WHAT IS HUMANITARIANISM?
BEFORE THE TRIP
Humanitarianism in our society, both in the past and present, is very complex. Within myself I feel a definite but complicated humanitarian spirit. I did some research on the history of humanitarianism – and while the concept of extending care to others, often strangers, has been around since the beginning of humans, only within the past 150 years have there been widely organized humanitarian efforts. Some of these efforts stem from various religions, and I feel that a lot of my own objectives stem from my spiritual beliefs. I was raised in a Presbyterian church and participated in a youth group up until I graduated from high school. We went on mission trips every summer, and from there I learned of other cultures and of the hardships that people unlike myself face every day. Though these trips typically only lasted a week, this exposed me to many other ways of life, and showed me how much need there is both in our country and outside of it. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college that I really understood that my choice of a major could actually play a role in helping others. I had never looked at my career as a method of invoking positive change in our society. We grow up learning that if you want to help people, you become a doctor or a teacher, not an architect. Through a few of my design classes, personal research, and friendships with some design students with a passion for helping people, I began to realize how much impact that design can make on our world. To me, humanitarianism is about helping others to the best of our efforts. The humanitarianism movement is complicated, because throughout history, some initiatives have been extremely unsuccessful. What are important to me are effective and efficient methods of creating positive change. If we are not smart and thoughtful about our process, our humanitarian efforts are not living up to their potential, and could even be detrimental to the group we wish to aid. As is exemplified many times throughout history, unorganized efforts to help can often be just as unproductive as they are productive. The Rwandan genocide in 1994, the 2004 South Asian tsunami, “Kony 2012”…all created a huge “humanitarian” efforts, but due to disorganization and misinformation, many good intentions of humanitarians during these times didn’t come through in their actions. I do believe that making any effort at all is better than doing nothing, but I also believe that keeping an intensely critical eye when formulating solutions for these tragedies is exceedingly important. How do we best solve the problem in the most efficient way? To me, humanitarianism isn’t just doing the bare minimum – it’s not about completing required service hours or going through the motions to feel like you’re making a difference. In order for things to truly change, and for us to help others not only temporarily but also permanently, we need to constantly reevaluate how we do things, and fine-tune our processes to each and every situation. We need innovators and leaders to organize and spearhead these efforts, to motivate others to participate, and to use design thinking to approach each problem. This is how I see the future of humanitarian efforts – educated people using their degrees and knowledge of various disciplines to educate others to create the best possible outcome. I think it’d be awesome if we had more classes that cover the topics of humanitarianism and design thinking, so more students can understand how important this is. In the future more and more people will implement their skills and careers to help others, not just work a 9-5 job and then occasionally volunteer on the weekends. What we do everyday will not be to earn a living for ourselves, but rather to improve the quality of life for others. |
AFTER THE TRIP
Before the trip, my definition of humanitarianism relied heavily on doing one’s best to use their knowledge and skill set to create positive changes in the world. This general understanding of humanitarianism has not changed much from the time I spent in Tanzania, but that’s not to say that I haven’t gained a new perspective (or many) from this experience. I now understand that humanitarianism is extremely complex. I thought I understood before how some humanitarian efforts can do just the opposite of what they’re intended to accomplish, but there are so many more levels to even that. Just spending 12 days in Tanzania was enough to give me a glimpse of what it takes to actually create positive change in the world, especially in a third world country. And it’s not easy. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting, it’s painstaking, it’s slow, it’s uncomfortable. I know that this is just one experience, but because it took it to such an extreme, it showed me all of the levels of complexity when it comes to actually trying to make the world a better place. I was familiar with design thinking and the importance of empathy in solving problems before the trip, but putting it into action, especially under the circumstances, was very important for me to experience. It’s pretty difficult to put into words how I felt and what I learned about humanitarianism when I was in Tanzania, but I’ll give it my best shot: The travel was long and exhausting. I was uncomfortable physically and socially because I was with a bunch of people I didn’t really know, and we were flying together halfway around the world. So from the beginning I just felt a little weird. Arriving in Africa was a bit of a culture shock, but I didn’t really know how to handle it. It was hot, everything was broken down and falling apart. There were people everywhere, and I didn’t have much in common with any of them, besides those also from UC. It’s just a COMPLETE change from anything I’ve ever really seen before...and I quickly learned how careful I had to be about my health and safety. I didn’t really want to leave our housing or our worksites without the rest of our group, because being so unfamiliar with the surroundings was unsettling. We had to get shots before the trip and take malaria pills every day, and only use bottled water. Just trying to keep yourself healthy during the trip is exhausting enough, and that’s only the beginning when committing yourself to this kind of effort. I guess to sum up my experience, I would say that humanitarianism is what I "thought" it was, but being there and just living in the moment, was about feeling. It doesn't really matter what I think about humanitarianism. Humanitarianism is about feeling and experience, and it's very much about patience and empathy. I could tell you a million times about how it's important to empathize with those in third world countries when you want to positively impact their lives....but you will not even begin to understand that feeling until you physically go there yourself to see it. It's unlike anything you can imagine, because it's just not how our country functions. I'd also say that humanitarianism is not just about helping people - it's about the impact that those people make upon you. I'm not sure I made a true, tangible impact during my time in Tanzania. However, the experience I had with the people there had a huge impact on me, and I brought back new understanding with me when I returned to America. I don't think these kinds of trips are meant to save the world on one week or solve all these communities' problems, they're about giving people a new perspective on life, which in turn will hopefully make them a better person. |