Blog titles really annoy me :)

I've been working with the HIV/AIDS department for two months now and am thinking of jumping into something different for my last month. Problem is, I'm not sure what... its been really interesting (and at times slightly scary!) to see how this organisation works. Definitely a huge wide gap between how I think things would be best done, and how they are actually done - though whose to say how I would do things would actually work. We have all been very frustrated with the organisation and departments across the past two months, and learning that this frustration has carried through the volunteers that have been here for a long long time. Part of the problem is us volunteers ourselves....well not us specifically, but hte role we play in the organisation.

 

Basically, our program fees fund the entire organisation, and our motivation/frustration is the driving force in getting things done. However, because IVs only stay a month or two, trying to achieve consistency and fluidity in changing things is really really difficult. Issues that IVs address one month reappear the following month when the old IVs leave and the new ones arrive. A perfect example is the way the HIV AIDS dept does outreach...we have a team of four local volunteers and as many IVs that decide to work with them. When we sit down with groups in the community to discuss the virus, transmission and prevention, it ends up being the entire group of us when essentially, one or two individuals could do the entire presentation. So we suggest that the team be broken into groups - hey presto, our productivity is increased three fold. But then we hear from a past IV still working on camp that they did the exact same thing...and yet once they left, things automatically went back to how they were. Its a small example,. but it appears to be the culture of the organisation.

 

There are a whole range of issues that need to be dealt with for this organisation to make a bigger impact than it current does. Its not that the potential isn't there - they receive significant funding (especially relative to costs on camp), they have a constant influx of talented, motivated, hardworking IVs, they have 70 local volunteers and departments working across a range of fields. We seem to be here at an important time in the organisation...they are in the midle of a review of all the local volunteers and the director is about to leave to re-establish the org in Liberia. The director himself is one of problems - at least many IVs have problems with him, as have the local staff. Seeing him leave will hopefully bring a breath of fresh air! The two guys second and third in charge will move up into the roles and have been chatting with us on our thoughts of improving and changing things to see the org really move forward. Which is really cool and I think part of my next few weeks will be spent suggesting solutions to problems and ideas for growth. But I guess always in the back of my mind is the thought that once I leave, once our group goes, everything could go back to how it was, and the whole cycle starts again.

 

If I could do this trip over (not that I don't like what I am doing, what has happened so far...but just if I could do it again!) I would have come and worked with CBW for a month then spent a good 6 months or so here connecting with other programs and projects and not constrained by just the one. There is a lot of need here, and its clear that there is a huge need for sustainable, well thought out projects that break the 'hand out' mentality that is running rife. As one girl working here said, in many ways Buduburam is a great example of what NOT to do in development. Its pretty cool though to see the reality of why things went wrong/dont work, but then see some groups and projects that are actually working. You realise though, if you want to put bread on the table each night here in camp, you either run alittle market stall, own an internet cafe (both which have limited demand) or set up an NGO and take your share of hte funding. Back to my original thought htough, it would have been cool to dedicate a more significant amount of time and energy to this place..never fear though, I haven't extended my plane ticket and will be back early Marach...all ready to jump straight back into uni haha

 

Well thank you if you got this far...its good to get some rambling thoughts out of my head. Oh and news from today, a real tragedy on camp, a young boy fell down a water well and died. He broke his neck and was left unnoticed in the water for too long..we dont know exact details and probably never will (rumours about everything and anything are the way it goes here) but its dreadfully sad. It happened somewhere behind our house, roughly in the same kinda neighbourhood though... :-(