Today was a shorter day since we had a free afternoon, so this won't take long. We spent the morning in a community service workshop before we start working with the kids tomorrow. I didn't really know quite what to expect, but everything we talked about was not what I was expecting. we focused on the old and the new way of community development. The old way focused more on throwing money at the problem, coming in as the "white saviors", and not listening to the people about what they needed most. The old way really didn't work because it focused more on the volunteers, rather than on empowering the community so that they could learn to sustain themselves. The most interesting parts of our discussion were that the world can be incredibly ignorant to the others around them, not even bothering to ask for their opinions, and that a lot of poverty and undeveloped communities remain that way because of the psychology of the people. Here in South Africa, for example, children are consistently told by parents and teachers that they won't ever amount to anything and then they start to believe it. What we're going to try to do is help them see that regardless of their situation economically and socially, that they do matter. That they do have a place in the world. That they are powerful in their own way.
Author20 year old American college student. On a study abroad trip in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Archives
August 2015
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