Afterthought on the "Pitfalls of Aid in Africa" article

To present personal, up-close situations of the effect of aid giving I attempted to address in a previous bog, I want to talk about two separate scenarios: the construction project and my women’s assoc. Going back to the project, I want to kind of explain the dialogue that took place between me and community members to get the Partnership proposal underway The mayor came to me for help financing the kindergarten school. I immediately took it upon myself to fill out a proposal of some sort-actually two: as you may know, the Peace Corps Partnership Proposal which is currently seeking donations online, and the Small Project Assistance Proposal which is money given to Peace Corps by USAID for related projects. I am sad to admit this but it did not occur to me to try and work within the community first for ALL related costs. However, when I did realize this, I tried to backpedal and do just that. I asked teachers and directors from nearby schools, when they need funding for something like desks, books, toilettes, walls, ect…, what do they do. All of them had the same response: “We search for a NGO to fund it.” I asked them why and why wouldn’t they do any of the following: take money from school budgets, hold parent-teacher conferences, talk with those on the hierarchy ladder, and talk to needed officials. Again, they all had the same two responses; “B/c you all would fund it,” or “We can/could do that. Didn’t really think about that.” Again the affect of aid does reflect on the “helper or aid giver.” As previously stated, I too did not think to ask these questions and of these mechanisms beforehand. What did spark that however was reading a capacity-building book. To sum it up: It said the aid giver usually can’t wait to help those in lesser need. I guess that’s understandable, but that negative outcome of that is people become dependent on that, and not their own work. They’re also less appreciative of whatever project the aid is towards just b/c it’s not their money. However, the effect of aid has gone both ways. I thought it was my duty to present outside aid options and the community members expected that. Moreover, when a problem arises, community members don’t work within themselves to solve it; they simply look for assistance elsewhere. The article covered how pressure is not placed on citizens to be involved in their local communities either fiscally or actively engaged. We have however move passed that and have done some of the more internal items. The mayor has agreed to write a letter to the Minister of Education in hopes of him including the kindergarten school on his list of must do items on his education agenda. We’re going to talk to local officials in Koutiala and possibly Sikasso, and we just held our 2nd meeting this past Tuesday involving the parents of the students. I feel we’re moving towards capacity-building and am really glad at all the effort presented.
The other situation: I presented three income generating ideas to my women’s assoc, (they rejected all), but the president of the association really wanted a machine to obtain a form of current and need financial assistance. She asked me to help fund it. I wouldn’t have had a problem w/ this, except they had no money to put towards it and rejected ways to obtain finances for their personal means and that of the association. That was the last meeting we had and I am not going to fill out a proposal application for it. There’s nothing about the association that’s promising and proved to be sustaining even w/ the machine.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that article I read and I definitely understand where the author of it is coming from. There are numerous scenarios that support it. The great thing about it is I’ve recognized that before it’s too late, and w/ everything I do from here out at my site will be from the ground-up.