When I first signed up for this Humanitarian Project in February, I was expecting that I would come here to this poor country, do a lot of good through health programs that bring new educational insight to the people here.
I was wrong.
The poverty here is COMPLETELY different than I was expecting. These people live in houses, are very family oriented, live very religious lives. Education of nutrition, STD’s, hygiene and diabetes maintenance are already taught in the schools. These people are aware. Their problem is, they’re lazy. Their poverty lies in their laziness. Therein lies the difficulty.
As volunteers with HELP International were trying to create self-sustainable programs to better these peoples lives. How are you supposed to create a program that a) already exists in some form, b) will be kept up after you leave and c) that is teaching something “new” to these people? My expectations differ 100% from my reality.
Developmental work is HARD. We don’t just enter a village, build a house, hold some orphans, and/or teach about STD’s. We start from the ground up. We start with nothing. We figure out what the community is in need of, we figure out how this program will last long after were gone, and we try and “re-invent the wheel” when teaching basic concepts. This work is HARD – and I’m struggling to accept it. With developmental work, you also don’t see the immediate results of your efforts. You may never see them. They are results that take time. I knew somewhat, what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this. I liked this idea of creating self-sustainable programs. I just didn’t realize how hard this would be – especially in Fiji where poverty is so different.
I just wanted to let you all know a little of what I’m doing here – not what you’d think of when I told you I was going to do “Humanitarian work”. I knew this would be hard, but not this hard.
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