Support the Locals

Whenever people hear about areas in war, natural disasters, or just bad economic times, they want to help. Most people throw money at organizations that claim to help people in the area. Others send clothes, food supplies, and many other items those areas might be lacking. And although it is very beneficial to get those things, it can also be detrimental. Don’t forget that these non-profit organizations are advocacy based and have employees with salaries, so please do research about where the money goes (i.e. whether it goes toward direct services on the ground or towards media campaigns and employee kickbacks).
As we have recently discussed in class, those who give aid during war times need to remember that it can also aid those who are perpetuating the conflict or causing violence. The aid resources can be stolen by soldiers and used to feed or arm them in highly insecure areas.  Rebels tend to control roadways and may require some sort of payment from the trucks who are carrying goods to those affected. Often times non-governmental or non-profit organization are complicit in keeping these informal networks of trade, money and resources going to provide relief. Other times those who receive the aid may be required to pay tax on the goods they’ve received.
Aid also affects the markets. Employment, trade, goods and services all then shift toward war related activities and patterns. Price of everything escalates and the rich get richer, where the poor get poorer.
Recently Ben Affleck wrote an article titled, “Westerners Are Not And WillNever Be The 'Saviors' Of Africa”.  As he said, “Westerners are not and will never be the 'saviors' of Africa. That idea has been tried and found wanting. It is ineffectual at best and deadly at worst.” It’s always nice to have good intentions and to do things that help people. But we have to be aware of the consequences of our actions. As the saying goes, you can give someone a fish, but that will only feed them for a meal (aka cause dependency issues and reinforce already complex and unequal power dynamics). Teach them to fish and you can feed them forever. Or rather find out whether they want to fish or not or if they prefer to grow food or raise chickens. Ben also had another great statement: “The next step after awareness is action. There are many steps that we can take to end this nightmare. Among the most important is funding remarkable local organizations.” Local organizations are hard to find, especially when so far from the area, but they are the greatest way to help an area in hard times because often times they provide direct services in a way that larger, Western-based organizations cannot.

Listed below are some great local organizations that are doing good things for the Northern region.

Refugee Law Project

Justice and Reconciliation Project

Center for Reparation and Rehabilitation

Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative

PACTA

I also intern at LAPEWA. They don’t have an actual website, but they can be contacted at the following:
+256 0773 390857  or +256 0772 529 188
lapewa@gmail.com

There are various means of getting money to these organizations, i.e. Western Union.