Aid Worker Voices

Smiles came across her face as she was reading

Note:  This is a beginning to the preface to Aid Worker Voices.

Smiles came across her face as she was reading

I have spent the last week or so traveling with a few students and colleagues from our university.  We are here doing our school’s version of ‘engaged learning’ which in our case ends up being a fairly thoughtful version of development-lite.  Having listened to the students and to my colleagues meeting and talking with community partners -in this case organized by Habitat for Humanity-International, Zambia- I can say with conviction that our whole party clearly understands that development work is infinitely messy, complicated on many political, cultural and interpersonal levels, almost necessarily moves at a glacial pace and, at the end of the day, you can never be certain that intended changes have ended up a net positive, all factors considered.

As a layover break between my work in Zambia and Namibia we are now in Livingstone.  On our second night here I met a young female aid worker on R&R and, soon, the ritual surface chatting melted into a deep conversation about aid and development work and the frustrations thereof.  Not long into that part of the conversation I invited her to look at what I was working on -this blog.  She spend a good deal of time reading through many of the posts, spending the most time on “How do you explain your job to non-sector people?”.

Smiles came across her face as she was reading.

For any writer, or at least for me, the most fulfilling moment possible is when you know someone has read your work and felt something.  In this case the ‘thing’ felt was a deep sensation of being connected to other aid workers expressing the same sentiments she had felt at various times.

This is why J and I did this research and why I have put together this blog:  to have aid worker voices heard, shared and, for context, analyzed and commented upon.

Research ethics?
Reflecting on the ‘why’ of this research I am reminded of a book I read as an anthropology grad student many years ago called Through Navaho Eyes by John Worth and Sol Adair.  Their research involved giving film equipment to various groups and asking them to ‘make a short movie’, their premise being that films have language and are a window into the filmmaker’s culture and weltanschauung.  

Although their research was prior to the days when IRB approval was sought, before beginning with any new group Worth and Adair routinely met with the community leaders to explain the research and to get permission to proceed.  When they went to a Navaho reservation, explained the process, and then asked the chief for permission he took a long moment to first ask, “Will it hurt the sheep?”

Worth and Adair, knowing the Navaho herded sheep, were only a bit surprised by the question and quickly answered in a respectful manner saying ‘no’, the filming process most certainly will not hurt the sheep.

The chief took their answer and bowed his head in thought, finally raising his head with a second question, “Will it help the sheep?”

Again, though a bit more surprised this time thinking they had already answered the sheep question, Worth and Adair assured the chief that the sheep would not be impacted at all by the filming; it would not ‘help the sheep.’

The chief took this answer, bowing his head again for what seemed to Worth and Adair a very long time, finally raising his head and asking, “Then why do it?”

Indeed.

And, not inconsequentially, the same can be asked of all development work.

I tell this sheep story to my sociology students before having them do research projects to introduce the topic of ethics.  I also remind myself of this story every time I feel the need to ‘generate some data’ about a topic.

So, why study aid and development workers?  One short answer is that smiles came across her face as she was reading this blog.  And those smiles were good.

As always, please contact me with comment, question or snark.

 

 

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