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.