Center for Global Engagement

I recently had an interesting conversation with an Americorps member who works with a racially diverse group of kids in the city of Portland, Maine. We talked about encounters she had with the kids she works with regarding racism. She explained that she found herself in a particular situation in which she felt as though a particular student was making racially charged statements (the community in which she worked was racially diverse—she works specifically with East African and East Asian students). She froze, not understanding what to do in the moment, and she didn’t initiate the conversation about race and acceptance she felt would have been possible had she been more prepared.

We had discussed various situations in which race has come up in learning situations but has gone discarded because facilitators were either nervous or unprepared. One situation that I recalled had taken place in a seminar that I had in which a few “edgy” conversations had come to the fore—ones regarding racial and sexual identity and relationships. Seminars typically have over 100 students in them and as a result, the professor of the class cut the conversation short, though he praised the class for wanting to go so deep. He didn’t have the training to deal with this sort of mediation, he explained, and in case things were to get out of hand, or tensions were to get enflamed, he feared he wouldn’t be able to cool things off.

The volunteer explained that she was in a situation in which she felt as though she had some control, and that this is the benefit of working with small groups of kids on a daily basis. Because she was regularly in contact with these kids, she felt as though she would have been able to maintain a positive conversation in which the kids would have been able to come out better versed about racial tensions and differences. In retrospect, though, she wondered whether or not bringing these issues to the table would be touchy because of her own racial identity. She wondered, would they think that I think that I know what’s better for them? That I am trying to set their “bad” feelings straight because I feel as though I have all of the answers?”

Out of the conversation, we came to some conclusions. Firstly, and most obviously, conversations about racism are difficult to approach. Secondly, there are various directions to take a race-based conversation depending on training and experience with the group. Finally, a volunteer put in a situation like this one should be reflective upon their experience so that they can be ready for other similar encounters in the future.

This experience is indicative of the importance of using a journal when it comes to dealing with these encounters. Here, as has been touched upon in thousands of service learning and volunteer-directed resources, honesty is most important, and it should be a place where the student/participant should feel free to meditate upon their experience. The volunteer should keep a journal of these sorts of reflections, pictures, observations, etc. In order to better prepare them for future experiences, reflection and a well-organized catalogue of past experience is crucial. While this may seem self-explanatory, I have too often seen volunteers skip this important step.

The role of businesses has become a hot-topic in global development in the past half-decade. Before, businesses were seen as “check-writers”: they have a social obligation to “give back” to a world that they often exploit for corporate profits. By writing the checks to non-governmental organizations doing good, businesses could become solid corporate citizens. This traditional perception is changing, albeit slowly. Recently, I participated in an international global health conference organized by the Global Health Council in which “partnerships” was the main theme. Business leaders, throughout the four days, were seen as a potential partner in global health and development — this culiminated in an interesting panel discussions with several leaders from the business world. I invite all of you to watch the webcast.

The main tension that was still manifest during this conversation–in which many NGO leaders were in the audience–was the view that most businesses don’t feel that the NGO community looks to them as partners but rather as “check-writers”. Businesses feel that they can bring more to the table than money. Technical advise and expertise in management, accountability, finances, and scaling up models are key parts of running a business and corporate donors are increasingly looking to share this knowledge and even human resources to strengthen relationships with NGOs. Not only do these organizations have a lot to gain from this broadened partnership, but businesses now see strategic philanthropy as integral to their own models for growth (increased worker productivity, improved business image, and development of new markets in poor countries are all new opportunities). But this rubs many activists the wrong way and prevents strong partnerships from developing. Can corporate profits go along with partnerships with NGOs? Can an affirmative vision of corporate involvement in development bring more resources to bear for global development? These issues must be addressed by the non-governmental and activist community; an article in the Harvard Business Review highlights a particular opinion and can help further frame the discussion.

Victor Roy is a 2007 graduate from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Political Science. He is currently President of a student-led non-profit, GlobeMed which inspires and trains university students to support health organizations in developing countries.

As a social policy major in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern, I hear it over and over again…Asset-Based Community Development. The term has become engrained in my mind for the last few years, and this summer has really been an opportunity for me to understand how the philosophy transforms itself in different contexts and what it really means in practice.

I am spending my summer in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (colloquially known as Xela), at a non-profit K-12 school called Colegio Miguel Angel Asturias. (You can find the website at http://www.colegiomaa.org/ , but keep your eyes out for an amazing new website to be up soon.) The school has a social justice mission of integrating the different populations of Guatemala - in particular, the Mayan and the Ladino (which flexibly means mixed-origin, of Spanish descent, or the social middle class that is generally in a position of power compared to the indigenous Mayan population) groups. The Colegio was founded at the end of the 36 year civil war by a man named Jorge Chojolan (the current director), an Ashoka fellow who was inspired by the events of his own childhood and his own experiences with the Guatemalan educational system. The school is linked to the greater socio-political contexts of Guatemala and maintains a human rights curriculum that focuses on a new topic every month.

This summer, the Colegio is in its first year of having a program of volunteers in positions such as teaching chess, teaching English, teaching community theater, working on the scholarship program, and website design. My role upon arriving was to help with the creation of a service learning or community service program for the students themselves, a way to link the students to the greater community of Quetzaltenango. A school that focuses on the students and on creating a deeply rooted sense of community, the community service program is in line with the school´s mission of giving the students a broad understanding of the community issues that surround them.

I´ve encountered a few obstacles in my work thus far – the first is the concept of trying to apply ABCD into the work. Since this is the first year that the Colegio has worked with so many volunteers, our positions and roles here are in flux and are consistently being re-evaluated and reconsidered as everyone tries to fit the volunteers into the existing context of the Colegio. Jorge, the director, has expressed concerns and a few frustrations with our group of volunteers, particularly because he wants to make sure that the impetus of the work –along with the goals, the participation, and the focus – are all based on the localized experience of the students, the staff, and the greater community of the Colegio. In that sense, the work is supposed to come from within the Colegio itself. Jorge was concerned that the volunteers would work in isolation, without consideration of students and without a broader understanding of Quetzaltenango and of Guatemala. After our first week here, Jorge read a story to the volunteers about a man who was traveling and witnessed a boy who couldn´t walk. The man tried to make crutches for the boy, but since he wasn´t from the town, he didn´t know that the wood from the tree he used to make the crutches wasn´t strong enough to support the boy – and thus broke. The father of the boy then chose the correct wood and made crutches that could support his son. An obvious metaphor – respect the knowledge and the skills of the local community.

What´s been difficult for me is finding that balance between finding those assets, using them, respecting the philosophy and structure of the school, and getting approval from the staff and from Jorge – without this limiting my own initiative, creativity, and ideas. I´m working in an area that seems really paradoxical – transforming the idea of “volunteerism” – a Western ideal that many people here understand as an outsider phenomenon, of receiving services that others (mostly Europeans and Americans) provide – into one that is localized, a concept that means using the capacities and the knowledge of the youth who actually live here to become the catalysts of change in their own communities. It kind of feels like a really ironic position, as I´m here to do the very thing that should be done by those already here.

Although I have been here for about two weeks, the next six weeks of my time will be a continuously evolving process of understanding my role here and understanding how ABCD plays into my work. In making sure I´m respecting the well informed decisions and well thought out structures that are in place here, I´ve found that the best thing I can do is listen and observe. Although my role here is program development, for now, my goal is to develop a holistic understanding of this community. Although I´ve done a lot of work and research thus far and have written some initial plans for some service programs, I´m not quite sure when the program development part will become institutionalized or will really materialize. But I´m OK with that.

Lisa Wang will be a senior at Northwestern University. She is double majoring in Social Policy and Political Science.

As president of a student-led non-profit, GlobeMed, I’ve been actively involved in developing a health center in Ghana by working with a local NGO leader from Ghana, Joseph Achana. Recently, Achana, a Rotary member, came to the US for the Rotary International Convention. He also visited with GlobeMed leaders such as myself to discuss the development of the health center and the vision going forward. The Center is up and running in the Volta Region, serving 6300 villagers in the Volta Region with basic health services and health education.During a meeting to discuss potential expansion, we invited several members of the Ghanaian community living in the US as businessmen (Ghana-USA Chamber of Commerce). Achana discussed small projects requiring little funding—in the range of 3-10K–that will increase local capacity. For example, he discussed the possibility of about 5K to get a pharmacy started that would generate local revenue to sustain operations. The “American” Ghanaians, while not in a mean way, mocked the small figures, saying that such projects should demand 100K+ in donor funding. They even seemed excited to gather such large scale funding to help “their country”. While it seemed to be on the surface a positive conversation, it was clear that Achana felt backed into a corner. His vision is for strategic, planned development, instead of an immediate flow of resources that may reinforce dependency on donor funds. The identities and relations between Ghanaians–those living here in the US and a community organizer from Ghana–were interesting to observe. While they were all “Ghanaians”, they clearly had different ideas of “development”. I hope to use this example for future discussions on cultural identity in global development and issues of “local sustainabilty” in the realm of building health infrastructure.

Victor Roy is a 2007 graduate from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Political Science. He is currently President of a student-led non-profit, GlobeMed which inspires and trains university students to support health organizations in developing countries.