IMPROVING CHILDREN’S NUTRITION IN GAMBELLA

http://dioceseofegypt.org/2013/12/mothers-union-training-nutrition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mothers-union-training-nutrition

Revolution by MU1500 in Gambella Ethiopia

At this very moment, a small revolution is spreading throughout the Gambella region of Ethiopia. It’s a peaceful revolution but one that has the potential to bring immense change.  The agents of change are not your stereotypical revolutionaries. They are women: members of the local Mother’s Union, mostly middle aged, many of them illiterate. Apart from a few cooking pots and other demonstration materials, their weaponry is not visible. Instead, they have recently been armed with knowledge. Their mission is to share this knowledge so that other women, children and families might benefit from the life-changing news they have received. The messages they carry are deceptively simple: Small things we can’t see without “glasses” (microscopes) cause disease. Just like we need wood, mud and grass – all three – to make houses, we also need protein, vitamins and energy foods – all three – to make strong bodies. Some can’t merely be told, they must be demonstrated: how to construct a vertical garden, how to weave mats to earn an income, how treat common illnesses in children. Together, they promise to overturn the basic yet entrenched problems that have long hampered the region, making it one of Ethiopia’s poorest: poverty, health and inter-tribal tension. The epicentre of change is Gambella Anglican Centre. From here, a train-the-trainer program is empowering women to affect change in their own communities. Firstly, thirty Mother’s Union representatives received health, livelihood and biblical training. These thirty women then returned to their communities, sharing their knowledge through structured programs for a further 1,500 Mother’s Union members across 15 centres. Each of these Mother’s Union trainees will soon become a trainer, inviting one community guest to attend a program at one of 70 local churches. It is hoped that, in time, change will filter down into communities, through informal conversations and the obvious positive effects of lifestyle change. Over three years, for only $35 per woman, the Mother’s Union will provide training courses for 3,000 women every two months. The project has been designed by Dr Wendy LeMarquand, a doctor with over 30 years experience in family medicine as well as training and experience in tropical medicine and village medical practice. Dr Le Marqualand has already overseen a similar project in Kenya. If you would like to join the revolution you can do so by joining Revolution Gambella

Down Under: In Depth Community Work Dave Andrews - Review

The Loss of Community

https://wipfandstock.com/store/Down_Under_InDepth_Community_Work

 “There are many tragedies of the 20^th century. Among the least spectacular, but most significant, was picking at the threads of our relationships so much, that we unravelled the entire fabric of many of our communities. Now we find ourselves without the support we need from our human safety nets.”

Dave Andrews’ book will have most people committed to finishing the whole book after the first two pages, where, citing research, he demonstrates that connectedness leads to better outcomes for people in health, happiness, honesty, generosity, non-economic prosperity and safety. When one considers community development broadly speaking, these are outcomes most people working in the community sector would see as positive outcomes in their roles.

At its heart this book is a call to get back to relationships in human services and community work. However its deeper message is about authenticity and being true to one self.

Prior to developing his main thesis, Dave Andrews undertakes a quick survey of how communities and connectedness has diminished. He attributes this loss of community to numerous factors. Materialism, the advent of large shopping malls leading to the “privatisation of public spaces,” the rising numbers of people leaving smaller rural communities to live in cities and the impacts this will have in developing nations such as China and the correlation between commuting to work, where he suggests a 10 minute commute will decrease by 10% the ability to develop meaningful relationships. Churches have not been immune, as some churches establish regional centres at the expense of local churches involved in their communities.

The underlying reason he advances for the decline in community is the increasing focus on self through the pursuit of money, fame and influence at the expense of relationships and experiencing the love of others altruistically. Research shows that between 1970 and 1990, the proportion of students motivated to go to college by money rose from about half to three quarters.

 

The Professionalisation of social work and bureaucracies

Dave Andrews goes on to demonstrate how this has all led to a loss of community volunteers with no special skills other than interest and concern; historically, this group have done the things which met the needs of people.  The professionalising of community development has resulted in communities losing their soul. His exposition of the ten dangers of professionalisation of community work and the seven propositions that disempower communities makes this book a required text in all social work educational settings. Those who go into social welfare with good motives, often end up part of “the system”, more concerned with the professional work they do than the people they assist.

Focussing on the original meaning of the word “profession,” the author then goes on to suggest a remedy lies in a return to vocation and he spends some time developing this idea, referring to Henri Nouwen, Carl Jung and Viktor Frankl to suggest people need a call. “Our own call may come to us in our own small voice, a small still voice from somewhere deep inside us: ‘our vocation acts like a law of God. It makes demands upon us. It demands our best and at times even better than our best. To liberate. To redeem. To transform.’”

Having worked in disability, his references to Jean Vanier, who spoke about the suffering of the disabled and their families at the hands of the powerful (defined as doctors, psychologists, social workers and others), resonated powerfully. He advocates deconstructing and reconstructing the professions, so that people seeking to assist really care (rather than empathising as they have been taught) and use their skills and relevant knowledge to serve rather than accumulating power and prestige. This he posits will result in “amateur, radical and revolutionary activists”.

This leads into an analysis of bureaucracies and counter bureaucracies. Counter bureaucracies being defined “in theory, as well as practice, not actually committed to the work, but simply maintaining the system.” In NSW this was evident to me as the politics of NSW ensured a bureaucracy, compliant to its political masters rather than really seeking to serve and deliver for the people it was designed to serve.

Rabbi Jonathon Sacks is quoted at length to make a point about the use of power and fear to control people. He expounds Jewish thought on the Genesis account of the creation of humankind to tell two stories about moving from unbearable isolation to tolerable association. These stories gave me a profound understanding of the roots of Anabaptism, community and non-violence. I am not sure if this was the intention of the author, however the analysis of Genesis 2:23 by Sacks was enlightening.

Most readers of the book will identify with the analysis of bureaucracies and counter bureaucracies. Dave summarises the conflicts inherent in both, suggesting that there are two policy options in which both operate – love and fear or community and security. This is neatly summarised in a helpful table which contrasts characteristics and behaviours of both. Compliance and resistance to bureaucracy and counter bureaucracy is examined and helpful suggestions given to assist practitioners resist compliance with bureaucracies.

Unlike many books that theorise about subjects such as this and leave readers trying to contextualise how this works in reality, Dave Andrews provides studies based on TEAR Australia and TEAR Fund (UK). Transformation into bureaucracies as they grew but not wanting to lose the “spirit” in how they operate are described. Spirit was defined and is not religious in its definition. Many books have been written about spirit in the workplace and Jossey-Bass publishers have a catalogue of books on the topic.

The TEAR study describes the practical outcomes of open conversations which were facilitated by Dave Andrews. These resulted in affirmations and suggestions which are person centred and relational, prioritising relationships over bureaucracy. In England, the director of TEAR Fund has authored a paper quoted in this book, describing three qualities of new systems – agility, relationality and glocality.

The book concludes with an amazing account of community work undertaken by Ange, Dave’s wife who has worked with refugees in Brisbane since 1989.

I identified with this book as someone who has resisted bureaucracy while working in large bureaucracies. The practical examples contained in it may assist others challenge the powers. Often people are fearful of large institutions simply because they are large institutions. As government approaches to community services changes throughout Australia, the opportunity is there once again to get back to grass roots and engage with people and communities.

The political motive may be that government has recognised its inability (read lack of resources) to do everything and has recognised the community resources and assets better able to engage with communities. Place-based planning and decision making is the focus in NSW government policy, and the opportunity is there for people and local organisations and churches to engage locally as governments seek to devolve decisions and resources to locals.

This is a must for all idealists graduating from social work and other humanities courses to learn how to “avoid becoming the system they inhabit” (p88).

Care grants target community groups | News

Care grants target community groups | News
I was privileged to be part of the panel that chose the successful grant applications.

Disability, Human Rights, Development and the NDIS

My change in employment has me managing development projects in Africa. This has been a joy as I have worked with partners in various countries on projects that have improved food security for poor families, provided income generating opportunities for youth, humanitarian assistance for refugees and opportunity for people with disabilities. I want to highlight one disability project which stands in stark contrast to disability services in Australia.

 

Like most disability programs in Australia, the community based disability project in rural Tanzania is delivered by an NGO which seeks to serve a marginalised group of people in a culture where shame and superstition still dominate the population, resulting in people with disabilities (PWD) being hidden away by families or at risk of mutilation from witch doctors, who believe some PWD possess supernatural powers and amputation of limbs is prized for purposes of sorcery. However apart from the NGO status in both countries there the similarities end.

 

Tanzania understands disability within a human rights context.

 

The purpose of the UN Convention is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

 

Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

 

In working with our partner in Tanzania, I have been impressed at the commitment the project has to the human rights of the people with whom they are working. Like NGOs commenced prior to government funding in Australia, this is a grass roots movement born from the desire to assist PWD assert their rights. Some of the things they do include advocating for children to be enrolled in school despite their disability, providing referrals to medical services for children born with conditions which may cause disability such as hydrocephalus, arranging for therapy and psychological clinics in rural areas and designing and developing assistive technology. In addition to these services micro enterprise loans are provided to assist PWD establish small businesses and disabled peoples' organisations are being established, currently 16 have been developed.  The services provided are encouraging individuals and their families to work together to shape community opinion and attitudes, improve access to public services (which are non existent in some cases) and to seek equality for many Tanzanians living on the margins.

 

In Australia fifty years ago disability was similar to Tanzania today. It was parents and their supporters who established the schools, day programs and group homes and other services. Gradually as governments realised their responsibilities to PWD, schools were purchased, funding provided for operation of day programs and accommodation and other services and "charities" spawned by good intent became established with guaranteed sources of funding.

 

As the disability sector grew, tired and aged parents were able to relax to some extent, knowing their children would be supported and the question about what would become of their children when they died at least partially answered. However as the sector grew it lost its purpose as professionals replaced parents and with government encouraged them to establish business models to ensure viability and sustainability.  Unspoken, but implied, these businesses were encouraged to "leverage community assets" or in plain language to go back a generation and do what the organisations did when run by parents and raise funds from the community to support services.

 

I am not suggesting that we go back to the situation in modern day Tanzania, where the project I work with is wholly reliant on aid from  at least four donors. What is occurring there is that disability is being raised as a human rights issue and in fact our partners have a better understanding of human rights for PWD than most disability agencies have in Australia.

 

In a previous life I worked for the NSW government disability at a senior level, finishing my career in contract management, where I oversaw over 150 disability providers. I also worked for a provider for two years after leaving government. The transfer of power in these organisations has effectively disenfranchised parents, carers and PWD while agencies providing support have kept families at a distance and provided services within the letter rather than the spirit of funding agreements.

 

"Flexible" respite that was not flexible from a family perspective but quite prescribed and service driven is a case in point. Complaints never fully investigated and where the agency sought to defend itself rather than hearing carers' voices and plans which are not implemented are examples of how government funding has disenfranchised the community it was established to support.

 

The disability sector in Australia has lost sight of the people  it exists to serve. Basic human rights of PWD demand that a sector established to support them, does more than provide a support worker. Unlike my friends in Tanzania, NGOs here in Australia need to be working at doing more than just providing a service. With a number of exceptions few large disability agencies do nothing more than provide a service with public funds. Parents and carers have been alienated and the community support base has been lost. Fundraising is anathema as agencies have grown fat and lazy on the public purse in a service driven culture.

 

What has this to do with the NDIS in Australia? Well the trial site in Newcastle appears to be setting off some lights for disability CEOs who are concerned that the rates for staff established by the government agency means they may not be able to deliver services! Imagine that - a disability service unable to deliver services because there is not enough money it it for them. Having worked in the sector it is not like they have not known what was coming. The NSW government and the National Disability Service, a peak body, has been working to assist the sector with the reforms long foreshadowed.

 

The NDIS is a shift in power. The NDIS is a rights based program which says to PWD that we as a society respect your humanity and want to ensure you are included in civil society and can contribute as valued citizens. Suddenly NGOs whose existence has been for reasons other than working in a rights based environment will no longer be guaranteed the public funding they have taken for granted. That funding will now be held by PWD and their supporters who will choose what support they need to be valued citizens.

 

So as the NDIS is rolled out should governments bow down to  providers with large reserves on their balance sheets? Or should people with disabilities expect providers to deliver a customer focussed service, for which the customer (not government) pays?

Aid and Development - Concern for the Poor or Big Business?

In 1980, I spent three months as a volunteer in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand. I was one of five Australians who volunteered with a church to assist Cambodians fleeing Pol Pot and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime. We were based at Kamput Refugee Camp, about 6 kms from the Cambodian border and lived in the local village of Pong Nam Ron about 10kms from the border and a short drive to the camp. Apart from a group of Australians from another church we were the only westerners living in the local village.

Kamput was a refugee camp of about 17,000 divided into two camps - a camp of 14,000 mainly middle class and better educated Cambodians who lived in military style barracks and the "old camp" of about 3-5,000 Khmer Rouge sympathisers who lived in fairly squalid conditions. In reality there were two camps, divided socio-economically and politically.

The camp was an eye opener. Apart from the church groups from Australia, USA, Ireland (CONCERN) and TEAR Fund Australia, there was a range of secular agencies such as Red Cross, and others plus the UNHCR. The faith based agencies were generally volunteers who were there from personal conviction.

The secular agencies were generally employees of the agencies they worked for. They lived 60kms from the camp in the provincial capital of Chantaburi. From what I learned they lived in a compound, separate from the local Thais and kept office hours, arriving en-masse by bus at 8.30am and departing promptly at 4.30pm.

I remember speaking to the camp director from the UNHCR and being shocked that for him this was just a job. He received a salary and generous allowances which had me amazed that much of the "aid" was spent on westerners who could and would grow wealthy from their chosen career. What shocked me even more was the answer to my question about what would he do after this camp to be told he would move on to the next humanitarian crisis!



(These women are home based carers who volunteer their time in South Africa to care for HIV affected people in their communities. Occasionally they receive gifts as a recognition of their valuable contribution.)


Fast forward to 2009 and I am on a plane from Johannesburg to Nairobi. I am talking to an indigenous employee of a large international aid agency travelling to a conference in Nairobi. She is an employee in the national office of her agency in South Africa. I remember thinking what sort of a conference justifies sending someone to a conference thousands of kms away and expending all that money which possibly equalled 20% of her salary for a week away?

The return trip a week later found me sitting next to a Dutch doctor working for a well know international medical agency. Paid local wages, she was virtually a volunteer, working on something she believed in similar to faith based volunteers. I was impressed at the sacrifice she and her family made to serve in a poor country. They could also be described as career aid employees, but unlike the UNHCR employee of 1980, they were doing this from conviction.

So what is the current state of international aid and development. Like much in the social science area, international development has become a specialised industry with peak bodies and interests in lobbying and advocating governments and international agencies to grow the aid and development sector.

Australia should increase its aid and development to those in need. The questions that need to be asked however is who is benefitting from aid and development and how much of the donor dollar or indeed the taxpayer dollar actually reaches the intended beneficiary?

Welcome

For those who have followed me at http://eddieozols.blogspot.com.au/ welcome. If you are new welcome. My original blog started in 2008 when I was preparing to head off to South Africa for three months long service leave doing some voluntary work with a small NGO in Australia. The experience there served me well and saw me gain skills in the international aid and development sector. In 2011 I left my job as a career public servant and spent time in the NGO disability sector. In February 2013 I was blessed to obtain a job with anglicanaid.org.au  after a number of attempts at breaking into the international aid and development sector.

This blog will be a space where I will post occasionally about activities I undertake and things I learn as well as raising issues about aid and development, some of which may challenge some of the thinking that takes place and asks people in Australia and the developed world to think about our status in the world and our responsibility to the people living on less than $2 a day.

Anyway my main reason for posting this blog today is to advertise my climb up Kilimanjaro in January 2014. Is this on your bucket list? If so get the info pack and if you want to join me and three others, you are more than welcome.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw_JT-brqygmOEhzWDNqdkk4WkE/edit?usp=sharing

Unlike this child, we will be walking up Kili with shoes.