NOVEMBER 12 — As I sit in the heart of East Africa, surrounded by beautiful foliage and a cool breeze blowing past me from Lake Victoria, I should be able to find some inner peace, for indeed I often think there is no more peaceful place on earth. 

That is, of course, until I leave the sanctuary of this jungle and wander into the busy, overcrowded streets of Kampala. 

In Kampala, my senses are heightened and I’m very aware of everything going on around me. The smells, the sounds, the sights; all assaulting my senses and keeping me always filled with some emotion; joy, anger, happiness or frustration. 

It is not the external chaos that causes my heart to not find peace. I wrestle with much in this place that has become accepted and part of life.

I wrestle, primarily because, though I know that there is something wrong, I don’t have the answers. Perhaps I have some. In fact, I believe I do have some answers. But in the context of the massive size of what I perceive to be a problem, I do not.

When I first moved overseas, I was very involved in non-profit work. This kept me surrounded by well-meaning foreigners; some expats, some volunteers, who believed they had answers to the problems existing in a country that was not theirs. I heard things all the time about how “I have such a heart for this country,” or, often, an even more spiritual mission of calling from God.

It didn’t take long, however, for separation to begin to happen from myself and many in that community, until indeed life was so entrenched in the local culture that my only friends were from the local community.

This brought its own share of struggles into my life. Learning how things work in another culture can often be difficult, certainly can feel lonely, and you make more mistakes than you do right when trying to fit in. But once immersed, the beauty of the culture begins to take such shape that you quickly forget what you missed about your own culture.

That isn’t to say there aren’t times when I haven’t been very frustrated by the way things work, or don’t work, while living abroad. It is very easy to begin complaining about things and comparing them to “home.”

What I wrestle with now is quite frankly whether or not foreign non-profits help or harm communities. And it is in this that I don’t have an answer. Superficially I should easily be able to know an answer to this. 

Reports are published by each NGO telling what they have done and what they are doing. And few of these reports are bad. Most NGOs are doing some sort of work that is helping a community. A well, an orphanage, a school, medical care; the list is endless. Indeed, I have been involved in all of these projects. Some of them I continue to be involved in.

My list of arguments as to why they are not good for communities is huge. This should be considered strange considering I have been and continue to be part of several non-profits. So does my saying this make me a hypocrite? Maybe, we can argue that some other time.

On the list includes one of my biggest issues, which is: shouldn’t this money be spent more wisely and couldn’t this money be invested in business ventures in ways that stimulate economic growth instead of just pouring into the social welfare sector of society.

There are things in the social sector I believe cannot be compromised with and until governments are making sure that these are available to all people, must be supported by non-profits. This includes, access to medical care for all people, education, sanitation and food. Thus a need does exist for non-profit work within populations in order that people have access to these basic services.

But highest on my list of arguments about why, specifically foreign, non-profits have done more harm than good is the inequality between peoples that this has carried with it.

The problem is that when there is a foreign group, who is the giver, and a local group, who is the receiver, naturally a divide is made. One group, the givers, are, by their very nature as the giver, wealthier, healthier and elevated to a position of power. The other group, the receivers, are poor, unhealthy, mostly lacking in education and are dependent on the giver. 

This disrupts the natural order of a culture and society when an unknown and foreign group of individuals comes in and obtains power, not through any conflict or war, but through a philanthropic act or service. Indeed it does so in a way that is quiet and deceptive, because, where in a conflict or war people would be angry at the invader who has come to power, in this situation the people who have come in are hailed as champions, even though many will complain about the way they are doing things behind their backs.

As year after year this type of aid is given the idea of the givers being better than the receivers is propagated in the mindset of both of the peoples, subconscious and unintended as it may be by all.

What I have seen happen, then, is an unhealthy psyche begin to proliferate a community such that what should have been a good thing becomes dangerous both for the giver and the receiver. The receiver begins to demand more and more help, while feeling like he, himself, cannot ever find a way to pull himself out of the place he is in. He no longer has the drive or determination to find a way ahead, instead he becomes dependant on the giver.

And the giver, I suspect unintentionally yet it always exists, being exalted to a place of power, becomes more and more separated from the very people he came to assist and begins forming new ways to “help” while still not understanding the community and having become the unintended hero.

Thus a vicious cycle is formed of which neither can get out of easily and sustainable growth, propelled and guided by the local community, is never undertaken, or when it is it fails quickly. The reason for failure has many facets but one could easily look at how difficult it becomes for local projects, mostly small in nature and with different ideas for growth than the foreign organisations, to survive when faced with a much larger organisation that has large resources.

So what do we do? Does it mean we stop supporting groups who are working in developing nations? No, I don’t think so. Ultimately this will not be good either. This is why I say that I don’t have the answers and why I am not at peace.

But I do think that one answer is to begin by looking at the groups that are working in these nations and asking what are their motives, and what approach are they taking. Are they, especially as foreigners, looking to work themselves out of a job such that they are no longer needed in an area? Are they working with the community for sustainable solutions and are they really working together with the community.

Some of these things are difficult for us to really assess if not directly involved, but I believe due diligence requires us to look into these things and ask what we are supporting. Feeding a child today is not a bad thing, it is a good thing, but we should want to know how a project plans to feed that child tomorrow if I don’t give. It should not stop us from giving, giving is important, but we can do our best to make sure we are giving to projects that are looking for sustainable solutions in communities and that are working together with communities to do this.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.