Posts Tagged ‘Community Development’
Posted on May 15, 2009 - by Frank
up:link – Podcast 7 – Maricar (CCT and Kaibeegan)
In this episode of the Podcast we talk to one of the people from our partner organisation in the Philippines, the Center for Community Transformation (CCT). CCT primarily works in micro-enterprise around the Philippines but has now also started a ministry working with street dwellers in Manila. We chat with Maricar about this work.
up:link - The TEAR Fund Podcast
To support the work of TEAR Fund, visit www.tearfund.org.nz or call us on 0800 800 777
Posted on March 3, 2009 - by Frank
A Response to Comments from Murray McCully
The New Zealand Herald ran an article this morning on an issue that many in the NGO sector are aware of, namely a proposed shift in how the organisation that facilitates New Zealand government foreign aid is structured.
At the moment, the budget for foreign aid is facilitated through an entity called NZAid. I do not wish to go into the details of how NZAid is structured, its history and the proposed future, what I do want to address is two sentiments the Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, expressed in the article.
Posted on October 8, 2008 - by Frank
The Strength of Co-operatives
When discussing Fair Trade and the use of co-operatives as a healthy business model in developing areas, I often get asked what a co-operative (co-op) is. Allow me to give an explanation here for people who may not have grasped an understanding of this business model before, and allow to me to share why I think it is a strong model for developing areas.
Posted on September 4, 2008 - by Frank
Humanitarian Jobs
With the ever growing awareness of humanitarian issues around the world related to aid and community development, there is a corresponding desire growing amongst many people to get themselves directly involved in humanitarian work. Because of this, many people are specifically looking for humanitarian jobs.
Because the aid and development sector is so large and growing at an alarming rate with new organisations popping up all the time, many people have no idea where to start to get themselves involved.
There are many options available involving different skill levels.
First and foremost, volunteers are always wanted. Most organisations have volunteer programmes that involve advocacy positions and sometimes, direct work amongst the peoples that such groups specifically work with. This is a valuable port of call for anyone seeking to engage in humanitarian jobs, but with no experience or specific education in this area. It can act as a testing ground for whether the desire to pick up a humanitarian job is simply an emotive, untested, romanticised ideal, or something more grounded. You never know though, even a romanticised ideal can be developed into something more cemented via volunteer work.
If you are looking to volunteer, decide first whether you want to engage in hands on work or act as an advocate for an organisation. If you decide for hands on work, you need to decide whether you want to offer your services to a local organisation (city missions, food banks etc) or be more global – there are organisations whose work abroad is completely based around what volunteers have to offer. Good examples are Unite for Sight and their Volunteer Abroad system, Cross Cultural Solutions and Global Volunteers.
If you wish to engage in a humanitarian job locally as an advocate for an organisation whose work is overseas, just get in touch with them and see if they offer any sort of advocacy programme where you can engage in helping to raise awareness of what they do and help to raise money for their work.
Paid humanitarian jobs can be found as well. Much humanitarian work abroad now involves skills and knowledge in the area of community development. There are specific courses that can be taken for this. Other areas that are often engaged by humanitarian organisations are management and marketing. Volunteer and advocacy bases need to be managed and promotion and awareness raising are key to the survival and growth of such organisations. Events management is an important role as well. Upskilling in these areas can be extremely valuable for those seeking humanitarian jobs.
For those seeking paid work in the humanitarian sector the best thing to do first is research. Research the organisations engaged in the work you are interested in a find one that aligns with your values. Find an organisation you can be passionate about and then contact them – find out if they have any work on offer and if not, ask them to keep you up to date on any positions that become available.
If you’re not fussy and simply want to find something, there are places on the internet you can look to find available humanitarian jobs around the world:
International Career and Employment Weekly – International Development and Assistance
Those are some good places to start. If you’re looking, never forget that Google and the telephone are your friend. Happy job hunting.
Posted on August 27, 2008 - by Frank
Emergency Aid and Community Development
When many of us picture aid and charity to developing nations, I think we often picture the heady times of the 80’s and the aid that poured into Ethiopia due to the work of people like Bob Geldof and Live Aid. We were bombarded with images of poverty and rightly the world’s heart was moved, resulting in one of the biggest outpourings of aid and charity that the world has ever seen. Aid in the forms of food and supplies poured into the starving region, alleviating much need.
At that time it filled a gap, but some would argue that it was also somewhat naive in that it failed to address long term issues and simply created dependency. The ongoing problems of that are being seen now, with the effects of the latest Ethiopian famine destroying the lives of many and the nation being ill equipped to cope without depending on a large amount of outside assistance. There are clearly internal issues that need to be addressed, with Ethiopia having a large army that uses much resource, but it cannot be denied that the dependency on aid has somewhat crippled the nation.
It is this problem that many have in mind when they speak of it being futile supporting NGO’s (Non Governmental Organisations) working in and amongst communities in developing nations. But it is here that we can highlight the difference between straight aid and community development.
Let’s use TEAR Fund New Zealand (part of the global network of Compassion International partners) as an example of a healthy model.
TEAR Fund New Zealand engages in emergency aid in crisis situations as a part of what they do, with an eye for long term stability and development where such crises have had an ongoing detrimental effect, but by far their greatest work is in ongoing community development and long term advocacy.
The TEAR Fund model is built on partnering with local churches and projects in poverty stricken areas to equip, empower and resource indigenous groups to solve their own problems. Indigenous groups are encouraged towards problem solving that leads to long term stability and eventually, independance that sees them no longer needing the services of organisations like TEAR Fund. It is a long term strategy where child sponsorship programmes that equip an up and coming generation, and micro-enterprise schemes that give a hand up to local entreprenuers are a central part of that development.
The community development model is a very different aid strategy than the emergency aid that flooded into Ethiopia in the 80’s. Community development has become a science that looks to move communities towards independance rather than third party dependance. Good community development takes into account the social intricacies of that which it is partnering with. No longer can we rest back and use the wrong assumption of irresponsible aid as a reason not to give. Whilst such irresponsibility continues in some organisations, there are many organisations involved in the sort of community development we would endorse.
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Image in post: CC Some Right Reserved. Original by Carf.
Posted on August 5, 2008 - by Frank
Jerald and Tina Hernandez – Dental Work in Guatemala
About the authors: Jerald and Tina work with YWAM (Youth With a Mission) and live about 3 hours away from Guatemala City. Jerald is from Nicaragua and Tina is from New Zealand. Their work focuses on healthcare and community development.
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Last week we were joined by Bill and Peggy Pratt, Luke their grandson and a family friend, Kelsey, all from Washington along with Jacobo and Janet Pineda from here in Guatemala.
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