To hell with good intentions

by Anthony Esparaz on January 21, 2008

At last year’s GlobeMed Global Health Summit, Professor Michael Diamond from Northwestern University led a workshop on “Going Beyond Compassion”. In it, Dr. Diamond introduced a completely different, moreover discouraging, assertion that is often not considered by global health student-volunteers: is it possible that the efforts of major relief programs, like the Red Cross, actually hurt the health of communities instead of advancing it?

Somebody brought up their experience in Nicaragua: students at one campus had spent three months collecting clothes and shoes for a service trip. However, when they arrived with the supplies, the volunteers found that their efforts were in fact “a waste;” Nicaraguans not only rejected the clothes, but were furthermore offended at the gesture. Relief coordinators explained that the villagers could not have been less interested in clothes – “Did you students ever stop and realize it’s not what you think they [Nicaraguans] need, but what they think they need?”

In “Duffle Bag Medicine”, Maya Roberts shows the way in which people who are simply guided by “good intentions” too often create volunteer experiences that do little short-term good and frequently causing long-term harm. Ivan Illich (”To Hell With Good Intentions”) proposes that U.S. volunteers simply have no place to do good in these communities.

I think these examples provide good testament to a shockingly dispiriting case in global health student volunteerism today. As Victor mentioned in his post above, student engagement in global health is on the quick rise. Not only are service projects and idealistic plans for action more and more common, but it’s clear that high school and undergraduate students’ eagerness to visit and volunteer in developing nations is growing. However, is it possible that, blindfolded by the great notions of our volunteerism, our self-sacrifices for other nations, and martyr-like images conjured of ourselves, we become blind to harm we’re causing to the countries we so tirelessly try to help?

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