“The world does not have to feel sorry for Africa to care about it."

Lately we have been reflecting on money, international aid, charity, and the like. On Sunday the sermon at church was on trusting God with finances and there was also a presentation about Compassion International. Chris and I also recently became familiar with another organization, called Kenya’s Kids Project run through a friend’s church in Denver. This all sparked a conversation about the pros and cons of sponsorship and alternative methods for helping children and communities.

Then I read a book review in the NYTimes for Africa - Altered States, Ordinary Miracles. This quote in particular made me nod vigorously and read it out loud to Chris:
"I agree more with Dowden's point that Africans must be more central to the narrative. As he writes: 'Aid agencies, Western celebrities, rock stars and politicians cannot save Africa. Only Africans can develop Africa. Outsiders can help, but only is they understand it, work with it.' It's true that the most successful and cost-effective interventions are typically not those started by a grand conference in a capital; rather, they are the grass-roots efforts started by local people with local knowledge addressing local needs. We could do much more to support such efforts, with us Westerners serving as aides and financiers to African social entrepreneurs."

Reading this was encouraging, and it is disappointing (though not entirely surprising) that this view is not more widespread. There is certainly not as much awareness of these grass-roots efforts, and we are very excited to be working with the RYDA because of this. I think we'll try to read this and some other recent publications about models for international development work and in Africa specifically … it’s amazing how little we knew about this before and how important it is to us now.