With the surge of aid going to Haiti, many are asking what is the best way to contribute. I agree with other writers who encourage supporting the humanitarian aid organizations that are already on the ground. Support people who know the language, who live with the people, who have the capacity to work in support of and with local initiatives. That being said, I just purchased 4 cards created by 3 home-schooled girls who came to my door seeking funds for Haiti. Sometimes the purpose of a donation is to build capacity and hope within the fundraiser.
In the short time I’ve been involved in humanitarian work, many of my assumptions of providing aid have been dismantled. I’ve encountered the dark side of aid, the competition for dollars, the subtle discrediting of other agencies, the corruption. Just as there are businesses that are ethical and corrupt, so there are humanitarian organizations that operate ethically and those that appear conflicted over whether they exist to help others to preserve themselves.
In Race Against Time, Stephen Lewis decries the World Bank policy to loan money to developing countries on the condition that the country charge user fees for education. The World Bank has since rescinded this policy but developing countries continue the practice of charging fees. This practice makes school an impossibility for millions of children. One man told me how his father had to collect school fees as the principle of the school. If he didn’t collect the fees, no one got paid. In the weak economy of the DR of Congo, banks are defunct, infrastructure is destroyed, and getting paid as a government worker is an anomaly. In a situation like this, having parents pay school fees means the school can exist. Would it be better if the government paid the teachers? Probably. Is it likely to happen any time soon? Not likely.
Consider then the situation where an NGO comes into a community, builds a school, and provides free education. Wonderful, we say. However, this school can not accommodate all the students in the village or city. So what does this do to the school without external funding. Those teachers lose students, the school loses its best teachers, and the struggling local school struggles even more as parents decry having to pay fees when their neighbor pays none.
This same scenario is repeated in hospitals, clinics and other local ventures. How much better is it to partner with local organizations, assist them in building capacity, and develop programs that are locally sustainable. Even then there are problems with competition and paternalism. I have no solutions, just a call to be mindful of the complexities of providing aid.





















