What is your perception of aid coming from an other culture an an other country?
It’s a challenge, isn’t it. You have to be very sensitive on how much you challenge and how much you assist countries to achieve MDGs. I think it is how you approach… is about dialogue, about communication, it is certainly not taking a dictatorial or accusatory attitude towards any country or colture.
Do you think that local communities have say in how the aid is used?
That is one of the biggest challenge, i would say. We get it badly wrong in occasion… because if you want to be inclusive and genuine then you need to work at very grass root level and you need to do you over a very long period of time because you want to include the voices of the most disfranchised. To get that authentic voice takes trust, takes time, takes investment… and very often agencies don’t have that length of time to achieve the scope of goals they want to. The challenge of listening and being inclusive of community voices means that you have a much stronger solution to their problem… and i genuinely believe that all communities can actually find their own solution if you create the right space around them, the enabling environment and create the resources to make change, they can often come up with the right answers.
What is the kind of work which is being done in India towards the Millennium Development Goals? How much of this work is really benefiting the local communities? What is the contribution given by the European Commission?
It was with these questions in mind that the EUGAD team started its journey in India. To understand better the situation and to get an idea of how we should proceed in the documentary making process, we decided to start our journey from the holy town of Varanasi. Here, instead of directly focusing on an EU founded project, we chose to learn from smaller self-founded project which will then give us more insights on how to better document the major projects which we will be covering.
The story showcases the Krishnamurti Foundation which runs a private boarding school where it generates profits with which they find a rural school and hospital. “It was with a feeling of responsibility towards the community around” says Prof. Krishna, that motivated Krishnamurti to start the rural institutions.
But how do the village people perceive this help? In this very interesting documentary we discover how people can sometimes become accustomed to aid and not value it in the same degree at which they earlier used to…. but should this stop is from helping them?
We now live in a global world, so we must not distinguish anymore between foreign aid and local aid. What is important is to understand how aid must be given. In cases of emergency, aid surely provides immediate relief, but it should not lead the receiver to be a parasite on society. If instead we can educate them stand on their own legs, we have really helped them.
Aid as Aspirin has value but as a cure for the disease has no value. Long term help is in the form of Education
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What is the kind of work which is being done in India towards the Millennium Development Goals? How much of this work is really benefiting the local communities? What is the contribution given by the European Commission?
