A lot of volunteers come through my town, many of whom are missionaries. Even though I'm at the beginning of my service, I noticed immediately a difference in mindset between myself and other young do-gooders. I had a talk with my roomie over smoothies (as always) about the nature of development, and figured it was interesting enough to rehash it here. There's a difference between developing for people and developing with people. One is myopic and decidedly idealist. The other is potentially sustainable and clarifies why I'm dedicating two years of my life to service here.
So there's short term development/development workers, right? These are the missionaries, community development workers and so on. I'm talking about the bleeding heart types that stay for a few weeks or a month (not for short term, targeted missions) and then leave. This type of development simply doesn't work. It mostly makes you feel good. You get to come here, take pictures with African children, and then go home. You get used to those types coming and going. Being here is a novel experience you get to have... for a little bit. The thing is, you can see a specific end point. You know that after 6 weeks you'll be on a flight back home. More importantly, you don't see the failures, so you're less likely to learn from them. So yeah, maybe you spent a lot of time getting new windows for a school. What you don't see is how soon they get broken after you leave.
Development needs to be long term. It needs to be a partnership between you and your host community, so that your community has a vested interest in the projects with which you can assist them. I live modestly in the community. I'll see people day in and day out. I know the children the short term workers take pictures with. I'll be there to stand beside them through all the successes and failures. I'll be there to try things out, see if they work, and try something else if they don't. Yeah, I'm only here for two years. But I'll use my entire first year to actually know the community in which I'm serving. I'll be able to understand the people I'm trying to help, see why things are done the way they're done, and effectively work with them.
There's a good chance that my work for these two years won't be sustainable. But the willingness to build a longterm partnership with a community for its betterment in accordance with their needs and wants? I think it's a damn good first step. That's the sort of thing that will have a lasting impact. I joined Peace Corps because I believe in that particular approach to development.
Boom.
Nailed it.
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