Helping, Fixing, or Serving?

"Fixing and helping create a distance between people, but we cannot serve at a distance.  We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected."

In GPP 115, I was introduced to the term "Voluntourism."  At first, I dismissed that this term would ever apply to me, thinking that I more invested in my minor than those "resume builders."  Nevertheless, that topic made me think about my role and impact in my Practice Experience.  Would I be doing more harm than good, or would I be that privileged person who imposes herself on the community I try to help? 

After reading Talwalker's "What Kind of Global Citizen is the Student Volunteer?" and participating in this week’s discussion, I have begun to think more critically about my intentions.

However, when I think about it, everyone’s intentions are different.  While listening to everyone, I noticed that no one’s thoughts toward their practice experience were the same.  Some thought that the selfishness to want to change the world was necessary, while others thought that it was impossible to make a difference in the world.  I, on the other hand, was afraid of speaking up because of the fear of saying the wrong answer.  By taking courses such as GPP, were we further separating ourselves from the communities we try to help?  By wanting to make a difference, were imposing our desires negatively on others?  

To me, I wanted to do my practice experience because I thought of it as a two-way street.  While I was contributing my knowledge and resources to the community, the community was teaching me about myself and its culture.  Maybe that thought was too idealistic to others, but it was what I believed in.  I realized that our ideas were so different, that maybe it is not our intentions that we have to be wary of, but our approach.  This reminded me of a article I read while participating in the Public Service Center.    

Rachel Naomi Remen's article, "Helping, Fixing, or Serving?" talks about three different approaches: Helping, Fixing, and Serving.  

"When we help, we become aware of our own strength.  But when we serve, we don't serve with our strength; we serve with ourselves, and we draw from all of our experiences...Service is a relationship between equals: our service strengthens us as well as others.  Fixing and helping are draining, and over time we may burn out, but service is renewing."  

Our time at our practice experience is short, and therefore there is a low chance that we will make a lasting contribution to the communities we seek to impact.  Even if our practice experiences were longer, we do not have the extensive knowledge about our sectors, nor do we have firsthand experience on the inequalities that are there.  In discussion, Professor Talwalker talked about a student who came back with cynicism because the locals refused to accept his “better” situation.  Seeking to help or fix a situation will only lead to burning out and cynicism.  Doing so is imposing one’s “better” education on the community.  Maybe it isn’t our education and knowledge that will impact our communities, but our humanity—our desire to learn their culture and work with them hand-in-hand to find a solution together. 

“Service is not an experience of strength of expertise; service is an experience of mystery, surrender and awe.  Helpers and fixers feel causal.”     

Voluntourism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mario-machado/the-privilege-of-doing-de_b_4832836.html

The topic of voluntourism really intrigues me and not just because of the witty play on words.  I was first struck by the term in GPP 115 when the class was assigned an article that left me quite discouraged about the previous outreach experience I’ve had, especially since I left feeling quite satisfied about what I did to help.  When I read Professer Talwalker’s article earlier this week, this time I felt a lot less discourage and more so aware and critical of my role as a volunteer.

I found an interesting article titled “The Privilege of Doing Development Work: Voluntourism and Its Limitations.” The article is about a volunteer reflecting on his two-year work with the Peace Corps in Paraguay.  Through the experience, he realized what it meant to do good and bad Development work.  He points out that although spending two years in Paraguay, he felt that he should have stayed longer since building essential relationships with the community takes time. A last critique is that as an outsider, we have intrinsic biases that influence what we presume to be the solutions and needs of the community. Furthermore, he states that if one is not critical of our privileged positions as outsiders who are able to do development work, then that propagates this idea of “voluntourism” rather than quality volunteer aid.  This parallels Talwalker’s article when she describes ”our privilege as our impoverishment.”  As outsiders who limit our understanding as development equated to westernization, then in facts it’s us that are the impoverished.

After reading these articles, I realized in terms of my practice experience that as a six-week volunteer, I’m not going to individually make a large impact in the lives of the community. However, in six-weeks, I can get a glimpse of the work of an organization (Blue- Med Africa) as well as the communities that the organization targets through its clinics and medical outreach.  I will not be offering a skill-set like medical experience that I know I do not have, but I do have the tools, which I will continue to develop in GPP 105, to be critical of the work that my PE organization (which is composed of professionals offering a special skill set) is doing and its impact.

High Altitude Causing Illness in Peru

By the end of last semester (Fall 2013) I had decided to do my practice in Huancayo, Peru with an NGO called FIMRC (Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children). My role as a volunteer with this program would consist of helping doctors and nurses weigh and measure children’s height and weight, be part of health campaigns, etc. Unfortunately, this practice would have been too much for me to pay and would have left me with debt in the end. When realizing that I had to change my practice experience, I was still inclined to stay with Peru because it is a country that has over 50% of its citizens living below the poverty line only receiving less than $2 a day at work and many of the children there are severely malnourished. The government in this country only provides health insurance to those who are already working (which is only a few) compared to those who have no work at all living in rural communities outside the main cities of Peru.

I could have chosen to change my practice experience entirely, however Peru is in dire need of help from volunteers to help doctors and health-care professionals working on improving the health of children in order to reduce the children mortality rate. With that being said, I am still in the process of finding another organization in Peru that focuses on children’s health but while I am in the process of doing that, I researched more on Peru such as its history, its government, and on a tourist website I found called “Altitude Sickness in Peru,” by Tony Dunnell goes into detail on how many tourists that visit Peru experience nausea, headaches, vomiting, dizziness etc.

I always knew that Peru had high altitudes but I never imagined that it caused sickness to this level. In order to combat this problem before I begin my practice experience, which I am now leaning towards Cusco, Peru (which is about 11, 152 ft compared to that of Berkeley, which is only about 308 ft.) The difference in altitude in Berkeley compared to Peru is extremely different but by there are various ways of preventing sickness from happening. It is important to allow one’s body to adjust to the altitude change especially during the first 24 hours if one is arriving by plane. Drinking plenty of fluids, avoiding sleeping pills and eating foods high in carbs such as potatoes, rice and pasta. What I found to be the most interesting from this article is that although not scientifically proven, the locals of Peru swear that by drinking coca tea or chewing on coca leaves once arriving to Peru will prevent such illnesses. By drinking this tea or chewing coca leaves in the United States a person will be positive for cocaine on a drug test. There will always be risks involved when visiting another country and although Peru has a very high altitude compared to Berkeley, I am still willing to go and give a helping hand to those in need. http://goperu.about.com/od/healthandsafety/a/Altitude-Sickness-In-Peru.htm