TANZANIA STORY

I’d like to share a story that illustrates some foundational aspects of development work.  I’ve shared this story with most of the groups I’ve spoken with in these past weeks, but I want to put it into writing here because it helps us understand a huge part of what I’ll be doing in K-town. 

Once upon a time there was a development organization in Tanzania that observed how the women in a certain Muslim village were expected to spend 3 hours daily just fetching water.  The organization decided to dig a well for the village in order to improve their quality of life.  Great idea, right?  That’s what I thought as well, at first.

When the organization came back to observe the fruits of their labor, they realized the women were discouraged.  How could this be?  Upon investigation, the organization realized their mistake:  For those women, the 3 hours each day spent fetching water was actually their only time to get a breather outside their homes.  Furthermore, it was their only social time with other women.  Apart from those few hours, their entire life consisted of household and family duties.  Without the task of fetching water away from the home, their social life with other women was completely cut off and they spent that much more time cloistered in their homes.

I don’t claim to know what methods the organization used to decide how they would empower the community.  What I do know is this:  As we strive to truly empower those in need, we must come in as learners and ask the right questions.  No assumptions can be made. 

Do we have enough trust within the community so that we know the members are being open about their deepest needs?  Will they just agree with our initial suggestions because they’re afraid that if they don’t, we’ll abandon them?  Do we ask only the leaders (in this case they were men) who have power, or do we ask the least powerful in the community?  Women who may have less voice?  Children who have a unique and valuable perspective?  And what about those who are too sick, ashamed, or not allowed to come to a community meeting?  What are we asking?  Whom are we asking?  How are we asking it?  Is it truly empowering or actually destructive?  In my next post, I hope to reflect on this last question.