AJT
Outreach
Slumdog Tourism or Tikkun Olam? A PERSPECTIVE-CHANGING TRIP TO LIBERIA WITH AJWS “The opportunity and demand to observe poverty first-hand have never been greater… thanks to ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ the film that started a thousand tours.” By Lois Frank For The Atlanta Jewish Times
T enon.
hus wrote Kennedy Odede in his Aug. 9, 2010 New York Times article about the growing “slum tourism” phenom-
“Slum tourism turns poverty into entertainment, something that can be momentarily experienced and then escaped from,” he continued. The ethical question that arises from such comments was at the center of an animated discussion taking place in a poor community in Liberia in June. I was visiting the country with Ruth Messinger and 20 or so other travelers as part of an American Jewish World Service (AJWS) study tour.
Our agenda was to learn about ways that our donations are supporting positive social change in the country, but we were all highly cognizant of the thin line between helping and exploiting. To make sure that we were on the right side of this line, we defined our purpose as to witness and to share by seeing the needs on the ground and pledging to urge our own communities to do something about it when we returned home. During our visit, the fear that we might witness the needs of Liberia as voyeurs and return home having done nothing tangible about it was put to rest. By supporting AJWS, we know we are part of an ongoing effort to effect long-term change and that we were helping to empower women and girls, build peace and contribute to sustainable development, all via communitybased grassroots strategies.
JULY 13 ▪ 2012
And we saw evidence that these strategies were working everywhere we went.
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The Uphill Battle Almost 10 years have passed since peace came to Liberia, but the horrors and devastation of the years of civil war and corrupt leadership have left deep scars, both physical and psychic,
on the people and the land. In May, just one month before our visit, Liberian President Charles Taylor was sentenced to 40 years in prison for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. This was an important first step in the healing process, but clearly there is still a long road of reconciliation ahead; a generation of Liberian people has had no education at all, gender-based violence is pervasive and the infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world. Lack of electricity and plumbing remains a barrier in most of the country: Even in Monrovia, the capital, a lucky few of the privileged have a few hours of electricity a day, internet access is sporadic and running water and functioning toilets are a luxury reserved mostly for tourists and expensive restaurants. In the rural areas, there is no inside plumbing, electricity or running water. But while we witnessed this devastation, we also witnessed hope, service and empowerment and were awed at the progress happening in the name of Jews. Education in Action American Jewish World Service brings a human rights-based approach to development around the world. It makes small grants (up to $30,000 each) over multiple years to community-based organizations that approach poverty in a holistic way, using participation of the community and principles of equality, accountability and the indivisibility of human rights to effect change. AJWS goes beyond traditional aid or charity to change the structures that place people in vulnerable positions in the first place, and the evidence of this impact was everywhere in Liberia. In an open-sided, thatched, mud “peace classroom” in Bensonville – a community served by AJWS grantee Self Help Initiative for Sustainable Development (SHIFD) – a charming, shy young woman came to the chalkboard in her colorful printed lappa
TOP: The AJWS group poses with women from a Liberian village. LEFT: These literacy students are learning to write with the help of AJWS. BELOW: From L to R Ruth Messinger, head of AJWS, Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize 2011, Letty Cottin Pogrebim, founding editor of Ms. Magazine. BOTTOM: Article author Lois Frank speaks with Liberian farmers. PHOTOS/courtesy AJWS
skirt, head covered with matching fabric. She clutched her workbook and showed us her exercises: The alphabet neatly traced on lined sheets. “My name is Tamia Jabbeh,” she said. “I can write my name.” She painstakingly wrote it proudly on the chalkboard. She is 24 and the single mother of four. She hopes to be able to help her children with their schoolwork and perhaps one day have her own business selling flour with the help of a microloan; a loan of just $100 will get her started. Inside another classroom run by AJWS grantee Imani House, housed in a church adjacent to a bustling Monrovia market, 25 or so women shopkeepers came to tell us of their gratitude for the reading classes they take two evenings a week after their stalls in the market close. Then, out of the shadows a very handsome, macho
young man in wrap-around sunglasses stood up. “My name is David,” he said. “I am learning to write my name. Next year at this time I will be able to read to you. Thank you, AJWS, for my chance for an education.”