An effective NGO

World Vision Sponsored Children in the Assaba Mountains

During my International Relations courses back at the UNLA (my college in Morelia), one of the recurrent debates that we had with my classmates was in relation to the importance that NGO’s posses in today’s international order. On one side of the debate, there were people that stated that in today’s globalized world, where power is more diffused and decentralized, NGO’s play a vital role in promoting social and economic development, they serve as institutions that hold governments accountable and also promote global awareness on issues that affect people all around the world. To put in another way, NGO’s are the voice of the global civil society and they represent its interest to the international community. On the other hand of the debate, there were people that were skeptical about the true impact that NGOs can make in the world. It is true that NGOs are more important today than 30 years ago, but the only institutions that can really transform the world are the global governments. Although NGO’s can promote awareness on some global issues, they usually don’t produce major changes on the global political agenda. During these debates I usually sympathized with the latter group, being really skeptical about NGO’s true impact in the world. However, all that changed this past week.

So before I write about my NGO experience, I’m going to do a small recap of my first month in Guerou. Ramadan is finally over and it was a great experience. During this time I had the opportunity to learn more about Mauritanian culture and Islam, breaking fast with families got me involved in the community, made some good friends, got to know the family’s of the girls that go to the GMC and I improved my French and Hassaniya language skills. Also, in regard to my recreational activities, I found a place where I can play X-Box and Playstation 2, watch European soccer games on the weekends and apparently I joined a soccer team for next month’s tournament. Additionally, I found a nice place to live in an area called Babi- Salaam -“The door of Peace”- with two great Mauritanian friends called Cheikh and Moktar, who work in a NGO called World Vision. Last but not least, Andrea is back from her vacation trip so that makes things even better. Thus, my first month in Guerou has been an awesome and it also prepared me to start my activities at the Girls Mentoring Center and school..

Okay, so now back to my story. The last day of Ramadan, my friend and World Vision Coordinator, Cheikh, invited me to take a trip to some villages located in the Mountains of Assaba to deliver food, aid and clothes that Irish families sent to the children of the Assaba. Since there was nothing that required my participation in Guerou that day, I gladly accepted Cheikh’s invitation. So we met at the WV Bureau, packed some supplies and started our adventure on a Toyota Land Cruiser, which is similar to the Peace Corps “Vomit Comet”. During the 5 hour bumpy trip, we literally drove through the rocky mountains without roads or tracks whatsoever (the landscape resembled the one in the Lion King Movie), and passed by people riding in camels, tons of cows and some random villages. Although I already had similar humanitarian experiences like this one back at Mexico, it really struck me how there is societies that live so far away from what we call “civilization”, in places that seem to lack the special distinctiveness that would stimulate someone to live there.

After getting kind of lost and the “really dark night” already upon us, we finally arrived to our final destination. The place was a vast flat piece of land with three mud houses, two Haimas or tents, and tons of cows where three big families live. One thing that didn’t change was the warm hospitality that Mauritanians have, which received us with food, tea and camel milk. At first everything seemed so natural, it seemed that people didn’t really care that there was a “foreigner” among them, but once the light up a bonfire and light illuminated the terrain, I could see and hear the expressions of astonishment of the villagers once they saw me. The children where motionless, some frightened, while the adults just whispered among themselves. A little girl, finally had the courage to walk to me, but instead of stretching here hand to greet me, she touched my face for 10 min trying to understand what was so “different” about me. That night I went to sleep with 15 children putting attention on every movement I did and woke up the next morning with those same kids staring at me. Creepy but true LOL.

The next day, the World Vision staff started to deliver food, clothes, money and even goats to the families of the sponsored children. It was a powerful thing to see how people, that may never meet each other in person, can bring so much joy and happiness with just a small donation. Moreover, thanks to all the World Vision donations that come from Ireland, the children of the Assaba Mountains also have an elementary school that World Vision also built two years ago and a food program that can help the kids continue their studies without any nutrition problems.

The World Vision trip helped me regain the faith that had I lost on international institutions. Organization such as World Vision still continue to promote a better understanding of the ”real and imbalanced” world that we live in, and even most important, they try to solve such inequalities by creating a constructive bond between families that want to assist others and those people that really need their help. Of course, I know that like any other human institutions, NGO’s have their flaws and malfunctions, and they should always find themselves in a constant process of improvement for the sake of humanity. Nevertheless the important thing is not to see and judge their failures but to analyze their contribution in the unending task of making this world a much better place; and that I also hope to accomplish with my Peace Corps job in Mauritania. Inshallah