Paulo Freire

The organization with which I am working for my practice experience, School of Unity and Liberation, located in Oakland, aims to train community organizers, equip them with fundamental organizing skills, sharpen their political knowledge and systemic change analysis skills, and allow them to grow into strong facilitators and leaders of their respective movements.  When helping to organize training materials for my organization this week, I came across a poster and accompanying lesson plan that featured the ideas of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire.  This caught my attention, as just last week in class, we discussed Freire’s ideas in relation to our discussion on the levels of participation in poverty action work.  No one in the class was familiar with his work, but as he has come up in both class and in my practice organization, I decided that he must be someone worth knowing.  I became intrigued by this figure and wanted to learn more about his ideas and how they relate to both my organization’s work and what we are learning in class. 

                After doing some research, I found that Freire is an incredibly accomplished intellectual with a fascinating life and many extremely relevant ideas to the issues that we have been discussing.  In class last week, we discussed his quotation from one of his most prominent works, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, that goes, “No pedagogy that is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors.  The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption.”  Another stirring and related quotation that I found from him reads that, when oppressors join in the struggle for liberation with the oppressed, they “they almost always bring with them the marks of their origin. . . which include a lack of confidence in the people's ability to think, to want, and to know…. They believe that they must be the executors of the transformation. They talk about the people, but they do not trust them. . . A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their favor without that trust." Freire also says that, "Revolutionary leaders cannot think about the people, or for the people, but only with the people."  These ideas make me not only consider our discussion of participation, but of the whole idea of poverty action in general.  Regarding the levels of participation, it seems that Freire would not condone a program with any level of participation that was less than a “self-mobilization/active participation” or perhaps a “partnership,” but even that may be a stretch.  It almost criticizes the whole idea of poverty action involving the “participation” of those it aims to help, making it seem as though the liberation of the oppressed and those in poverty is not something that should be formulated apart from them that they then “participate in,” but rather something that completely originates from them and functions within them.  As people who want to be involved in poverty action work, we discuss how we must always be critical of the work that we are involved in and the organizations that we are involved in.  I then think it is essential then that we consider ideas of those like Freire when examining the effectiveness and even the ethics of our work. 

After learning more about Freire’s ideas, it is clear to me why my organization teaches his ideas during their trainings.  On my first day at my organization, I was given a sheet that described the main beliefs of the organization, the first being that oppressed people must join together to fight for and demand their liberation.  My organization aims to empower the leaders of movements of oppressed people in order to not only to gain rights and solve injustices, but to completely change the whole system that continually recreates and reinforces oppression.  I will get to be involved in one of my organization’s training sessions later this fall, and I am excited to see their teaching in action and to see how they communicate these ideas, and hopefully also learn how the people who participate in their trainings will take these ideas and use them in building and strengthening their movements.

                Something else that I found when researching Freire was how his ideas are being applied to education reform efforts.  The Paulo Freire institute at UCLA aims to maintain and expand his teachings by implementing teacher training programs around the world that “augment the social justice themes,” “spreading the Freirian message” and through programs that encourage the next generation to “seriously consider the ramifications of standardized testing, standardized curricula, loss of teacher autonomy, and the corporate colonization of our classrooms.”  I interned at an organization that advocated for education reform last summer, and these were issues that were heavily discussed, and it was interesting to find their relation to this thinker that we are now learning about.  Anyone interested in education reform might be interested in reading more about this at http://www.paulofreireinstitute.org/.

I am glad that I have been exposed to Freire’s ideas, as I find them provoking and fascinating.  As students in this course and as people who are interested in this kind of work, I think it is necessary to explore the ideas of as many thinkers in this subject as possible to make sure that we are always learning as much as we can so that we can be as effective as we can.

JPAL Job Opportunity

http://www.povertyactionlab.org/search/apachesolr_search?filters=type:job

This is a blog post catered towards seniors and those interested in internships in developing economies. The poverty action lab at MIT (JPAL) has opportunities for research positions over the summer, and longer two-year commitments for recent graduates. They primarily work in impact evaluation, specifically dealing with randomized controlled trials. Their mission is “to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is based on scientific evidence, and research is translated into action”.

While many economists laud JPAL as the poverty solution, I, in no way, believe it to be a panacea. There are numerous ethical dilemmas with the work that JPAL has done in the past. They charge exorbitant amounts of money to carry out their randomized controlled trials, especially for a nonprofit. Furthermore, they often create long-winded surveys (often over 150 pages long that take many hours to complete), and neglect the fatigue of the field staff and the survey participants. Because these experiments are designed mostly by professionals (economists and professors), there is also a disconnect between the field staff and the designers, as well as pressure to publish findings on the professionals. Finally, the importance they place on “rigorous” test conditions often create situations that are not externally valid-field situations are seldom perfect, and creating such stringent requirements can make the results misleading.

Despite these ethical dilemmas, I still chose to place this job/internship opportunity on the GPP 105 blog. Going back to GPP 115, and the Roy’s idea of being a “double agent”, I think it can be extremely beneficial to participate in a program like this. Not only would it help one develop the quantitative skills that are in high demand in development work, but also it would expose one to the current dominant system of thinking within economic development. Understanding why the current perspective is in place is essential to understanding how to change the prevalent assumptions. In addition, I believe the ability to influence such an idealized organization would best come from within.

Working at JPAL would be a good opportunity to reflect on the dominant ideology of development. It would give you field experience, most likely internationally, where you can learn and collaborate with the people in the area (though JPAL is not known for this, it’s the individuals in the field who decide how to operate). It is a learning opportunity with famous development economists and professors fighting poverty, in a manner that you may or may not agree with, but without a doubt can help develop your own perspective and what constitutes successful development work.

What is Participation?

In discussion section, one of my classmates brought up the question of whether or not participation is even appropriate for any and all organizations. It was a nice reminder of the complexities and intricacies of NGO and aid work in general. We talk about the professionalization of NGO, the so called NGO-speak and we generally speak of it in a pejorative way. However, we shouldn't forget that there is no one unified definition for an NGO and that there is no absolute plan for the structuring of these NGOs. NGOs, are at its core, a fluid and evolving mechanism and the models that we come up to try to describe it will not always perfectly mirror reality.

My point is that the Participatory Approach article by Duraiappah is a very narrow way to view the relationship between service recipients and service providers. In my organization, the Suitcase Clinic, there is a strong emphasis on "caseworking" which we define as having a genuine conversation. It's the key principle that anchors and informs all of our projects and decisions. We create a climate that is conducive to building relationships. Service provision, whatever they may be is a secondary goal. This ideal does not neatly slot into any one category of participation because how do you define and categorize a conversation with its infinite mutability and dependence on context? It shouldn't be because it defies categorization.

My issue then is with the participation model. The term participation itself is embedded with positive connotations. It's appealing. It's inclusive and it's just a very pleasant word so the rationale behind the paper and the argument is that more participation, a specific type of participation as defined by the authors, the more enriching and successful your NGO or project or plan will be. Instead of Manipulating people, you can have Active Participation but it's not always so clear cut as that. Participation in this context doesn't take into account choice. By choosing to receive services or by choosing to come to the Suitcase Clinic, isn't that in essence a choice to participate? When clients come to the Suitcase Clinic and choose to enter a conversation, isn't that also a form of participation? And who's to say that this micro form of participation is less than deciding the infrastructure and budgeting of the Suitcase Clinic.

To be complicit or not to be

Recently, after having done the readings about participation, particularly those from last week, like Kimberly talked about in her post, I've been thinking a lot about the level of participation that my PE org, the Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC), elicits. After thinking through the different modes of participatory action in class, I think my organization falls mostly under Duriaiappah's sixth category of functional participation (groups formed to meet specific objectives). The way the UHRC operates allows for established groups to “become more self-sufficient” over time, which is one of the criteria for functional participation. However I've also been thinking about whether the way in which the UHRC uses participation is constructive or not.

The UHRC operates by establishing women's groups in slum communities and then training these groups to engage in advocacy for projects or needs around their communities. However, after reading Julia Paley's piece about the paradox of participation, I'm struck by the way she presents participation as being elicited in two different ways when she discusses the two posters about water sanitation in La Bandera. On one hand, participation in the context of public health can be elicited by teaching people how to engage in safe practices to avoid becoming ill from their environments; on the other hand, participation can be elicited by provoking people to push back on the government for creating environmental conditions that lead to illness in the first place. 

At its best, the first approach is a way of keeping people safe and helping to mitigate the dangers present in their environments. At its worst, it allows the government to abdicate any responsibility for the well being of its citizens living in proximity to environmentally harmful conditions by shifting that responsibility to the people. At its best the second approach is a way of holding the government accountable for its role in creating and maintaining unsafe living conditions for its citizens. At its worse, it creates a source of conflict without really giving people the tools to survive in their immediate environments.

From what I know of it, the UHRC is not simply a public health intervention organization, and in so far is it does encourage its women's groups to fight for goods and services that their communities need, it is putting some pressure on the government. However, the UHRC also does engage in public health advocacy for maternal and child care. The fact that it does both helps put me at ease because it does not fall into the trap of either approach to participation. However, this perspective is just based on what limited knowledge I have of the UHRC. I don't think there's any way to really know where the UHRC lies on this spectrum until I am in the field. This makes me wonder, to what degree is the UHRC complicit in the government's failure to address public health concerns in slums and to what extent is the UHRC actually helping people mediate their environments? 

The foster care system's correlation with the sexual exploitation of minors: considering a network approach to provide solutions

This blog post is regarding the action being taken on sex trafficking in the Bay Area, an issue which disproportionately impacts poor girls due to their added emotional vulnerability and lack of resources. This issue is relevant because I will be working on this issue at my practice experience, The National Center for Youth Law, as they work alongside other nonprofits and governmental organizations to implement recommendations that target this issue. What is more, the UC Berkeley Public Service Center will be holding an event on October 1st from 6-8pm during which Minh Dang, a UC Berkeley Alum and survivor of human trafficking, will be speaking with leaders from nonprofits that tackle similar issues including Bay Area Women Against Rape, and MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth). For those that may become more interested in this event as they read, there is an RSVP page that describes the location and other logistical details: http://publicservice.berkeley.edu/.  

I wanted to post this information because child sex trafficking in the Bay Area is an issue that does not receive much attention among the student population, and, because it is particularly relevant to us students as Global Poverty and Practice Minors. There are an estimated 100,000 children in the United States that are estimated to be involved with the human trafficking industry, yet studies estimate that anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of these victims of commercial sexual exploitation are or were formerly involved with child welfare, particularly the foster care system. Youth in these systems are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation because exploiters target youth with a history of abuse and neglect, unstable parents, and lack of positive relationships. It is also a local issue, as San Francisco is named in this report as one of the 13 national hot spots for child sex trafficking. The report itself is searing in the information that it provides, using quotes from formerly exploited youth that describe that the child trafficking movement is a multi-billion dollar commercial industry that is unimaginably harmful and violent. For example, on girl reported that “Girls are getting killed and stuff, getting found in the dumpsters. I always thing like, what if that was me or something?” Another said, “being in foster care was the perfect training for commercial sexual exploitation. I was used to being moved without warning, without any say, not knowing where I was going or whether I was allowed to pack my clothes. After years in foster care, I didn’t think anyone would want to take care of me unless they were paid. So, when my pimp expected me to make money to support ‘the family’, it made sense to me.”

With this in mind, NCYL attorney Kate Walker worked on behalf of the Child Welfare Council to create a report with key recommendations, an action that sheds light on the a large network of nonprofit and governmental organizations working together on this issue. In particular, the report notes that victims are exploited by more than one form of abuse, and they cycle through the stages of exploitation many times before they are able to leave exploitative relationships. In fact, this is reflected in the ultimate goals recommended by the reports, that 1) safe and secure emergency screening and transitional placements are made for victims, 2) that better identification is made in identifying victims and at-risk youth, 3) professionals working with youth in child-serving systems participate in mandatory training with specialized child exploitation practices, and 4) develop protocols and strategies to coordinate, collect, and share data across systems to better understand the scope of the problem as well as its needs. Clearly, this report points out that the action needed to reduce human trafficking must be made by a variety of organizations and undertaken simultaneously.

This finding is useful for our class because it points out that we may need to consider how our practice experience organizations may benefit from interacting with other organizations. For example, even if the NCYL was able to reform the child welfare system or increase the legal penalties for those that abuse these children, it would not provide them with the mental health services or direct representation in the juvenile justice system that they may need. In this way, we should conceptualize our agencies and organizations as holding expertise and experiences in pursuit of solutions though not as isolated from others possibly doing the same work or doing work that would greatly support or ease the work being done by your practice experience organization. Where does your practice organization fit in with other organizations or governmental offices working on related issues? What are the risks and benefits that your organization would experience by forming a network or participating alongside these other entities? Why do you think it may be important to understand what other work is being done related to the population that your practice experience targets?  

The full report can be accessed online here: http://www.youthlaw.org/fileadmin/ncyl/youthlaw/publications/Ending-CSEC-A-Call-for-Multi-System_Collaboration-in-CA.pdf, but I will go through a few key recommendations. 

What Is The Highest Degree of Participation Your Organization Can Have?

In class last week Professor Talwalker assigned Duraiappah et al.’s article, “Have Participatory Approaches Increased Capabilities?” as one of our readings relevant to the general theme of participatory development. I contributed during the class’s share-out on Class Exercise 1, pertaining to Duraiappah et al.’s article. I explained how I believed that my organization, Breakthrough Collaborative, could be seen as engaging largely within the 7^th degree of participation, “interactive participation,” although not fully. Professor Talwalker then posed a very interesting question, one that I would like to further address now: What is the highest degree of participation your organization can have? That is to say, is it possible for an organization like Breakthrough to ever achieve full interactive participation, and under what conditions?

Leaving class that day I thought over what Professor Talwalker had asked. It is an interesting question because I think that it is one that many of my peers in GPP 105 can identify with. We are all in the GPP minor because we want to make a meaningful impact in the world of poverty action/alleviation, but it is difficult to find an organization that is fully participatory and will address the needs of the poor head on. The only way to do this is for the organization to operate based on the desires and input of the poor themselves, by creating an equal space for decision-making and risk-sharing between the target population and the organization workers. This in turn will increase the capabilities of the poor in the development process, just as Duraiappah et al. suggested.

As optimistic as I am about the difference that one person, or one organization can make, I do think it is idealist to think that an organization can be 100% participatory. The very fact that organization workers are trying to help the poor means that they come from a place of privilege, as one student pointed out in class (I think it was Shrey?). With this fact alone, it is almost unfathomable to think of how the poor can possibly have equal part in the decision-making process and risk-sharing as does the organization. The very fact that the target population is in need of something that the service workers are not, makes the type of risk involved with the poor inherently different than that of the service workers.

Upon further analysis, I think that my organization is less participatory than I had previously thought.     As I discussed in my class exercise, one major aspect that makes Breakthrough unable to fit neatly into one degree of participation, is the fact that it also engages in participation by consultation; the program directors, external agents, and donors involved have no obligation to implement the suggestions or information generated by the participants. In order for Breakthrough to be a truly democratic organization in the development process, it must find a way to ensure the implementation of its participant’s appropriate suggestions, just as it does for its more powerful stakeholders. In complete honesty, I highly doubt that it is even possible for Breakthrough to become a fully participatory organization, or even to reach full interactive participation. The basis of the very program itself is to teach our students four core academic classes over the summer. This means that the students have no control over what they are being taught, and I believe that is something that can’t be changed without fundamentally changing the program. This is simply because the students (6^th-9^th grade) do not have enough expertise to have involvement in the curriculum development.

But that is just my organization. GPP students have their practice experiences set in a wide range of varying areas and sectors. So I ask: What is the highest degree of participation your organization can have?

First day at St. Anthony's

The great thing about working with St. Anthony is that the foundation is extremely organized. Because a large portion of their work involves the help of volunteers everyday, they handle and train the volunteers very effectively. The first step to volunteering is to attend the two hour orientation and learn about the community the foundation serves. Because the work is done in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco where there is a diverse population and rich history, the orientation serves to introduce the volunteers to that community. Our coordinator had been with the foundation a very long time, and explained the history of the foundation, why it came about, what their mission is, and how they serve the needs of the community. I  really enjoyed the orientation and the information given, I think a lot of times I participated in projects just because they sound good, without really knowing why I'm there and what purpose I have.

One thing that was emphasized in the orientation was how to interact with the guests of St. Anthony's. Most of the people that are served are homeless or extremely low income, and there might be times when they are difficult to deal with. Our coordinator said to treat them like you would treat a guest in your home, therefore make eye contact and smile because they may not get that very often from people.  Also, for volunteers on there first day, the staff highly recommends taking time to sit and interact with the guests in the dinning hall.  If there was ever to be a problem, we aren't allowed to try and solve the situation ourselves but let the trained staff of St. Anthony take over. When we are working closely with the guests, there are always trained staff throughout the dinning hall to monitor any situations and that made me felt more comfortable.

My first working day at the foundation was very hectic. I worked in the dining hall with about twenty other volunteers. There were volunteers of all ages from age 13 to even in the 90's, and some who had worked with the foundation for over 25 years. I did not at all expect so many people to come in for the meals or that I would get as exhausted as I did. The doors were open from ten to two, and guests were let in in groups. In the dining hall they serve about 2,600 meals a day, and its a coordinated effort by staff, volunteers, and those in a rehab program. The workings of the dining hall was also very organized, there was a dining hall coordinator who directed the volunteers and made sure they did a variety of jobs and get breaks. Although I was physically very tired,  I really enjoyed my first day and it felt nice being able to directly help.

Here is a link to the foundation's page http://www.stanthonysf.org/

My work with Parque La Libertad in Costa Rica

Parque La Libertad

I want to talk about my work with Parque La Libertad in Costa Rica this past summer. Every day I had to wake at 5am, make a two-hour, two-bus trip to a low-income town called Desamparados. The work of the park was to serve as a bridge to unite all the communities together within the town. It planned to be build upon the area where a previous cement factory used to operate before; much of the work of the park was to remove all the cement and build green areas and buildings for the community to both gather and share spaces and interests, as well as to recreate an ecological fauna for all to share, enjoy and protect. The mission of the park is to attract the youth of the community, specially the high-risk adolescents who are more prone to be exposed to drugs and gangs, and tempted to drop out of school due to poverty and cultural reasons. Thus far, the park wishes to attract the youth, and provide them with social benefits, to safe recreational and artistic activities, and in that way to also guide them to continue their path to education. Although the park is still under construction and still requires mush organization, already you can see the youth gathering around the park attending classes. My work there was to assist the staff, and workers in many projects, from environmental awareness projects and planting trees, to working with kids in activates, and even open up conversations with the teenagers that came to the park. It was a great experience for me because the fact that I am a native Spanish speaker, allowed me directly to integrate myself with the people of community, to understand their goals, aspirations and demands. This also allowed for them to open space of solidarity and hybridity, in where we would build of from our difference and commonalities, The park still needs much work, but It has done so much in the few years since it began, so I highly encourage anyone interested in going to Costa Rica, to check this amazing park this next summer.

 Here's a link to the website.

http://www.parquelalibertad.org

Introducing African Immigrants Social and Cultural Services: their success and relevance to the debate on planners vs searchers

Introducing African Immigrants Social and Cultural Services

I would like to introduce one organization I worked with over the summer: African Immigrants Social and Cultural Services (AISCS). Moreover, I would like to discuss the issue of planners and searchers, a topic that Ben brought it up in his recent blog post.

            In 2002, Mrs. Christine Chacha founded AISCS in order to assist African immigrants in the Bay Area. She, however, passed away in 2012 from cancer. Ever since then, Ms. Laura Mason, Mrs. Hattie Smith and Mr. Ezra Chacha have continued to grow AISCS. Currently, AISCS primarily works in running a primary school in a little village called, “Nyamagongo” in Tanzania. I learned about AISCS when I received an email from Berkeley Rural Energy Group that said AISCS was looking for volunteers to participate in its solar energy construction program.

           So I went to stay at Shirati, Tanzania for about 5 weeks this summer. Every day we walked a few miles to the neighbor village, Nyamagongo, to set up solar energy system at a primary school that AISCS has built. I am not here to bore people with my detailed saga of wiring or setting up the solar panels on the roof or even the lessons we took in the morning about backgrounds of solar energy. I want to talk about what really allowed AISCS to make a huge difference in the impoverished village of Nyamagongo.

           To start with, as background information, AISCS constructed a primary school and currently runs an education program for over 200 kids in the village; the number of students is growing every year. A number of them are receiving donor contributions to fund their education. Moreover, they are in the process of finally being recognized as a government-authorized school, which would mean that the students that graduate from here can move onto secondary education.

           One factor I noticed that allowed AISCS to achieve such things was trust among the people involved. The big liaison at Shirati, Tanzania that connected and organized the funds and efforts from AISCS was Fred, a relative of Christine Chacha. Chacha family was deeply involved in running this school and from this the organization was able to station this close, highly trustful organization member stationed in a village and build a network with the village people. The ultimate achievement was trust, a sense which allowed members from the US to send money to fund the school. Even other executive members of the organization had such close relation with Fred and people living in Shirati. I think this element is crucial because a lot of the times when an NGO from the first world sends funds to the third world, people generally do not have a solid idea of how the money is going to be used. This is a major reason that a lot of people become skeptical about NGO’s work because their donations may just help fund the NGO not the people that NGO is trying to help. Back to the main point, I saw the differences AISCS was making in the village; it was gradual but it wasn’t anything deceiving. The changes were profound and actual and I think a sense of strong trust among members built on family ties.

To the discussion that Ben brought up in his recent post. There are planners and searchers from the eyes of Bill Easterly. Planners are the top-down policy makers that implement programs without much knowledge on the adaptability or appropriateness or the program while searchers are the people that work on the ground, capable of seeing where the difference needs to come about. I am very skeptical of this dichotomy but I think there is a need for both; there are certain things that searchers such as AISCS cannot do. For example, in Shirati, the Shirati hospital served thousands and thousands of people who lived miles away because of a lack of medical care infrastructure. Worse yet, the road condition was so terrible that sometimes people passed away on the way to the hospital. Some patients had to be carried on motorcycles, not cars because the road was too narrow or bumpy. Can AISCS pave wider and safer roads? I am not sure because it is a massive project. But the Tanzanian government can. The World Bank or IMF can. This is where planners must come in and help the searchers. But how do we make sure that planners get to learn about these projects? How do we make sure planners’ large resources are put in appropriate places? I think the searchers can help them learn about these things. This is how much I learned from my experience at AISCS. The next question I ask to myself is how do we build this link, this trust between planners and searchers? Is the model AISCS has taught me, the trust built of family relation, the only way?

I would love to share more about the works that AISCS is doing. But the website www.AISCS.org will provide a better understanding. So I recommend anyone intending on doing volunteer work in Africa to check out this organization and also think about how we can better manage NGO work.

Planning or Searching for your Practice Experience

Two weeks ago, for GPP 115, I read Easterly's work on Planners vs. Searchers. He described planners as out of touch academics who set unspecific goals and create plans (or programs perhaps, from todays lecture) which are not tailored to the unique context of a country.  He attributes the failures of the World Bank and other aid organizations to their reliance on planners, who develop complex conceptual plans of action or goals, and then force these plans onto problems. He contrasts planners with searchers. Searchers are those who look for demand, who find out what people need, or what they are willing to pay for, and find a way of getting them that product.
I do not completely agree with Easterly's criticism of Sachs or the Planner Searcher dichotomy, but it did make me reconsider how I have been approaching my practice experience.

Has anyone else been planning for their practice experience, rather than searching for it? I chose to do my practice experience in Spain because I was studying abroad there. I chose to work with an organization focusing on healthcare because I have interest and experience in health care. I planned when I would work around my school schedule, and where I would work based on where I'm staying. What I didn't do was search for a problem I could fix. I didn't search for an organization looking for people with my skills, or seek out a group which was in particular need. As it turns out, the Spanish Healthcare System covers almost everyone, for almost free.

I think this also speaks to the arrogance many people have about 'solving' poverty. I assumed that because I'm almost educated and have health care experience, I could make a positive impact. Has anyone been struggling to situate themselves within their organization to make the greatest difference?

Class Infographic | Fall 2013