One of the things I’ve learned in the 8 years I’ve been doing aid and development is that, even when you do everything right, you cant please everyone. This past year, using funds from Nerdfighters and The Project For Awesome, I helped create The St. John School. It’s a nursery and primary school for a small Catholic community that live in a walled ghetto. It was part of the interfaith work I’ve been doing (as a Muslim) reaching out to minorities that are sometimes oppressed or harassed or targeted by Muslim extremists. We did everything correctly. We have the democratic majority of locals in this community ask for this school. With local partners, we hired proper contractors and construction crews to build the school. With local approval from NGOs and property owners, we got permission for land to build the school. So everyone is happy, right? Wrong. This lady was one of the Catholics I met on my first trip to this small community. She had encroached on this unused piece of land within her community to start a business for herself. She setup a small shop and would sell items to earn a living. Sometimes she wouldn’t sell stuff there but merely would hand out in that spot and do dishes and prepare food. When I came back, after construction was underway, everyone in the community was happy. Except her. I had taken her spot. I had displaced her shop. Even though we did everything by the book, had democratic approval of the community, and legal approval from all the proper agencies. She was pissed and unhappy. There’s no such thing as picture perfect. Even with instagram filters.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 23:32:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015