eight Lifeline Malawi supporters have returned home after the experience of a lifetime filled with the satisfaction of an important job well done and a deep appreciation of the beauty, resilience and strength of Africa and its people. Let’s all dedicate ourselves to doing the best we can wherever we can and whenever we can to meet the financial and human needs of the world.
jacktoronto@telus.net