Address Needs, not Impose Pre-Subscribed Solutions

I am a freelance filmmaker and cameraman, just returned from The Philippines, where I’ve been documenting some of the work Outreach International is doing. (The videos should start popping up on the Outreach website in the new year)

Outreach have been working in the country for around 30 years, so it seemed a good time to go. It would be an opportunity to look at both communities who at present receive support, and those who’ve been helped out in the past.

I was interested in seeing how sustainable the work is. The NGO community is riddled with stories of organisations not being able to offer long-term solutions to communities with immediate needs, whether through lack of understanding or unforeseeable hurdles. I’ve wondered in the past whether faults might be, in part, a consequence of a global system founded on ‘box ticking’, which satisfies funding bodies in the developed world, but has no relevance for the needs of the developing world. After this trip, I’m increasingly sure this is the case. Which is where I think organisations like Outreach can set themselves apart; by having and retaining their independence. The independence to be able to go into communities, work with local people and address genuine needs, rather than attempt to impose pre-subscribed solutions.

In the time I was there, I interviewed just over 20 people who lived in communities where Outreach is or was working. As mentioned, it was the latter that interested me most. I arrived with local Outreach staff, into areas where Outreach is currently operating, to be greeted as heroes. Of course we were. People aren’t stupid. We- the Outreach staff and myself- represent hope, and a way out. And change. And if I was hungry, or unemployed and some people turned up, and told me things could be different then I suspect I’d react in much the same way. I’d probably be kissing their feet under the welcome banner I’d have made from the shirt I’d just torn from my back. But what was remarkable was that this was the exact same reaction we were met with as we entered the communities from which Outreach had ‘phased-out’. And the stories you’ll soon be able to watch and hear attest that the communities haven’t simply improved since Outreach’s intervention, but continue to flourish because of the infrastructures that were established.

Because of Outreach’s independence staff can commit to communities for five years plus. And it is this afforded commitment that seems to lead to meaningful change. Take this independence away, as is a temptation for many an NGO lured by government funding and subsequent box-ticking forms, and you would have an organisation whose capacity for efficacy and use would be tied to unrealistic and ill-thought-through goals. With it, Outreach will continue to have a life-changing impact in the developing world.

-Paul Morris, Contractor for Outreach International

Comments

[mike king]

Thanks for the testimony of your experiences in the phillipines...I seldom feel like I can be apart of the experience of being in in the country or understand the good that comes from the outreach involvement there.....I did with your eyes and words.....Mike