The Impact of AID

It is hard to escape the impact of aid and development organizations in my village. UNICEF, USAID, World Vision, the European Union -- development organizations and NGOs are certainly trying to make a mark. Whether they have been successful is a debate to get into at another time. However, it provides an interesting perspective to detail exactly what exists in my village because of a development project. Whether its a person whose salary is paid by an NGO or consortium of aid programs and local community groups, vaccinations that are subsidized by foreign governments, or a new building, aid is everywhere.

Without aid, none of this would be in my village:

• The clinic
• Mosquito Nets
• Vitamin A
• Birth Control
• Malaria prophylaxis for pregnant women
• Vaccinations and sterile, onetime-use needles
• HIV/AIDS testing and retrovirals
• Nutritional supplements for malnourished children
• The new hospitalization room at the clinic currently under construction
• Enriched porridge powder and the profit it brings in for Mama Traoré
• The bikes given to the community health workers
• The ambulance that comes to our village from San
• The solar panels and batteries that light the clinic at night
• The mayor's office and the salaries paid to the mayor and his staff
• The doctor
• 2 nurses
• The public elementary and middle school
• Student sponsorship/scholarships
• The preschool
• The radio
• The library and the books that fill it
• The local cereal bank
• The generator that provides electricity along the main road at night
• The covered market area
• The businesses that support the NGO and aid workers traveling along the main road; the income generated by the purchases of community members such as the doctor and myself who receive their salaries from an aid organization
• 3 pumps
• The local church
• All technical and educational trainings, including trainings on health topics, business management, knitting and sewing, animal raising, and improved farming received by villagers
• The Youth Center
• A trench to collect rain water for farming
• Money in villager's pockets from trainings, projects, and short-term jobs with development agencies
• Me.

The list could go on and on. Take just one of these items and extrapolate from there. Vaccinations = a job for Mapha, the vaccinator = good food for Mapha's family and a concrete house with a tin roof = health and opportunity for Mapha's children = health for the thousands of children Mapha vaccinates = more hands in the fields and more mouths to fill = a larger population...and on it goes.

Most Malians I know are appreciative of the aid that is given to their community. Like many Americans who feel that it is their duty as those who have to help those who have not, many of the Malians I have come in contact with, express an expectation that toubabs should help out where they can.

The help is coming in. The community plays a large role in receiving much of the aid -- they provide the physical labor or a percentage of the money required to complete a project. USAID in collaboration with Peace Corps built the radio, for example, with a large monetary contribution from the village, manpower to build it, and it is now staffed by Malians who receive no salary.

Aid is interwoven into so many aspects of the village that it is hard to imagine what the village would be like without aid, or what effects aid will have on the village in the long run.