Politics
A rainy day in Kampala. I'm trying to download flash so I can build the site. It says it's going to take another 9 hours.
As I've mentioned before, there's a lot of tension here between ACF and it's volunteers. Last night Jim, the president of ACF, gave a sort of informal speech at dinner about the tension and ways to resolve it, which he and I had talked at some length about earlier that day.
I'm too new to draw any solid conclusions, but here are some of my thoughts so far:
I think many volunteers feel alienated and frustrated with the charity when they see things like staff not being paid on time, or money going towards different priorities than what they feel is right, when they've paid a lot of money to the charity to come and volunteer. I think this stems from the feeling that their program fee is a donation to the charity, however I don't think this is quite right.
People pay around US$600 a month, which works out to about $20 a day. ACF provides us with 3 meals a day and accomodation, which means we're probably paying roughly the Ugandan market rate for the services we're being provided. Nowhere in the application that I filled out does it call the program fee a donation, so to expect to have a say in how that ACF spends that money is not entirely fair.
And although we are providing services to ACF, no-one here signed on for barter work, they signed on for volunteer work, so to expect anything like food or accomodation in return contradicts the nature of the agreement. If you washed dishes at a restaurant in exchange for a meal, no-one would call it volunteering.
And volunteers have plenty of say on how they choose to help and what they put their money towards beyond the program fee. The program fee is also substantially lower than most agencies I've seen.
Then at the end of the day, all the volunteers get on a plane and fly back to our safe, rich countries with running water, permanent electricity, good health care and well paid jobs. The staff at ACF don't get to do that, they have been here much longer than any of the volunteers and will be here well after we're gone. They grew up with the people the foundation was created to help, and as such I think it's important to try to trust their judgement in what works and what doesn't, what's important and what is not, especially working within a culture so different from your own.
At the same time, in investing that money and trust into the organization, there is a natural and reasonable expectation that the profit made and hours of work given will be used to further the ambitions and work of the charity. There is also a very reasonable expectation that the charity you're helping is honest and genuine in their intentions.
And there are some things that concern me there. The biggest worry I have is the fear of the charity that many of the locals seem to have. People will talk to me and make me promise not to tell anyone that I spoke to them, or if they come out with us in the evening they'll have to meet away from ACF and there will be an alibi that everyone agrees on in case they are caught. Maybe there's a good reason behind this, but I don't know what it would be, and it makes me nervous about the organization.
Yesterday I told ACF's president, Jim, that I was going to be completely honest with him about any issues I had, and that would probably make him angry with me every so often, but in the long run it would be for the best. So I will talk to him about any concerns I still have in a couple of weeks when I have a more solid understanding of how everything works around here.
No conclusions yet.
As I've mentioned before, there's a lot of tension here between ACF and it's volunteers. Last night Jim, the president of ACF, gave a sort of informal speech at dinner about the tension and ways to resolve it, which he and I had talked at some length about earlier that day.
I'm too new to draw any solid conclusions, but here are some of my thoughts so far:
I think many volunteers feel alienated and frustrated with the charity when they see things like staff not being paid on time, or money going towards different priorities than what they feel is right, when they've paid a lot of money to the charity to come and volunteer. I think this stems from the feeling that their program fee is a donation to the charity, however I don't think this is quite right.
People pay around US$600 a month, which works out to about $20 a day. ACF provides us with 3 meals a day and accomodation, which means we're probably paying roughly the Ugandan market rate for the services we're being provided. Nowhere in the application that I filled out does it call the program fee a donation, so to expect to have a say in how that ACF spends that money is not entirely fair.
And although we are providing services to ACF, no-one here signed on for barter work, they signed on for volunteer work, so to expect anything like food or accomodation in return contradicts the nature of the agreement. If you washed dishes at a restaurant in exchange for a meal, no-one would call it volunteering.
And volunteers have plenty of say on how they choose to help and what they put their money towards beyond the program fee. The program fee is also substantially lower than most agencies I've seen.
Then at the end of the day, all the volunteers get on a plane and fly back to our safe, rich countries with running water, permanent electricity, good health care and well paid jobs. The staff at ACF don't get to do that, they have been here much longer than any of the volunteers and will be here well after we're gone. They grew up with the people the foundation was created to help, and as such I think it's important to try to trust their judgement in what works and what doesn't, what's important and what is not, especially working within a culture so different from your own.
At the same time, in investing that money and trust into the organization, there is a natural and reasonable expectation that the profit made and hours of work given will be used to further the ambitions and work of the charity. There is also a very reasonable expectation that the charity you're helping is honest and genuine in their intentions.
And there are some things that concern me there. The biggest worry I have is the fear of the charity that many of the locals seem to have. People will talk to me and make me promise not to tell anyone that I spoke to them, or if they come out with us in the evening they'll have to meet away from ACF and there will be an alibi that everyone agrees on in case they are caught. Maybe there's a good reason behind this, but I don't know what it would be, and it makes me nervous about the organization.
Yesterday I told ACF's president, Jim, that I was going to be completely honest with him about any issues I had, and that would probably make him angry with me every so often, but in the long run it would be for the best. So I will talk to him about any concerns I still have in a couple of weeks when I have a more solid understanding of how everything works around here.
No conclusions yet.
2 Comments:
At 8:33 PM, Anonymous said…
Hello Rich,
Remember Rebecca from Vancouver? Just heard from your pop in Toronto about your brave adventure! Excellent exposure to really appreciate your own life in, yes, our nice safe countries with running water. Keep up the good work, and I'll try to get people here in Edmonton to donate to your charity's cause. You truly are part of the solution.
Take care,
Rebecca
At 8:02 AM, Anonymous said…
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
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