July 2001

Dear Friends,

For this letter I thought I’d give you a glimpse into the practical details of what I am doing with the EHA (Emmanuel Hospital Association) community health programs. In my trainer’s role, I run week-long workshops for about 15 projects around the country, from the Nepal border to Varanasi and further south. I travel by train, the longest train journey being about 24 hours. The main subject I deal with is the role of a community worker as community organizer. I am using my experience from Nepal and applying it to the situation here in India.

I recently encountered this situation: A woman’s group in Phulvari village had saved more than 1,500 rupees over several months. Their hope was to establish a fund to use both individually and as a community to improve their lives and the lives of their families. As their savings approached 1,500 the three women in charge felt they needed a bank account. The procedure of opening a bank account includes the need of a letter of recommendation from the district chairperson. He refused to write one. Without that letter, the bank
manager would not open the account, so the group disbanded.

I asked the community workers in the training to make small groups and think of a possible plan to solve this problem. Three main ideas came out of their thinking.

Solution #1 One plan was for the EHA project personnel to go to the chairperson and the bank manager and somehow influence these power brokers to go ahead and help the group. If this doesn’t work, the project should then go even higher in the political and bank structure to try to solve the problem. This is certainly one way of approaching the problem.

Solution #2 A second plan was for the women to give their weekly contributions to the project community worker and so let the project take care of the banking of the women’s money for them.

Solution #3 A third solution was for the women in the group to explain their problem to their husbands and others in the community and in this way begin to build support for their getting a bank account. After building support in their village they could then go as a group to their council representative to explain their problem. If their representative cannot get the signature, then they’d go with their representative to the district chairperson to insist on the signature.

The project community worker had not thought of any of these options. Hopefully, in the future, problems and solutions can be discussed with positive outcomes.

In the workshop, we discussed why the first two solutions are more familiar and easier. I am sure there are many reasons but we "development workers" like to be seen as solving other people’s problems. This is what the first plan would do. We feel good and useful. The group would feel grateful to us.

As for the second plan, again we are seen as the answer to the women’s problem. Even better, the we don’t have to risk our relationship with the chairperson. The same would apply to our relationship to the bank manager. In addition, the women might like it better because they wouldn’t have to walk to the bank every week to make their deposit.

In fact, it is the idea behind the third plan, or something like it, that we hope the community workers will develop during the workshop. Why? Both the other plans depend on the project’s influence and power to solve the women’s problem. It underlines the already poor self-concept women have of themselves. The third plan helps to build stronger links with other concerned people (husbands, other family members, and women not yet in the group). It uses existing social structures and holds them accountable to the people they should be helping. It builds confidence and self-respect and also solves the immediate problem of a signature on a recommendation.

Historically, we Christian development workers have chosen the first two plans or something like them. The results may have solved problems quickly but in the process they reinforce the people’s sense of their own inferiority, encouraging their dependence on our power and influence rather than theirs. Finally, when we leave the community, as we inevitably must, we could possibly leave the community weaker and more vulnerable than they were before our intervention.

On a more personal level, we are all well and coping better with the monsoon than last year, however there is a hole being washed out in front of our door step. We still have no telephone connection. School holidays are ending now, so the sleeping late routine is over for a while. We managed to visit Nepal for the UMN (United Mission to Nepal) annual conference. Seeing old friends and talking late made it well worth the trip. The next week we were in shock over the news of the tragic death of the king(s). The political situation is still
unstable.

Melanie is going to England to visit family in September. Kelli and Daniel will come out for Christmas vacation.

We would love to hear from you.

Scott and Melanie Smith

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 146