Foreign Aid to Africa: Is it Helping?

Part I:   

In 1994, the Mother of Peace orphanage opened in Mutoko, Zimbabwe. There are currently over 100 children under the age of 16 in the orphanage. Over 80% of the children are HIV positive. “Many were referred but others arrived on their own or were brought by the police, well wishers or relatives. Increasingly babies are being found dumped. On arrival many are ill with malnutrition, chest and skin infections, diarrhea and other symptoms of HIV infection.” (History) The orphanage was founded by Mama Gene and Mama Stella. They both were trained as nurses in the UK. In 2000, Dr. Robert Scott, from Lafayette, California, was introduced to the Mother of Peace Orphanage (Renee). An organization, named The J.F. Kapnek Trust, is an organization that has been providing aid to people in Zimbabwe for many years. A local doctor from Lafayette, Dr. Dan Robbins, is a Board Director for The J.F. Kapnek Trust.

Dr. Robbins has a connection to the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church and from August 1^st to August 14^th, fifty five high school students and fifteen adults went on a mission trip to Zimbabwe, Africa. While we were there, we spent time working in the orphanage and at the five different preschools in the surrounding area. The work we did in the orphanage consisted of creating a library full of children’s books, doing manual labor on the farm, building a grain storage building, repainting the inside of 3 rooms that the orphans live in and cleaning up and restoring the headstones in the orphanage cemetery. Outside of the orphanage, we worked at five different schools. The projects at the schools consisted of building playgrounds, repainting the inside and outside of the buildings, fixing broken tables and chairs, and painting details onto the inside walls, such as the alphabet, number and shapes. Along with working at the orphanage, we also got about three to four hours a day to play with the kids. We would play soccer games against the kids in the orphanage and people from the surrounding community would come and watch us play on the local dirt soccer field. We also brought suitcases full of clothes for all of the children. We were able to give each child a new pair of pants, a shirt, a jacket, a hat and a new pair of shoes. We also gave them tons of toys and over twenty five new or slightly used soccer balls. Along with the suit cases of clothes and toys, some of these suitcases were full of medical supplies that we donated to The J.F. Kapnek Trust. Kapnek is an organization and “operates the largest pediatric HIV/AIDS transmission prevention program  in Zimbabwe, Africa - serving approximately 600 birthing centers and 175,000 pregnant women.” (Rising)

Part II:

            During George W. Bush’s time as President of the United States, the Bush Administration raised the amount of Foreign Aid to Africa, but President Bush rejected Prime Minister Tony Blair’s request to double the amount of Foreign Aid to Africa (Rice). When it comes to the topic of the United States giving Foreign Aid to Africa, people have very different and very strong opinions. Many people believe that the aid people give to Africa is hurting their economy more than it is helping. “Between 1970 and 1998, when aid flows to Africa were at their peak, poverty in Africa rose from 11% to a staggering 66%.” (Gavin) People believe that the country becomes to dependant on the Foreign Aid and only uses the aid they receive from other countries as a way to get out of debt, but in reality, it will take a lot more than that. People think that the donation of clothing and other material product will bring down the economy in Africa even more.  “Flooding the market with free goods could bankrupt the people who already sell them. Donating clothing is a sensitive topic in Africa because many countries' textile industries collapsed under the weight of secondhand-clothing imports that were introduced in the 1970s and '80s.” (Hammond) In Charles Abugre’s article, he states how the food aid that countries give can help save lives but it can also devastate countries. It is good in a time of need, such as a natural disaster, but it also has the ability to “destroying local farming capacities when food aid becomes food ‘dumped’ on the local market.” (Abugre) People seem to agree that there are certain types of aid that are more needed than other. For example, the donation of food and clothing can do more harm than good because it prevents the local manufacturers from selling their goods. The donations of things such as medical supplies, condoms to help prevent the spread of Aids and water purification systems are ways that other countries and organizations can have a positive impact on the African economy (Abugre). I believe that rather than having the country donate money to Africa, we should donate time. We should send more people over and help anywhere they can. We should work alongside with the African government to create more clinics and rehab centers to help prevent the spread of Aids. I think that the work that the Peace Corps is doing is a good way of helping because they help in certain areas, such as education and agriculture (Learn).

Part III:

            My time that I spent in Africa was the most memorable two weeks of my life. It was a time where I got to experience how other people live. It made me realize how privileged I am to live where I live and to have what I have. When we first got there, it was a huge culture shock. All we saw was trees and dirt. Maybe there were a few huts that we passed by as we drove to the orphanage, but that was about it. When we would pass people, they would stop and stare at us as if we were famous. One day we went to the local 

market and it really did seem like we 

were famous. People surrounded us and wanted to take pictures with us. They would ask us a ton of questions about the United States and what is it like to live here. They all knew why we were there and they were all very thankful for the work that we were doing there. We were told later that most of the people we mat most likely had never seen a white person, let along seventy of them in one place. It was a big shock to realize that. We were also invited to a church service at the local church. It was a lot different than what we were used too. It was an outside service and there were a lot of people. The pastor spoke in Shona a lot of the time but then he would turn to us and speak to us in English so that we could understand him. It was really nice that a lot of people there spoke English, but there was still a bit of a language barrier, especially with the children at the orphanage. A lot of the time we would have to point to an object or talk with out hands so people would understand what we were trying to say. It was the birthday of one of the students on the trip when we went to the church service, so the pastor did a special blessing on him. It was really interesting to be apart of something like that and have a new experience like that. When we would play with the kids, we would not realize it until late, but majority of the children are HIV positive and might not live past the age of 18. It makes me so thankful that I am healthy and have a family who loves me. The experience there changed my life. I now hope to go to college for either nursing or teaching. Once I graduate, I plan on living in Zimbabwe for a year or two and either teach or be a nurse in a clinic, depending on what I end up majoring in. I believe that the best way to help other countries is not by simply giving them money. It is by going in and helping the specific area that needs the most help. It seems like in Africa, a lot of the problem has to do with the high rate of people who are positive with HIV and Aids. If we were able to help set up more clinics and help educate people more about what exactly Aids is and how it works. When I was there, it seemed like everyone knew it was a disease that killed people and that it was easy to get it, but I do not think they know how it weakens the person’s immune system and that is how they get killed by it. Another way that we could help is by creating more pure water systems. While I was staying there, we could only drink bottled water because the water there has very harmful bacteria in it that would make us very sick. When we needed water for building the grain storage building or for feeding the animals on the farm, we had to pump it out of the ground by hand. We also only got one shower while we were there and all we got was a bucket. We had to fill it up with water and that is all we got because there is such a water shortage. We were lucky that we got one shower each. That is a lot of water for seventy people to use up a bucket of water each. We were 

treated very well while we stayed at the orphanage. If they had a better way of getting water and if the water was cleaner, it believes that less people would be getting sick. It was convenient for us that there was a well on the land owned by the orphanage so we did not have to walk far to get the water we needed, but there are people who would walk three to five miles, one way, a day to simply get a bucket of water. We would pass people when we would ride on the bus and there would be women with giant buckets of water on their heads. They would be walking barefoot on dirt and rocks. If they spilled their bucket of water, they would have to make the journey all over again. It really makes a person think about the value of water when you need it to live. It makes me so thankful to have clean water and the furthest I have to walk is up the stairs of my house. They also fed us very well while we were there. We got the same food that the children would have gotten but they had to make a lot more of it to feed seventy more people than they were used too. It makes me feel as if I do not deserve to have what I have. I did not do anything to deserve the life I live when there are people on the other side of the world who have to battle hunger and thirst everyday. That also gets me to another point. Hunger and starvation is a big problem in Africa. Mama Stella told us how when all of the children first came to the orphanage, you could see all of their bones. They had no fat on them and their stomachs were puffed out from not eating. The main concentration of the orphanage is to first get all of the medical needs of the children fulfilled and then from there help them get a good education. Once they reach the ago of eighteen, they are no longer able to stay at the orphanage. From there, the orphanage helps them find a job and somewhere to live. I think that if there were more places in Africa that were set up to help people find jobs and make money, the economy would improve because there would be a bigger flow of money, causing people to have more money to spend on products, thus improving the economical situation.