Bridging Culture. Working Together.

Disclaimer: I am making large generalizations in the following blog-post, so take it with a grain of salt.   I just finished reading several thought provoking and critical books on the rise of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) called The Crisis Caravan  by Linda Polman and  Chasing Chaos  by Jessica Alexander.  I am also in the middle of reading  Dead Aid  by Dambisa Moyo, A Zambian economist.  While I must admit I have been feeling extremely cynical about humanitarian aid after reading these books, in many ways they reinforced my experiences observing humanitarian aid from the outside and inside in Sierra Leone.  We often only hear part of the story so let me tell you a different story that we often don’t hear.   The number of International NGOs has now exceeded 37,000 and a capitalist industry has grown up around humanitarian aid as they compete for the flow of billions of dollars within humanitarian territory.  ...

Below are several quotes by prominent African leaders, both past and present, that have shaped the way in which I think about missions: “You cannot develop people. You must allow people to develop themselves.” ~ Julius Nyerere, former President of Tanzania “In Africa today, we recognize that trade and investment, and not aid, are pillars of development.” ~ Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda    “The notion that aid can alleviate systemic poverty, and has done so, is a myth.  Millions in Africa are poorer today because of aid; misery and poverty have not ended but increased.  Aid has been, and continues to be, an unmitigated political, economic, and humanitarian disaster for most parts of the developing world.” ~ Dambisa Moyo, Zambian Economist “Many Africans succumb to the idea that they can’t do things because of what society says.  Images of Africa often promote a single story and are negative – war, corruption, poverty.  There is a gro...