Development

Eight dollars for Elizabeth

Three weeks later, Peter came back home to Slovakia. He was very happy, because was able to save somebody's life. But when the adrenalin had lowered down, the analytical part of his personality started to operate.

Why would it be a mistake to pay for the penicillin? What would be a more effective strategy to help Elizabeth?

Elizabeth needed the relief - lying in agony in her house, she was not able to help herself and needed somebody who would help her. Was Peter the right person to help her? Wasn´t there anybody else from the local community or a local organization that could help her? Relief was the right approach, but Peter was not the right person to provide it. Peter did not take into account local capacities. In fact there was enough time to come back to the workshop and ask participants, whether they could help Elizabeth. Even if the refugees were extremely poor, they might have been able to pay 8 cents each, to pay the penicillin for Elizabeth. To give money was much easier and faster than ask the refugees to help Elizabeth.

And that is the problem of many efforts: desire of people from rich countries to make a quick solutions which weaken slow processes needed to create long-term and effective development.

Why it matters? Elizabeth needed, apart from relief, also needed to have a supporting structure within her community for her long-term survival. Peter and Keziah were not able to provide it for her. Peter left the country soon and Keziah did not live at the same place as Elizabeth. Elizabeth needed members of her own community to accept her as one of them. When Peter gave her 8 dollars, he lost the chance to create relationships between Elizabeth, and local support structures, which would have been crucial for her long-term survival. It might happen that Peter did not harm only Elizabeth. His inability to identify and mobilize local capacities might restrain these capacities. For example Peter should encourage Keziah to come back to the workshop and ask participants to help Elizabeth. The local organization, which organized the workshop, might have been involved in helping Elizabeth too. When they had done it Peter, would have left as quickly as possible. Why? His presence in this situation, considering everything what "mzungu" represents, would weaken local capacities.

The point of the story is not that the use of external resources is always a bad idea. But it is crucial how and to whom resources are given. We need to look at the possibilities, how to use resources to help create local organizations, to help the poor. Peter´s 8 dollars did not fulfill this standard. He was a dancing elephant.

Questions to reflect on

• Do you remember the story from Nepal in Dorota Nvotová's movie "Fulmaya", where she took a small child with fever together with the mother to a hospital and payed for the treatment. Can you see any similarities with Peter´s story?