Cow thieves

     Everyone has their own personal obstacles to moving forward or achieving their goals in life, some more complicated than others to resolve. But when it comes to cultural issues or things you have learned since birth that everyone around you holds as a truth, how can you afford to believe otherwise?
     One of the issues I keep struggling with is how do you convince people to build differently to create a healthier environment even though it goes against what society tells them? I'm talking about cow thieves here, not structural or religious issues.
     When you walk through any village in rural northern Bangladesh, you'll find homes with tiny windows. They are dark and have little air circulation. And if you ask why they build that way, it's because of thieves. Everything they own is in that tiny space, so they need to protect it anyway they can. Kids still study by kerosene lamps in dark rooms, just like my father did 70 years ago. Even during the day, in full sunlight, the rooms are  Air circulation is poor, so if one family member has a respiratory illness, chances are everyone will develop it.
     Most protected of all is the family cow. They are expensive to get but can provide income through the milk they produce for a long time. I asked what about getting a big bell to put around it's neck like I've seen in Switzerland, so you know where your cows are. Apparently Bangladeshi cow thieves are incredibly smart, and can cut through those cow bell straps in the middle of the night and steal your cow while you sleep.
     So breathing clean air and keeping your eyesight isn't enough incentive to having larger windows for better light and ventilation. What would then be worth risking?

Getting Everyone Involved

     When dealing with community projects in rural areas, one of the toughest issues is long term job creation. There are generally plenty of day labor jobs available during the construction of a project, but not many long term, and not many that create transferable skills. Women are usually stuck with the more labor intensive and least paid positions, like carrying water or hauling bricks.

     Even when special care is take to hire more women, the issue that inevitably comes up is: well, who is doing what they normally do during the day at home? Getting water, preparing food, taking care of the children, etc. Erinn McGurn, Founder and Executive Director of SCALE Africa (scaleafrica.org) in Zambia, said she sometimes has problems finding women who want to work outside of the home on their projects because if they do, there isn't anyone left to take care of the household duties.

     

     That's a big issue. Generally, the person who earns the money tends to have the most to say about how it is being used. This usually makes the wishes of the wives and children less important than those of the breadwinning husbands. What I found in my discussions with the Women's Associations in Bangladesh is that even when they handed most of their income over to their husbands, the little bit that they were able to save made a huge impact in their and the children's lives.

     One story I learned about concerning women working on the construction of a  school in Bangladesh, was that the wives of the men working on the school got jealous. The solution? Hire the wives! What ended up happening was that the men started then flirting with their own wives instead, and not only added extra income to the entire family but strengthened their relationship as well.

     A new approach in community development has shifted the focus from dealing with only women or only men, to focusing on the entire family as a unit and trying to deal with everyone's hopes and aspirations, including those of the children. When the family starts to work as a unit and understands how important everyone's contributions are, the work tends to be more suitably delegated.

     The family development approach looks at where the family is now, what they have so far accomplished, what they have and what they want to achieve in 5 years. Then they look at how would it be possible to achieve those goals. What training would they need to have? How much money do they need to save? How much money can they realistically save given their current situation? What kinds of alternative sources of income would be they be interested in learning about?

     The charity approach just doesn't have long lasting results. It's a continuous circle of dependance on the kindness of strangers. And when the strangers luck runs out, so does your. Building on people's own dreams, and helping them achieve what they want, and not what an outsider thinks works well in that particular climate or culture, is the only way to insure participation from the focus group. You aren't giving them anything except for the hope and the ideas to make their dream a reality.

     For everyone's dreams to be realized, you can't leave out 50% of the population and expect their happiness to be taken care of with the trickle down effect. Everyone needs access to the power to be able to achieve their dreams. Everyone.

     

To hear more about the work Erinn is doing in Zambia check out her video:

SCALEAfrica from Erinn McGurn on Vimeo.

Pop - Up Gallery in Munich!

For those of you in the Munich area looking for something to do next Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, come check out a Pop - Up Gallery I'll be exhibiting in. We're featuring a variety of fine art, including, paintings, photography, and mixed media, as well as some musical performances and readings by local artists.

I'll be showing pictures from my last trip to Bangladesh. For a sneak peek of what I'll be showing, here's a few samples:

 

 Hope to see you there!