RAPAPORT... The first rule of development is “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” We must recognize that an American with lots of money can greatly hurt people in Sierra Leone by trying to help them. The simple example is that by giving people free fish, you encourage them to forget how to fish or repair nets.
Another example — real in our case: Let’s send the kids of diggers to school. One year costs about $100. So you donate $100,000 and figure you can send a thousand kids to school. But what will happen to these kids next year? You have raised their expectations and then dumped them.
Okay. So we send 100 kids to ten years of school. Much better.
But the school system does not have capacity for these kids. There are no chairs, desks or books. As a result of your charity, the existing school system is downgraded and the children who have been bootstrapping through other programs will not get a good education. And we have not even started to talk about the fight over who gets to send which kids.
My point is that capacity and political issues will turn the best of intentions into nightmares unless local development experts like U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) or U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) are deeply involved in any project you propose. If you are a member of the trade who would like to help Sierra Leone, do not simply give money to people or organizations without knowing exactly what they will do with the money and assuring yourself that they are supervised by responsible development experts. Otherwise, your money may very well do more damage than good.
The Rapaport Group will be working with U.S. AID on a well-planned and -organized education program for children in Sierra Leone. We can also put you in touch with other worthy programs. Email: development@diamonds.net.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - January 2007. To subscribe click here.