Dependence Trap

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Many of you have been asking if there is something you can do? Whether or not there is a particular organization you can help based on what I have seen? Well up until last week no one organization or approach stood out for me. I think I was still in the midst of processing all that I have experienced and seen. But I think I am gaining some clarity…funny how pieces sometimes just start to fall into place.

You have probably watched me struggle as I have witnessed the amount of one off projects mostly foreign driven and sponsored that are working in this part of the world - often working outside of the local government and community systems. I have been wrestling with the question of how do you get government working for the all of the people here. How do you get Kenyans and government focused on providing what you and I consider to be basics: Education, Healthcare, Sanitation & Water, Agricultural supports, and economic infrastructure. How do we support the efforts of Kenyans to build their own communities? My cursory observation is that many of the aid organizations are actually in unattended ways doing harm. They are creating a dependence on expertise, money and handouts. Put yourself in the shoes of a fellow Kenyan - why should you invest when others are so willing to give you funds and tell you what to do? Now I suppose this would be fine if aid organizations made a permanent commitment. OR maybe not! But the problem is that aid organizations or individuals pull out of projects often after 2 to 3 years - and the projects fall apart. There is no over riding investment in sustainability and local ownership - no encouraging of locals to take ownership of their issues and challenges and providing them with the tools and supports to make a go of it long term.

Let me give you an example. While the land here is very fertile and the climate is excellent for growing, knowledge of sustainable agricultural practices is low. Now to you and me this may seem basic. But when you have not been taught about creating your own fertilizer (aka compost), when you have not been taught the importance of rotating crops and resting fields - the soils nutrients are depleted and yields drop dramatically. So rather than teaching farmers these skills and encouraging them to invest proceeds from surplus crops such as maize into creating the next harvest, aid organizations have come in and just given fertilizers. So why would you plan if things are just given to you? What incentive is there to do it yourself? But when the aid organization goes on to another project as they often do after 3 years and they stop providing the fertilizer, crop yields decline and the farmers are no further a head.

Now multiply this over years of colonial history and now foreign aid organizations giving large sums of money, telling people what to do - the net impact is dependence. And when organizations pull out - things collapse - because the dependents have not learned or had the incentive to be independent. Now there are great organizations doing great work here - so it is always dangerous to generalize - but unfortunately this dependence trap seems to be the rule as opposed to the exception here in Kenya. I have heard this story many times over in my two months of research here.

So the approaches that are resonating for me these days have a couple of things in common. One: organizations and projects that are locally based. Kenyans working to help Kenyans - taking responsibility, accountability and building the human capacity for their own. This is accomplished by local organizations or groups who are working with and partnering with their local communities to create change and support their children. Two: activities and programs that support orphans staying connected and remaining a part of their home villages or families of origin.

I have come full circle on the orphan issue. This is what brought me to East Africa in the first place: hearing Stephen Lewis passionately describe the plight of millions of orphans in Africa. I have visited several orphanages - some well run and others not. I have read about and witnessed the challenges kids face growing up in institutional environments - how their interpersonal and social development is compromised. How they suffer identity crises not knowing their family roots or origin that can ultimately result in crises of self esteem. How they got lost in a crowd - often 40 to 100 children at one orphanage - and have no special adult constantly encouraging them on, loving them and believing in them. How they become second class citizens and slaves and also are more vulnerable to abusive situations - be it physical, emotional or sexual. There is a new approach in Kenya emerging at the grass roots to work with villages and extended families to sensitize them to the needs and supports of orphans. This is an approach that is very much promoting that well loved African Proverb that a village raises a child and in this case the village is responsible for their orphans.

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Comments

[Ang]

it takes a whole village
Thanks for this, Jan. It really helped to put things into perspective.