In the network: GlobeMed at Amherst on the politics of representation
by Jill Shah on November 7, 2011
Last week, GlobeMed at Amherst received the following note on one of their awareness flyers about the lack of access to quality health care and reliable food sources in their partner community in El Salvador:
Dear Amherst,
What my country needs is solidarity, not a pity party. Don’t make us out to be more abject than we already are. We don’t need your pity.
Sincerely,
A guanaca (Salvadoran)
Subsequently, on their blog, co-president Ethan Balgley wrote a thought-provoking response on the politics of representation in nonprofit work and GlobeMed at Amherst's partnership with Pastoral de la Salud. Here are some powerful quotes from his post:
GlobeMed does not deal in pity. Nor do we engage in the action evoked by pity, namely charity. Our partner organization in El Salvador, Pastoral de la Salud, is an incredibly effective, professional organization, and we feel privileged that they have agreed to work with us. They do not ask us for charity, and we do not consider the material assistance we give them to be charity; instead, we are engaged in what we hope is a more or less equal partnership, founded on solidarity.
We speak with our contact at Pastoral, a woman named Mercedes Tejada, every Tuesday about where we both stand in the work we’re doing for this partnership. In an effort to overcome some of the incommensurability of our different positions, we also try to communicate to one another what our lives are like. Moreover, Pastoral generously hosted four Amherst students for two weeks this past June, which has resulted in a deeper and stronger mutual understanding and sense of partnership.
Although there are differences between our two groups that we cannot erase, some of which are particularly apparent in the acts of representation discussed above, we are aided by a set of ethics predicated on our commitment to solidarity. Through these ethics and a shared vision for the future, we believe that GlobeMed at Amherst and Pastoral de la Salud are involved in the creation of an emergent form of partnership that can point us to a healthier and more just world.See the full post here.
See GlobeMed at Amherst’s 2010-2011 annual report here.
No comments.