Solidarity, Not Charity for New Orleans: could volunteering be inhibiting sustainable progress?

Interesting article I read in Utne Reader this weekend.  I wonder about it’s applications for international development.  What do you think?  How can we improve our commitment to fighting poverty both locally and globally from charity to solidarity?  How might we engage in movement-based volunteerism?

Solidarity, Not Charity: Volunteer labor in New Orleans is getting int he way of progress

by Sara Falconer, from Briarpatch

It’s not easy getting a cab to the Lower Ninth Ward. Even now, with most of the former population cleared out, some drivers still won’t cross the Claiborne Avenue Bridge unless it’s to take a carload of gawking tourists. So when the third cab driver stops, it’s with some impatience that I ask if he knows the way.

“Oh sure, sweetie,” he drawls. “Born and raised.”

Norman is a retired firefighter who drives a cab to supplement his pension. Five years ago, after Hurricane Katrina, he patrolled the flooded streets by boat and pulled survivors from rooftops and attic windows. When he learns that my companion and I have come to volunteer with Common Ground Relief, a grassroots rebuilding project, he gets quiet and turns off the meter. “I want to show you something,” he says.

He drives several blocks past our destination, the cab’s headlights occasionally framing the sagging ruin of a house or an exposed foundation, the structure either washed away or bulldozed by the city. Finally he stops at a cheery bungalow, porch light blazing, a tidy oasis of normalcy in the darkness.

“This is my home,” Norman says, voice choked. “Volunteers rebuilt it for me.”

He hopes his return will encourage his neighbors to come back, but with homes and jobs gone, what incentive does anyone have to return? And how much difference can groups of parachuted-in volunteers make when there is such substantial work to be done?

The jarring truth, we soon discover, is that volunteers like us are as much a part of the problem as they are a part of the solution. Real change in New Orleans—the kind that will give Norman’s community a reason to return—will require solidarity of a different kind.

“What Are We Doing Here?” – Dickinson Students Rethink Aid in Africa

Post by Gina del Tito, Dickinson College

I sat somewhat nervously in the empty Great Room, with a million thoughts swirling round in my mind, none of them really having to do with issues of development aid in Africa. They mostly had to do with the fact the it was ten minutes to seven o’clock, the time of the film showing, and there were only three people in the room: myself, the filmmaker and one other student. What was I thinking, trying to host an event on the first day of classes for the spring semester at Dickinson College, with a student body of only 2200 some students to begin with?

Clammy with sweat, I began to pace, and think about all of the people I had texted, emailed, threatened and sent facebook messages to. But I should not have been so worried. Like any average college student, everyone (nearly 100) streamed in, five minutes before the beginning of our presentation.

When I presented filmmaker Tim Klein and looked out at the packed room, I did not see faces of students I had specifically asked to come, it was people from all different disciplines and social circles. All there to try and gain some insight into the question so many of us, even non-development specialists, are asking: “What are we doing here?”