WHAT IS HUMANITARIANISM?
BEFORE THE TRIP
Humanitarianism is a continuously developing concept that has dramatically changed since large movements to improve others’ lives first began. To me, it seemed as though humanitarianism was something that focused more heavily on making the individual doing the acts feel better about themselves. These acts were more bragging points to say how you were a better person than your friends. Obviously today there are still people who do this, but I think overall our understanding of humanitarianism has become more accepting. Rather than acts of humanitarianism that are large and affect a whole community, I think that there are more smaller service programs that allow people to be involved in various aspects of their community. I think now, as well, there is more support to the idea that everyone needs assistance with certain things. Mortensen mentioned how he received hate mail for helping Pakistani children when America was in the gripe of terrorism. During this time, it was hard for people to separate the idea that the acts of terrorism were those of individuals, not a whole country. I believe now people have gained a better understanding of this concept and are therefore more likely to donate either their time or money to global causes. I do think that many people, myself included, use the words humanitarianism and service acts interchangeably. In the future though, I see that this difference will become more distinct. Humanitarianism will become more about the attitude that everyone deserves the same opportunities and that we should treat each other with empathy. As this happens, I think that there will then be a large increase in global initiatives like the one Mortensen started. Currently my life has only intersected with humanitarianism and the projects in a few ways. Last year over Christmas break, I went to León, Nicaragua with Serve Beyond Cincinnati and worked with the Fuller Center to help build houses for the less fortunate. It was an enlightening experience because it gave me the opportunity to see how self-reliant the locals were and involved in a large project like building a house. I hope in the future, I can take the things I’ll learn in the course to work with more humanitarian projects and to gain a better understanding for some of the struggles that people around the world face. |
AFTER THE TRIP
At the beginning of the course, I felt that humanitarianism had been twisted in our society to be defined as an action taken to make the individual doing the act feel better about themselves. We live in a selfish society where people, on a general basis, focus mainly on themselves and those that immediately impact them. Prior to this course, I don’t think I had a very clear definition of what humanitarianism was. To be entirely honest, I looked up the definition to help me answer this question the first time. It’s a very abstract concept for most people that makes for a wide variety of definitions. After the trip, I definitely gained a new perspective on what humanitarianism is. Village Life seemed to define humanitarian work as “giving a hand up, not a hand out.” This really affected me. I used to think about airlifting in supplies that were never used when I thought about humanitarian work. This fell in line with the hand out model. But working with Chris helped me see that there are better models of humanitarian work. Humanitarianism has to focus solely on humans. It means talking with the people you want to work with and focusing your work on what they want to see done. And it also means working with the community members to make that change happen and not just doing it yourself. I would now define humanitarianism as respecting the cultural traditions of the people you want to work with and developing a plan to empower and motivate community members to help make that change. In the future, I hope that the definition of humanitarianism that I experienced will spread to other groups. Right now I think we’re in a transition period, switching from hand out’s to hand up’s. Future organizations will hopefully change their missions and we will see more effective humanitarian work. I think my life will continue to intersect with humanitarianism. I want to continue to work with Village Life, particularly the education committee, to really make all their projects as successful as possible. This may mean that I continue to travel to Africa, not limited to Tanzania, to work with other organizations or I work in Cincinnati. However, I know that I do want to work with groups that share the same definition of humanitarianism as I have. |