Motivated People

After working in the Philippines and at times getting frustrated because it seemed like few people had much motivation, let alone motivation to help other people, coming to the border has been a very refreshing experience. I will illustrate with two examples:

One of my students and one of Casey's students are both members of the Burmese Migrant Labor Union. Two years ago they, under initiative from their organization, decided to create a weekend English school for children of migrant laborers. They began by teaching in someone's house until they received funding from an international agency to build them a 3 room building. They also searched for funding to receive snacks/lunch for the students. Though there are some flaws with the program (unavoidable considering they don't have much of a background in education or much knowledge of English which is the main thing they teach to the children), the sincerity by which our students teach their students is heart warming.

Today, Casey and I met another man, who has developed an after school English program for students from 3 remote villages. It too, began from his house and he asked for the students to pay a small fee for electricity but did not like this because most families in the area cannot afford even a small fee. Eventually, he received funding from an international organization to build a school on his property. They also sponsor materials for the children and occassionally send English speaking volunteers.

In both of these cases, the educators are doing this because they realize that their children deserve a better future with a better education. While they currently make some money from the projects, they began teaching for altruistic reasons. Unlike much international development I have witnessed, where international NGO's try to force potential projects on their target communities, these projects TRULY did come from WITHIN. Only after these projects were started, did they receive resources from the outside. This IS how development should happen everytime.