How to get involved in aid

Posted on November 30, 2009 at 3:01 pm

I’ve had two requests recently to provide information on how to develop quality international aid programs and have been invited to speak on making a difference at a college volunteer center. These requests are not surprising given the popularity of Three Cups of Tea, the desire to have a job that makes a difference, increased mobility, and the use social responsibility projects in corporate advertising. Individuals forming their own aid agencies have become so common that one in three aid agencies providing tsunami relief in Thailand were started after the tsunami, most with founders having no previous experience in aid.

With the charitable giving season upon us, this is a good time for a series on how to make a difference.

Step 1: Learn about aid through the eyes of aid recipients, government offices, and aid workers

The average person has a lot of assumptions and misunderstandings about aid. Before planning any aid project it is important to understand good aid practices and the impact of aid from a variety of perspectives.
I always recommend reading Listening Project reports, the Listening Project conducts listening exercises in areas that have received aid in the past or are currently receiving aid. Participants talk to aid recipients, government officials, religious and secular leaders and business owners to find out how aid has affected their community in both positive and negative ways. Their findings are available online with reports by country here and by topic here.

Conduct your own listening activity

If you have the time and opportunity conduct a listening activity in your own community. Visit the local homeless shelter, food pantry, or any other area that interests you and ask permission to interview aid recipients. Ask open ended questions about the different types of aid they receive, how they feel about it, how it could be done better, and the positive and negative impacts of aid. While there ask to interview aid agency staff to find out what challenges they face, what issues are common to that type of aid, what they like or dislike about other aid agency or government programs, and how could things be done better. Next visit government offices to find out their opinion of local aid projects. This could be a government office providing similar services, providing different services in the same area, or an office related to aid such as the state office of consumer protection. Which programs do they feel have the greatest impact, what are some common problems, what is their ideal solution? Finally, visit the communities where aid recipients live and ask store owners or people in the park for their opinions. What do they feel works and what is not working, what could be improved? By interviewing a wide variety of people about the impact of aid, donors and potential aid workers not only gain knowledge of aid issues, but they also practice skills needed for conducting a needs assessment.

Become a long term volunteer or staff at a local aid agency

Regardless of whether the aid is local or international, good aid practices are the same and the problems faced delivering aid are similar. Before traveling half way around the world to solve a social problem somewhere else, learn about aid by helping in your own community. Not only is this a great opportunity to develop skills, knowledge and contacts, but it’s also a safer environment in which to learn. Trying to learn about aid while in a foreign culture speaking a foreign language is far more difficult.

Sit on a community planning board

For a different perspective sit on a community planning board. I’ve been on both a city parks and recreation planning committee as well as a county land use planning board. Because the government has to meet the needs of all it’s citizens, these boards must accommodate a variety of needs with a limited budget. Understanding this perspective is important because aid agencies very often work with government offices that have even fewer resources and greater needs.

Read about the realities of aid work

Reading this post is a great start, related posts on this blog include:

Overseas volunteering: Guideline 1, Guideline 2, Guideline 3, Guideline 4
Beggars can’t be choosers – but are they really beggars
Hamburgers for Hindus
How to determine if an aid project is a good idea

Other blogs that discuss the realities of aid include:

The Road to the Horizon – How to become and aid worker

Aid Thoughts

Tales from the Hood:
Taxonomy of aid
It only feels kinky the first few times
The things no one tells you
When not to innovate
Welcome to Machine
Regulation anyone?

Owen Abroad

Blood and Milk

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I’m happy to include any other posts people want to suggest.

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