‘But do you actually do any good?’
As a foreign aid worker I often get that question, usually asked rhetorically
by my travelling friends who have long ago made up their minds that ‘expats’
are a waste of space. They punctuate their prejudice with pithy anecdotes
from their travels – tales of drunken UN workers they saw picking up girls
in bars, the 4×4 cars with logos of famous charities spotted on safari
in African game parks. Or the aid workers who commandeered a luxury local
villa (complete with swimming pool) upwind from the refugee camp.
And many foreign aid workers are as quick to stereotype travellers.
There is the bargain-hunting backpacker who barters locals under the poverty
line, or the holidaymaker glued behind a video camera who wanders into
a war zone.
I recently saw these counterpoints crystallised in a string of messages
posted on the Internet, on a travellers’ bulletin board. The comments
kicked off with a backpacker in Africa who called foreign aid workers
‘the ultimate travel snobs, on some kind of human suffering safari’.
Another weighed in with: “The majority of foreign workers I have
come across in east and central Africa are just there for the money and
good life.”
Aid workers – who obviously are tuned into travellers’ web
sites – quickly hit back. Said one: “Can you imagine what it was
like in post-genocide Rwanda? I can, I was there. So if aid workers
want to get drunk and blow off a little steam then I can understand.”
Another added: “What the hell business does a back-backer have being
in either a war-zone or a disaster site? Chances are good that they are
getting in the way.”
And so it flowed on with arguments launched from both sides of the divide.
I read with great interest, perhaps because I have a foot in both camps.
I had worked in long-haul adventure travel years before I became a Logistician
for MSF. So I have met a myriad of traveller types, just as I now know
a kaleidoscope of aid workers, of varying competencies and qualities.
I like to think there is good on both sides.
Travel is the world’s biggest industry and potentially a huge power
for economic good. Tourism, properly managed, can generate a quick flow
of cash from rich to poor pockets. And those hard-bitten backpackers
(the same ones who slag off aid workers) are the pioneer species of their
type – hardy weeds who spread into those corners of the globe still
‘caution strongly advised’ by the Foreign Office, but precursors
for more lucrative tourism that will surely follow if better times come.
Do aid workers do good? I can only talk from my own experience. As a
field worker for Médecins Sans Frontières in Colombia I have never doubted
for a minute the value of our project. I worked with MSF in the conflict
zone, helping get mobile health clinics to a civilian population terrorised
by opposing war gangs; guerrillas, paramilitaries or drug gangs. In most
cases these villages were abandoned by the state, or worse subjected to
barbarities by the same state forces supposedly there to protect them.
Often we were the only outsiders to reach these villages. I will never
forget the joy of the campesinos who come to greet us. Just our
presence in this troubled zone was as vital as our medical work. Alongside
our local and dedicated Colombian counterparts, we ran risks every day
to get our work done, and as expats ‘in charge’ we often worked
months without a day off. It was not a holiday.
Yes, I admit, at first I was thrilled at the ‘exclusivity’
of our mission, seduced perhaps by the frisson of being a one-and-only
in the backwoods of a country at war. No, I can’t guarantee that
our work – however welcome in the short term – will affect
the torturous path of Colombia’s 40-year war.
Because of course aid workers cannot cure all of the world’s ills,
any more than travellers and tourism can provide a post-op panacea. Both
have the power for good and harm.
But I would like to see those lush hills of Colombia to be traversed
by happy mountain-bikers. The campesinos, in between farming avocados,
guiding birdwatchers and orchid lovers along the banks of clear streams.
Homesteaders sell bowls of fragrant chicken stew to grateful hikers.
The abandoned health posts are repaired, the village schools get their
roofs back, the bullet holes are plastered over, and a teacher welcomes
his young smiling students. Then I would be happier to be on holiday
than working as an expat.
Steve has been on 3 missions for medical aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) in Colombia and El Salvador. He is currently in Angola as an MSF
Logistician on a primary health care and nutrition project. Take a look
at www.uk.msf.org for more info on
volunteering for MSF.
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