Page 360 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

m̩ 'zuŋ u memories of NGO in Africa
ɡ

walk softly, go quietly and you will see...

In the course of talking, it became clear that graduate or not, her lack of experience of

Africa could well give rise to a very misleading report back from her.
In rural Africa, when a stranger comes to a village, the early questions are along the lines

of "Which village are you from?", "Who is your father and what does he do?"

If you are a rehabilitated ‘child soldier’, you can't tell the truth to these questions. If you do the
village will almost certainly reject you.

m̩
ɡ
And even I as a 'zuŋ u need permission to stay in a rural African settlement. On my first
night, I have to be interviewed by whichever person has been nominated to be in charge of
security. Without his permission, I cannot stay. Forget things like 'Visas'. A Visa doesn’t cut it.

And if at any time during my stay, even if I have stayed 6 months, sufficient numbers of locals
say they want me to leave, then I will have to leave.

So if you are a rehabilitated ‘child soldier’ you are constantly living under a shadow, a

person who cannot readily talk of your background. And so any successful rehabilitation
programme has to address this. And this can be done. By helping a former ‘child soldier’ to

develop a 'necessary' skill, he can become more 'needed' more 'accepted' by other African

villages.
But it’s not just about making the presence of the former child soldier acceptable to

others. It's very much about counterbalancing the 'negative' imagery of the ‘child soldier’ with
a positive 'ego'. And so 'unlock' the shackles that their past actions would otherwise prevent

them from leading a full life.

There was nothing wrong with the young female - other than she probably was not the
right person to carry out the evaluation. She did not have the relevant experience to do it. And

if that was the case, just what was being reported back to the NGO in Europe? And just what

was being reported to the NGO's donors? And ......?

***** ***** *****
The Aid ‘White Elephants’
In one of the guest houses where I stayed during one set of African travels, I met a South

African medical consultant. She was in the country for a conference and had decided to use

the opportunity to do a whistle-stop tour to a guidebook recommended tourist attraction.