Helping to Heal.
When does the never-ending cycle of Aid begin to wear us down?
It is easy to feel bombarded by the constant use of social and mainstream media to call upon the help of the public, with no solutions in sight.
While this may feel like a “first world problem” there is a growing prevalence in the idea of “Aid Weariness” or “Aid Fatigue”.
What can I do?
There is a sense of hopelessness to Aid in the modern age, and a gap in reporting of the successes and positives of the work being done.
The fatigue is felt by the general public and also by organisations involved in implementing it, with politics preventing or delaying the initiatives. In this case, fatigue is conflated with frustration at the lack of progress in improving quality of life. However in the case of the former, the fatigue is more of a growing apathy, caused by overwhelm and desensitisation of the horrors presented to them on a daily basis.
On the one hand, it is hard to disagree that having a nihilistic outlook towards the once effective marketing is damaging to the human psyche. It is natural to care and to feel for others’s suffering, but with the whole world’s plights at our fingertips it all seems impossible to solve as an individual.
On the other hand, it seems so trivial when faced with the pain of so many to then reflect on how it makes us feel as casual observers. We can always turn the phones off and live in ignorance, but for so many there is no escape.
Who feels weary, and why?
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The role of the public of donor countries is to donate to causes, they have no bearing on the outcome of the project, only the provision of the resources to do so.
The weariness and fatigue is from this lack of impact or information on the results of Aid, but have to bear some responsibility for providing anyway.
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To be able to help there is a lot of proverbial hoops for any organisation to jump through in any given recipient country to be able to implement their chosen Aid.
For Example, many governments require there to be a level of administrative reporting to accompany any investments they make e.g. if giving a car to a farmer, the fuel emissions are declared as well as passenger numbers and emissions.
This affects the motivation of these groups, as it requires more time and resources to complete their task than they deem necessary.
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Arguably the most important perspective of any Aid is the recipients.
Whether due to oversight, lack of funding or patronising ideologies, many of the communities and groups who benefit from Aid are not consulted during the process nor do they participate in any proposals, which causes strain between the organisations and the recipients.
This imposition on their cultures, their preferences and their priorities is not ideal, nor is it respectful. Many feel like they are expected to give something in return, usually data. People are not data, so the humanity of humanitarian Aid is missing.
A poignant Yoruba expression reads (translated) as “when you give a ram with a rope around its neck to someone, you should let go of the rope too.” And this captures it perfectly.
What now?
Well, there isn’t one answer.
However, some recommendations can be made to improve on the weariness present in different groups when it comes to foreign aid of any kind.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are running a challenge to encourage more positive journalism surrounding the impacts of Aid, to aid in public weariness.
Delegating donation funding into community involvement groups and participatory research will be instrumental in aiding fatigue in both recipients and NGOs.