The Meaningful Blog: volunteer uganda problems

We launched our Mama Pamba project recently. We did a lot of things right, and a lot of things wrong.

I thought I would talk about them here in the hope that others might learn from our mistakes.

What we did wrong

Not involve the global community
You all like Mama Pamba, right? Don't you wish you could have been at the fund raiser?

We know we have fans all over the world and we could have had a much bigger fund raiser if it were logistically possible. So how could we have gotten other people involved?

A few ideas spring to mind.

We could have garnered donations via text message. You know the ones: Text Dolphin to 4454 to make a $25 donation.

The big advantage with this method is that it is so easy to do. It takes seconds, requires no login credentials and uses a technology that everybody is familiar with.

The second is the use of the Meaningful Shop: A much underused tool that Meaningful Volunteer has developed. This is a bit more complicated that texting, but would of generate a sewing machine or two.

Also, why did we limit ourself to one event in one country? I know that there are at least a few of you out there who could have organized something.

Maybe something as simple as dinner with friends and 15% of the bill going towards a "Mama Pamba tip"? Maybe a pub night? Maybe selling your old clothes and giving the proceeds to Mama Pamba?

The possibilities are limitless.
The Message
We raised about $US1,000. This is great! We probably buy six sewing machines with this money plus a bunch of sewing materials.

But is that all we really wanted to do? The message is all important.

Mama Pamba is a cool name, but just what is Mama Pamba? I'm sure some people went away from the event knowing they supported something cool, but weren't exactly sure what that cool thing was.

We should have spent time talking on the microphone explaining the project and even offering spot prizes for answering quiz questions.

What's the average age of people in Buyaya (19)? What is the number one killer (malaria)?

We should have had more emphasis on the project and the problems that people face in Buyaya.

We did have a projector with a Powerpoint presentation about Buyaya on constant rotation, but it was tucked in a corner where very few people could see it.
Lack of movie footage
Yours truly was responsible for taking video footage of event so we could make a video about it. I completely forgot and had to use still images for the movie. Silly me.

What we did right
Luckily, we did a lot more things right than we did wrong.

Having non-Meaningful Volunteer people do the work
I got a lot of undeserved credit for setting this fund raiser up. We had one superstar (you know who you are) who did most of the work.

It is always great and heart warming when people step up and work hard at projects that Meaningful Volunteer has set up.
Press time
I was a little dubious about this one at first, but Megin Alvarez insisted. She sent out a bunch of press releases to local papers. Check out the resulting articles here and here.

We good some publicity, which is always good. We also had a lady randomly visit us and give us a huge box full of beads for our craft groups. We were also contacted by a business in Vancouver called My Best Friend's Closet who want to carry stock for Grassroots Uganda and the Payawpao Orchids!
The Usual Stuff
We did the usual stuff like raffles and 50-50 draws, which are always good money makers.

Summary

We made a total of $1,012.79. Click here for a breakdown.

We're planning another fund raiser in the new year. This time it'll be for a solar powered school in Uganda.

Note: This is a repost of a blog entry I made way back in September 2006 when I was volunteering in Uganda. I think the points in raises are worth revisiting and thinking about. Malcolm

Some brothers collecting firewood
and achieving more than
the average volunteer

It's not enough.
I want more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I don't want it, I just need it.
To breath, to feel, to know I'm alive.
Stinkfist - Tool

Volunteering in Africa and Asia makes you look like a great person and gives you many photo opportunities. You can say any one of the following and appear to be doing something helpful.

Oh! Oh! Look at me planting mangroves!
Yeah baby. I'm teaching the youth of Asia. Look at me go!
But wait... I also teach the elderly of Africa as well. I am the man.
And check out these photo ops with Refugee kids. I am such a top bloke.
I even paint schools.

Man, my poo must be white and not smell.

This is all - of course - a little tongue in cheek. The gifts, texts and three (!) leaving ceremonies I got from the good people of Dumangas is proof enough that I am making some sort of difference.

I do see volunteers arriving and not making much of difference. In fact, sometimes I think they are doing more harm than good. I've seen too many instances of good intentioned one-month volunteers coming in, disrupting the class room for a week or so as they find they feet, teach one or two classes per day for a couple of weeks, and then leave. How can that be helpful for the students? Was the quality of education increased by their presence? I think not.

This was also true for me in Ghana. While some of it was my own doing - weirdo social phobias preventing me from asking teachers for students to tutor - some of it was the system itself. I got bounced from classroom to classroom as teachers jockeyed for use of my services. It turned out to be a big fat waste of time. I disrupted classrooms and achieved stuff all. The best thing I did was shout at a very corrupt man.

Sometimes I think the only thing that volunteering really adds is money to a hopefully well intentioned NGO (Non Governmental Organisation).

I am in the fortunate position of being assigned to MACRO, a grass roots, non-corrupt organisation. MACRO goes to the poorest of the poor in Uganda. It goes to where nobody else goes - isolated, desperately poor villages.

I really enjoy going to the villages. Talking to the locals and experiencing village life is fantastic. How can one not enjoy being part of village sporting events and huffing and puffing my way through a community bike race? All good stuff.

Here's the thing though. While those things are undoubtedly fun, I spend very little of my time actually doing useful stuff. I occasionally teach the elderly to read, give a talk or two (on a topic I usually don't understand) and plant the odd cabbage.

I think this is all part of the package the GVN offers. GVN - the New Zealand based agency I volunteer through - offers volunteer tourism. You get to do the odd bit of volunteer stuff, but most of the time you're just experiencing the culture of the country - which is a lot of fun.

After reading The End of Poverty by Jeffery Sachs, I can't help but think I could be doing so much more.

I think I have somehow out grown the GVN experience. Ghana, and the Philippines have been a lot tourism with some volunteerism thrown in for good measure. I plan to make my experience here in Uganda primarily about the volunteerism with some tourism thrown in for good measure.

But how do you plan to do that Crazymalc?

[...]

Time to switch it around and get my teeth stuck into some sustainable, long term projects that will hopefully benefit the people of Uganda.

Best Practice Volunteerism
I've been thinking a lot about volunteering recently. [...]

The two major questions that every volunteer needs to ask themselves are:

Would this of happened if you weren't here?
If the answer is Yes, then what is the point of being here in the first place?

While talking to groups of people is fun, it would of happened if I wasn't here. Ditto for the construction of dish-drying tables and the planting of vegetable gardens.

The question of efficiency also comes into play. If you can make an already existing process more efficient, then you're doing a good job.

A good example of this is the work done by Marie and Eric in the mangrove plantations of Nalu-Oyan in the Philippines. They both worked very hard and contributed many good ideas to ensuring the best quality mangroves were planted.

Will it carry on when you're gone?
This is really a question of sustainability. Projects that carry on after you leave are the best sort. All too often I am seen well intentioned people start up projects which carry on really well when they are there, and then just fall too pieces when they are gone.

I heard about some water pumps that were installed by an NGO in the Philippines. The NGO did all the work and supplied all the materials. They left the locals with the pump and went onto other projects. Eventually the pump broke as pumps are wont to do. The locals expected the NGO to return and fix it for them.

The key ingredient that was missing from the project was ownership. The locals didn't feel as if they owned the water pump. The NGO built it, therefore they owned it, therefore it was their responsibility to fix it when it broke.

Emma - an Englishwomen with whom I volunteered in the Philippines had a good idea for the water pump project that she did. She supplied all the materials and the locals provided all the labour. The locals had some ownership in the pump and - I assume - will now be more likely to fix it when it goes wrong.

Other similar stories abound about poultry projects and pig farms.

Anything I plan to do while I am here in Uganda, must satisfactorily answer those two questions.