Unfortunately, the procedures for the actual registration and de-worming were a bit...ahem...underdeveloped. And by underdeveloped I mean chaotic. It started out simple enough. Duncan and Jaffar gave a talk about malaria, how it is transmitted, and how people can protect themselves. They gave a demonstration on how to put together and properly use one of the Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets. Later we divided everybody up into about four or five groups and one or two of us manned each one with local translators (except for Judith who had to enlist the help of some of the students from her social marketing youth group). We wrote down the name of each child and parent we treated, checked it against our ECD list, and gave each de-worming pills. We gave the youngest children got a mosquito net. Despite the disordered craziness, it was going great.
That is until the nets and the meds meant for the ECD kids ran out. Leaving a lot of very pissed off people wondering where their goodies were. There were even people there from Ethiopia who had heard about the even through the vast informal network and had walked with kids all the way from Kuergen--about a six hour walk. When we started to wrap up, most just begged for any of the goods. It was terribly difficult to tell them that we only had enough drugs and nets for the young kids that attended the center. Many though, were a bit more vociferous in demanding the nets and the meds. It's entirely understandable, they walked from who knows where, waited for several hours, watched others get meds and nets, only to be denied at the end. On the other hand it got a bit nasty as pleas turned into yelling in some cases. I'm not sure who did it, but I definitely got whacked over the head with a stick or a piece of rope while I was kneeling in the other direction.
As I mentioned previously, aid dependency is a very real problem and yesterday, thanks in part to some disorganization and poor planning, it reared its nasty side. The trick of it all is to somehow continue to ensure that basic goods and services are in some way being produced and distributed, even as NGO's shift their programming away from relief aid towards development. And avoid getting smacked in the process.
3 comments:
I'm sorry to hear you got hit! That's terrible. It's hard to think that you have come all this way to help people and you end up being the one who has to deliver the bad news and suffer the consequences. I guess it's understandable why they were upset, but I'm just sorry to hear that your volunteering and the supplies that you did give out won you a smack to the head. It's a complicated process. Just remember how proud we all are of you and how much we believe in you.
Mojo got hit once like that last winter while he was providing warm blankets to Arctic Hairless Chihuahuas who were all freezing. His contingency plan worked out well though... He was eventually hailed as a god and hero by the local animals. Very interesting that he decided to come home.
Jeez Louise.
You take good care, and keep being awesome.
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