I’ve stepped in a lot of poo this year. Dog poo, pig poo, other people’s poo, on one particularly memorable night my own poo. It’s as disgusting as it sounds but, you know, poo happens.
For the past 15 months I’ve been living in provincial Solomon Islands volunteering with AusAID’s Australian Volunteers for International Development program. The program brings in bright-eyed volunteers to work with and help build the capacity of organisations in developing countries.
I step in a lot of poo because a majority of provincial Solomons is without things like electricity, phones, decent water sources and sanitation, which means the P.F.P (Place for Pooing: technical term) is often a designated part of the beach or bush. Often I go to these places at night. Often without a torch. You’d think I’d learn…
I adore my work because I’m passionate about development and also because I like lying in a hammock drinking coconuts. I’m pretty anti-poverty – like 99 per cent. And what I’ve learnt about poverty – other than wear shoes when you do number twos – is that in order to truly tackle it, we need to treat people living in poverty as the competent, capable, clever human beings they are. My program works from this belief, with a majority of us volunteers working alongside local counterparts. Often we learn more than we impart. But the focus truly is partnership.
This means taking a realistic view on how people will react when we deliver services. People are people so when you build a new school of course the kids don’t explode with excitement. Kids in the Solomons are like kids everywhere – they find maths boring, live for long weekends and LOSE IT when a bird flies into the classroom.
Top Comments
Dear Claire - awesome article! Please please keep imparting your views on being anti-poverty to all you meet - its such an important thing for us all to embrace because the definitions of poverty aren't just about money its about access to the resources and decision making power you've touched on... but Claire please please also impart your views on approach to other AYADS because just last week in the sols I heard a few talking about "their staff" and the difficulties of "being a boss" in this context...which by the way, they aren't. It's not about job opportunities for fresh faced young aussies or how to get into an AusAID grad program or where your next post might be. It's about challenging systems that keep poor people poor. including our own beliefs and actions You get it but so so many don't. keep up the great work!