Kenya to Shirley Warren?

Chris — 31 July 2008 - 1:38pm

Some friends of mine at the church we are part of are thinking of going to Kenya. The idea came from Ben who has always had an ethusiasm for using his business skills to help people in developing countries. That might be starting a business that trades with African countries to generate export wealth. Or it might be running a business in Africa employing local people. Or it might be teching/assisting Africans to run good businesses so that they can trade their way up the prosperity ladder. Or something else.

As the plan to go out took shape, it became clear their were others with skills that could be useful. So there are now 3 broad aims for the trip:

To help a training centre to think through how they can opperate profitably and sustainably.
To help a health center become better at delivering primary health care.
To help a hostle caring for disabled children assist these children in moving into independant living as they grow older.

The people going will all be able to use their skills in different ways to meet one or other of these aims. These are skills they use everyday in work (or did when before retirement).

Normally, when we think of using our skills to serve God we think within the confines of the church structures. So someone with financial skills is required to keep the accounts and manage the budgets. Someone with technical skills will likely get involved with the PA desk. So going to Kenya is somewhat different. And exciting.

It got me thinking. I might go to Kenya with them. It would be great to use my skills in that way. And it would be great to learn a bit about assisting others in this way. Not sure if I will yet, need to decide in the next couple of days.

But it also made me ponder. Can we not be offer our skills to parts of our city that need them? When we think of helping the community we think of doing something to them. But what about if we offered to help. For example, could we work through a local church in say Shirley Warren where there is high unemployment levels to run a course in starting a business? Or make another business more profitable Would it work. How could we go about it? Is this the kind of thing we should be doing?

I'd be interested to hear any thoughts you might have.

Why Kenya?

Eddie (not verified) — 31 July 2008 - 2:32pm

I've always wondered why so many teams like this go to Kenya. It's true that by Western standards Kenya is very poor, but by African standards it does very well. What's more, Kenya is home to hundreds and hundreds of existing Christian ministries. Having flown around Africa a lot, I was always struck that no flight from Europe to Kenya was complete without at least one short-term Church team going off to do some sort of mission work, but you would rarely see such teams going to other countries.

The cynic in me thinks that perhaps the answer to this is something to do with amazing game parks, wonderful beaches and the fact that you can speak English in Kenya. In reality, I think that the answer is probably more to do with the fact that the shear number of ministries there creates a gravitational tug that draws others into the orbit. People hear about work in Kenya from other missionaries and it is easier to find contacts who will set up short term trips. Meanwhile, pioneer areas get much less attention and attract less help.

Contrasting Shirley Warren and Kenya, I'd suggest that your skills would be much more useful in Shirley. You have the cultural background to know which business skills are useful there and to understand the culture and regulatory climate that people are dealing with. And, of course, there are far fewer Christians by head of population than there are in most parts of Kenya.

Don't get me wrong; I've spent a fair bit of time in Kenya and have many good Kenyan friends. I'm sure that a short term team could achieve some good there - but I'm far from convinced that this would be the best place to put such efforts in order to achieve a real impact.

Hi Eddie. Thanks for the

Chris — 31 July 2008 - 3:11pm

Hi Eddie. Thanks for the thoughts. If we were starting again, what would your ideas be to achieve more? I have to say I was a little surpised by the choice of destination, but I don't think Helen C could be accused of taking soft options following trips to genuinely dangerous places around the world. But I am genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts, and not in just justifying the choice!

The link to doing things locally will come later. The Kenya trip catches the imagination more unfortunately. But stories are powerful and might give inspiration to do things locally on similar lines.

My comments were meant to be

eddie (not verified) — 31 July 2008 - 4:00pm

My comments were meant to be general musings, not related specifically to this trip. I've talked to Ben and I understand why they are looking at East Africa - in their case it makes sense. If this trip is to support them, then East Africa is also a sensible destination.

I don't know enough about what you are planning to give specific advice, but in general I'd just say that you should remember that cross cultural development work is a professional discipline all of it's own. The team members should have some orientation to that. At the very least, they should read a basic background book

When Charity Destroys Dignity (http://www.kouya.net/?p=543),
The White Man's Burden by William Russell Easterly, or
Walking with the Poor by Brent Myers

would be good places to start. Each person going should also read about the politics and culture of Kenya - even a few blog posts would be far better than nothing.

Thanks for the tips. I know

Chris — 31 July 2008 - 4:25pm

Thanks for the tips. I know that an orientation day is planned, and I'll pass the recommendations for books on the the team.

I totally agree with your comments about the damage charity can do. In fact, for me this is the most exciting part of the trip as it is the exact premise we are starting from. I have begun to see that there may be direct link between increasing aid and reducing productivity and aspiration, both in Africa and here in the UK. The aim of this trip is to explore if there are ways we can help that won't be as damaging (as you pointed out regarding the Glenn J. Schwartz book, there doesn't seem much good stuff on this).

I'd agree with your points in that post about learning too. Learning how to serve Africa and also how we can do the same locally. That's for me.

Indicators

eddie (not verified) — 31 July 2008 - 4:47pm

"The aim of this trip is to explore if there are ways we can help that won't be as damaging."

How will you measure this?

The bottom line is that there will always be stuff you can do, but measuring the long term impact rather than the short term feel-good factor is extremely difficult.

Good question. I'd suggest

Chris — 31 July 2008 - 5:01pm

Good question. I'd suggest that we could see this by identifying the problems with the current model (for example dis-empowerment, dependancy, stagnating or reduction in long term prosperity) and then through maintained contact with those we meet we can see if these things emerge as a problem or if we are able to see the opposites - empowered people able to sustain themselves better than before our contact. That may be terribly naive but makes sense to me at least.

Whether this will happen in this first case I don't know. But that would be the longer term plan either in this location or elsewhere.