Have you ever volunteered abroad (or in your own country) and wondered what would happen once you left? Would your message become lost with time? Would the people whose lives you saw change go back to how they once were?
I often had similar thoughts, fears and questions during my stay in rural Tanzania three summers ago. I worked as an HIV/AIDS educator in my small village, teaching at the elementary school and with community groups. During my short two months there, I built strong relationships with my teaching partners, with my wonderful home-stay family and several of my students. However, I often wondered… what would happen once I left? Would my fourth grade class remember the five fluids that transmit HIV? The difference between HIV and AIDS? How to initiate safe-sex conversations or how to use a condom?
This brings me to the topic of this blog, (the second in a series about the complex meaning of health) which is the importance of SUSTAINABILITY. Many organizations aim for short-term, immediate changes that in the end may not benefit the communities they intended to help. Truly transforming the risk factors for disease and thus changing the health of a population requires not only a comprehensive vision, but also a commitment to promoting SUSTAINABILITY. Finding a way for the central message of one's organization to be maintained with time.
While traveling to impoverished areas of the world and treating illnesses is important, providing medicine without training the native people leads to dependency, not progress. In order to truly transform a population’s health standards, the people themselves must be intimately involved in the process. This involves providing the native people with access to education, community health worker training and engaging in political action.
Fortunately, I worked with an amazing organization and since I (and all the volunteers like me who volunteered) left, the relationship between our organization and the communities has been maintained. Field workers community health workers, all of them who are Tanzanian, have been and are continually trained to work in the communities in which volunteers have taught.
Have you had similar or different experiences while volunteering? How was sustainability important for your work?
