Stepping Stones of Development

This week, I have thought a lot about international development in general, and what exactly my role is in Vietnam. International development is probably the most difficult thing to define, and this statement has progressively become more and more real to me with each year of undergrad experience. To me, international development has always been to not only enhance the quality of life for individuals who are living in poor conditions, but also give them opportunities to help themselves out of poverty. It also means “hope” to me; there must be hope that those living in poverty have the capability to break free from this cycle to start a better life. Recently, I have been starting to understand that bringing about development does not necessarily begin with hope (hope should be an on – going sensation), but it rather begins with humility and with your heart in the right place, even if it means you bring about a temporary moment of happiness for someone else.

If someone comes to a developing country thinking that he or she is better than the people of that country, and is more knowledgeable about how life should be lived, that person will never be able to bring about a positive change. I have determined that a desire to do good things, a positive attitude, and humility is important on all levels of this international placement, and I never realized it more than I did on Sunday, November 4th. A fellow INDEVOUR Stephanie invited us to go with her co – worker’s youth group to the Tan Son district, Phú Thọ province in Northern Vietnam to take part in their program “Be Friends of Children.” Essentially, this youth group is a team of university and high school students that does community and social work in various poor Vietnamese provinces. They get sponsors to fund their trip and help them purchase gifts to give to the village children and their families. For the program we helped with, the gifts included things like chips, candies, warm bedding, and school scholarships for the community’s “overly – poor students.” Out of these gifts, the scholarships made the most sense to me because at least it is helping the children get an education, even if the scholarship sums per student were not very high. After speaking to my own manager about this group (she was a part of one when she was in school), I was informed that in poor villages such as the one we went to, the children are encouraged to stay home and help their parents work, and if they receive a scholarship, the money may not be used for school, but rather to help the family buy food and get through the hard winters which is more essential to survival. Moreover, I don’t think the practice of giving handouts to children of poor communities is going to help them out of poverty, but for the duration of the program, while the volunteers were playing games with the kids and giving treats to them, they seemed to be really happy.

on our way to the school ground. We took a truck up the mountains

Maybe these acts of development are not necessarily the key to ending poverty, nor will they make a grand difference in the children’s lives in the long run, but the volunteers’ hearts were definitely in the right place and one could tell they were genuinely happy to be there. They were humble to the fact that they were from the city, where living conditions are 10 times better than these villages, and were talking and playing with the children and their families and trying to learn everything about their life and day to day activities. I got to sit down with a volunteer and a few children, speak with them, and play Simon Says and other games with them. They were all so happy and enthusiastic and loved to be interacting with me; it was such a wonderful thing to experience. I thought about my host mom and host brother, Kien, and why I sit with him from time to time and help him with his homework or why I help my host mother make dinner and get to know her and about the experiences she’s had. These acts will not give them better living conditions in the long run, but will make an impression on them for the short time that I am here. They’ve taught me the factors of humility and having your heart in the right place are just as important to international development as big projects are. They serve as stepping stones into the bigger picture of development and can perhaps steer you in to making grand changes for communities in poverty in the future.

My Trip to Bao Lam

Pac Pha Village Researchers

This week I have been thinking development projects. During the course of our undergrad, we studied numerous NGOs as well as their development projects. We learned about what qualities make a project effective and why projects sometimes fail to bring about development. I have been heavily pondering this topic because last week I went on my first monthly field visit with my host organization, WARECOD, for one of our larger projects. We left on Friday for a six day trip to the Cao Bang province in Northern Vietnam to conduct some research. The entire experience was so great, and very different from the lifestyle I’ve had in Hanoi thus far. The scenery of the mountains and trees was indescribably beautiful, the air was so clean and fresh, and everyone who lived there seemed to be in such harmony with the earth. The villagers that I met were extremely hospitable and showed me many things from digging for cassava to  making a sticky rice and mung bean cake; they were even kind enough to share some of their sugar cane with me (which is very tough to eat but also very delicious). Moreover, this was the first time I got to witness one of our projects at hands – on level, and I feel like it really allowed me to understand and grasp the whole of its initiative. I noticed many components of this project that could create positive changes for the community we engaged with.

Che Pen Village Researchers

The project that we are executing is called Promoting Local Adaptation of the Gam River Basin’s Water Management to Climate and Environmental Changes. It is funded by a German organization called Rosa Luxemburg, and has a three year implementation period. Basically, WARECOD works with local researchers of two villages (Che Pen and Pac Pha) in the Bao Lam district of the Cao Bang province to collect local knowledge about extreme whether events in the area and how they negatively affect the livestock and harvest of the local people living in the basin, and therefore deteriorate their livelihoods. WARECOD pays the local researchers to investigate these issues and helps them to build their own database from the collected knowledge. During the first few days of each field visit, the local researchers work with the WARECOD staff to organize their information and develop their presentation skills. On the last day of the field work, WARECOD puts together a workshop and invites representatives from Rosa Luxemburg, members of the Cao Bang Department of Natural Resources, local authorities, and other relevant stakeholders. The local researchers then get to exercise their presentation skills by explaining to the audience their collected information and their recommendations on mitigating the effects of climate change and extreme weather events. WARECOD will then create a book based on the collected information and distribute it to the local authorities who can then easily convey the message to the rest of the people of the district.

My verdict on this project is that it is effective. Regularly, the provincial authorities are first given instructions on how to behave in the wake of extreme weather conditions from the central Vietnamese government, and then they pass this information to the local people. It is a very top – down approach and sometimes the local people do not fully understand what climate change is, and why certain behaviours must be practiced to mitigate its affects. This project aims to integrate the bottom – up approach with the traditional top – down approach by having local researchers investigate these issues and create their own database. It empowers this group of locals to understand the changing conditions of the earth and ensures them that their knowledge and specific observations are very relevant and worthwhile. Some of the local people have worked on the land for their entire lives and have more knowledge and insight than they are accredited for. An admirable observation I made from this field visit is that there were many local female researchers involved with this project. The WARECOD staff encouraged them to participate and speak in the workshop and deliver their ideas to the present stakeholders.

Day of the Workshop. The women dressed in special traditional garments because this is was considered a very special day for them.

Perhaps this project will not bring about large – scale development for all of Vietnam, but it certainly helps this small province and district move in the right direction by empowering locals and women. It integrates a bottom up approach into a traditionally top down system which is far more effective than simply having local authorities pass information to local people without having them understand it.