It is a sacrifice I hear my friends and family say. It is a calling I hear my colleagues say. But as the saying goes ‘we all just want to get paid’. What drives us in our personal and professional lives changes constantly. But let us firstly deal with one constant, survival.
We work to put food on the table, clothes on our children’s backs, a roof over our heads. In Australia one would argue that you don’t have to do this, there is social support and unemployment benefits. But in most other countries around the globe there is no such thing as unemployment benefits. Social support means family and friends. I have to admit that when visiting my in-laws in Tanzania I can feel that social support from them, but I also feel that responsibility. This is a good thing. It brings us closer.
The responsibility does not just extend to my family but to the broader society. In African households there are a few key breadwinners and many of those look after a large ‘family’. In Kenya during the Global Financial Crisis, when many of my friends who were key bread winners lost their jobs, violence increased. This, my friends tell me, was because they could not support many of the most desperate family members. They tell me that they know the perpetrators of violence in their families and they work hard to get money to them, so that they don’t seek payment through alternative and more illegal avenues.
In Australia working for social change may be seen as a sacrifice as we don’t get paid as much as our friends in corporate jobs, but it is also a luxury. It is a luxury because we get to choose this line of work, it is a luxury because we know if things go bad our family will be ok. In a place like Tanzania this is not so clear. A job in an NGO is a good job, it is stable and it pays relatively well. So for many of my colleagues and friends in places like Tanzania, sure it may be a calling but it is also a job that keeps their family alive and well. I don’t begrudge them that.
But are all people so good hearted? Do all people think of their families and their communities first? Unfortunately the answer is no. We all know of stories of fathers drinking away their family’s food money, of mothers gambling away their children’s school fees. Whilst most of us would condemn this kind of behaviour, most of us also do this subtly in our own daily lives. I know I do. We may spend money on a haircut, a new TV, a good book, when we know our money could be better spent on social good in the present and in the future. I have observed this in every society I have lived and visited. The foundation to this is one of our most fundamental drivers. This is a driver not just for survival, but for living. The simple fact that if someone put us in a room with all that we needed to survive (food, shelter, warmth etc) we would still not be satisfied.
Evidence shows that people living in really desperate circumstances, such as famine, will prioritise basic requirements for survival such as food and water, and for people living in luxury and with social support they will prioritise requirements of personal interest. However evidence also shows that for those that live in the area between these two groups, the largest group on the planet, priorities in decision making about their and their families lives varies greatly.
Addressing this middle group in issues of living is where I believe the long term development sector has failed. Sure, there still needs to be funding and systems to meet basic needs, but in only addressing this we are only looking at half of the picture. In fact I would argue that such an approach has damaged community resilience and sustainable development. Such a system has created dependency and built expectations within community only to be let down. We walk with communities and bring them to their feet but don’t explore with them the wonders of life. We show them possibility and then leave them open and vulnerable to further heartbreak. Addressing the other side of the picture is not only vital to community resilience but would add to the vibrancy of global solidarity. This is a challenge I throw down to myself and the sector in which I work, and a reminder that must sit at the forefront of our collective understanding of humanity; we all want to live not just survive.
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