Dignity and not Charity

The Faiths Act Fellowship has given me the opportunity to get really into and learn about development work. Now that this fellowship is ending, I can think back at the time I started the fellowship and realize how much my perception has changed about development, community work and sustainability.

Being able to travel to Tanzania and talk to community workers, health care workers, religious leaders and average citizens definitely contributed to my understanding of the Millennium Development Goals. Prior to travelling to Africa, I did not know what to expect; the only images of Africa I had gained from North American media was the imagine of starving children with mosquitoes around their gloomy and sad faces but what I saw in Tanzania changed my perception  about Africa for ever. I saw how rich in culture and high spirited the Tanzanian people were; everywhere we went, people were dancing and singing of joy. I saw an ideal society that I wanted for Canada in Tanzania where Christians and Muslims worked side by side to ensure the well being of every community member.

Most of all, I was struck by the potential and power of the youth in Tanzania. While on my trip, I walked into a class room of about thirty fourteen and fifteen year olds. We exchanged some questions; they asked me about my life in Canada and I asked them about their life in Tanzania. When I raised the question of what these teenagers wanted to be when they grew up, I was surprised by all their answers. One student named Ali raised his hand and said that he wanted to be a politician. I asked him “why?” in which he replied “I want to a be politician because I want to change some of the corruptness in my country, I want to be a politician to make big changes and affect lives of people on a national level.” One other student named Mary raised her hand and said “I want to be a doctor because I want to heal people and save lives of my community when they sick”.

When I came out of the class room listening to their strong goals that they had for the future; I really didn’t know how to feel and what to take away from my experiences in that class room.  I remember thinking about the work I was going to be doing in Ottawa which was to work towards the eradication of malaria which is one of the number one killers in Africa. Then I thought about the youth in that class room and the next generation of young leaders in the world and suddenly I didn’t feel so bad anymore. I was really inspired by what Ali and Mary had told me about their future aspirations and I felt confident about my next eight months in the fellowship because I realized that my work didn’t involve just eradicating malaria, it involved saving the dignity and value of that youth in the class room. Wouldn’t it be so disappointing that all of their potential and power as youth of the next generation could be wiped away because of malaria?

The concept of “help” and “charity” completely changed for me after that experience. I realized that these youth don’t need to be given charity and they don’t need to helped, they need to be empowered and given opportunities. Raising money to provide families with bed nets is not giving them charity, it is maintaining human dignity by providing citizens with the resources to save their own lives to reach their goals and create a better country for their family and friends.