helping people to help themselves - webenin

8/9/2019 Helping People to Help Themselves - WeBenin

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Photo: Alexander Rausch


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Helping People

to HelpThemselvesInterview by Astrid Ramge

we_special_/

tags> Benin, development aid, self-organization, West-Africa, Aledjo

Astrid Ramge

Astrid Ramge was in charge of Corporate

Communications at MetaDesign in Berlin,

Germanys leading Corporate Identiy and

Branding agency, during the last ten years.

Now she is getting involved in various

projects concerning Web . and political,

cultural and business changes.

Alexander Rausch

Alexander Rausch works as a consultant

and system coach. His motto is to help

people to help themselves no matter if the

problems are private or business related.

He serves a wide range of people within

our society unemployed poor families as

well as succesfull business people.

Ulrike Reinhard

Ulrike Reinhard, founder of we-magazine.

Trained as an economist. Since she left

university, she has been self-employed in

various fields. she had her first

e-mail account at The Well. The past ten

years she has travelled the world extensi-

vely, always looking for better ways to

think and act. She is deeply committed to

the network she inhabits.


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we_special_/

Alexander>

Benin is one of the poorest countries on earth. The

cities are teeming with people whove escaped

from the countryside in search of a better future. In

the rural areas you find those typical African round

huts with straw roofs and village wells. Theres no

kind of infrastructure. Then you have the smallertowns most of which have an Internet Caf and a

power supply. The bigger villages like Aledjo have

at least a rudimentary infrastructure with a few

public telephones but electricity only for a number

of houses or huts and then only at certain times of

day. Water comes in a bucket from a well. And

Internet access when its there is comparable to

the time of the first modems in Europe.

Schools in rural areas are few and far between so

the only children who go to school are those whose

parents can afford to pay bus fares. Or children who

can walk around km a day to school and back.

This means that education is a luxury beyond the

reach of most people. The level of educationthroughout the country is very low and the majo-

rity of people can neither read nor write.

Language is another big problem. A legacy of the

long period of French colonialization is that French

is the official language of the country. Yet the rural

areas and villages have a great number of very dif-

ferent dialects which often creates major language

barriers.

We support Benin (WeBenin) seeks to provide unbureaucratic effectiveassistance to people and initiatives in Benin, helping them to empowermentor self-responsibility and self-determination. WE spoke with the initiatorsof WeBenin, Ulrike Reinhard, freesoul and founder of we-magazine, andAlexander Rausch, creative coach and trainer, always on the look-out for newforms of moderation and group work, about their experiences and the lessonslearned from this project which they started in . The two of them hit on

Benin because its one of the poorest countries in Africa but also because ofthe personal bonds tying them to the land: the late father of Ulrikes son camefrom Benin. WeBenin is not an association or foundation but has consciouslychosen a formless kind of outreach that relies on voluntary helpers, trust,donations, and campaigns and harnesses the power of networks.

In when you started your Initiative you spent two weeks in Benin andyou returned there again in . What are conditions of life like there andwhat challenges do you meet in Benin?


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we_special_/

When you started your WeBenin project in ,

your networks here in Europe began collecting

computers, cell phones and money to pass them

on to people and initiatives in Benin. All this was

under the slogan Help people to help themselves.

How has your projected shaped up to present and

what kind of experiences have you made?

Alexander>

Our vision is to network the people in the country

so they can give one another mutual support and

assistance and develop their OWN problem-solving

skills and abilities, and their OWN ideas and pro-

jects which they can then share and pass on yet

further. So that the country can awaken to new life

from the inside and under its own steam, and so

that the people themselves can live autonomous

lives of the kind they want, of the kinds that match

their own reality.

Even so, the lack of infrastructure Ive just talked

about meant that an Internet-based project of the

type wed originally thought about was realizable

only on a very small scale. Another factor we hadto take into account was the very high illiteracy rate

in the country which meant that any Internet work

would have to be limited to videos or podcasts.

But videos and podcasts need fairly high data trans-

mission rates and theyre simply not around!!

All this wasnt what wed imagined and it certainly

wasnt what wed been hoping for. It would have

been great, for instance, to set up some form

of partnership between schools in Germany and

classes in Benin. But it was immediately obvious

that this kind of option was a complete no-go. And

its for similar sorts of reasons that weve had to put

other international projects which wed have loved

to realize with the Internet on ice for the time being

like exchanges with people in other poor parts

of the world.

But cell phones are common in Benin as they

are throughout the whole of Africa. And with the

various different networks operating in the regions,

people in Benin very often have several phones. We

had no difficulty in distributing our cell phones

even though our phone campaign was only a drop

in the ocean! But its still true that the cell phone in

Africa does indeed offer a viable and very often

the only alternative for implementing e.g. educa-

tional projects.

And we did have our first small successes. In Aledjo

we were able to set up a computer room where

children, young people and adults too could make

their first steps towards computer proficiency. And

we could also establish the Internet to a certain

extent through mobile sticks. Were optimist that

the Internet problem can be solved development

continues apace and the sticks are only the begin-ning.

Another milestone was the support we were able

to offer through our donations to the womens

organization ADRIA in Aledjo in setting up a regio-

nal project. We bought a quantity of sacks of ferti-

lizer which ADRIA then distributed in the regions

using a system of micro-loans. Another idea we had

was to transfer ADRIAs micro-financing model to

the neighboring locality of Massi. So watch this

space!

Photos: Alexander Rausch


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In line with our guiding principle Help people to

help themselves its paramount for us to get

people in Benin to provide mutual support and

assistance for one another. No matter whether its

the women of ADRIA who pass on their knowledge

to other women, or individual computer experts

like the village admin who develop their own

skills and abilities and train others, the important

thing is to have a multiplication effect in the out-

reach.

Generally speaking, our greatest challenge was and

still is education and building up networks and the

Internet in a country where the conditions on the

ground arent particularly auspicious. Yet Benin

does have the great advantage of being a politically

stable country with a government which is very

receptive to receiving outside help. In this sense we

see great opportunities for driving our project for-

wards through continuous development of thetechnology and partnerships with other projects

which have dealt with similar sets of circumstances.

Ulrike>

From the word go we didnt want to adopt any top

down approach and appear as the clever know-it-

alls. What we wanted to do was to listen, to identify

the actual pressing problems and then motivate

people to use their own steam and their own sense

of personal responsibility to help themselves.In summer our initiative was able to place two

volunteers from Germany in Aledjo, two young

women who after graduating from high school took

a year off for voluntary social work. I brought the

two of them to Aledjo last summer and helped them

get their bearings. They are now supporting Mme

Abibai on the micro-credits program and working

as German and French teachers at local the school.

Unfortunately it quickly became apparent here that

its not at all easy to familiarize volunteers and

Europeans with just what Help people to helpthemselves actually involves. Even volunteers have

a very highly ingrained sense of security and a hier-

archical way of thinking. So, on their own initiative,

these two young women sought out the local

branch of the German Development Service (DED)

in an effort, as it were, to get the official blessing

and authorization on their current positions. This

was a move that we certainly hadnt planned for

and which will probably lead to the projects weve

started in Aledjo being staffed in future by DED

volunteers which will force us either to become

entangled in bureaucracy and take us association

status or to strike out in new directions. This is a

rather unfortunate situation for us but it does serve

to show once more how thinking on both sides

both people in poor regions and aid volunteers

still remains deeply colored by the dualism of

Youre rich and have go to help us versus We

know whats best for you. We need to do a great

deal more work to persuade people out of these

ruts.

Personal relations, personal initiatives and

personal relationships are very much at the

forefront of your project. Cant that sometimes

also be an impediment when youre trying to

support people and trying to act in an equitable

and impartial manner?

Alexander>

WE wanted to do something in Africa and we chose

Benin because that was where the father of Ulrike

son Tim came from. So right from the beginning we

had a personal connection with the country. And

we also involved the family in Benin Tims uncle

accompanied us for the most part of our travels.

Then as now, what we wanted to do embody and

live out our principle help people to help them-

selves through our own personal relations so thatthe people on the ground would understand this

spirit and carry it forward.

Obviously justice is a very difficult thing to guaran-

tee but its got nothing to do with personal relation-

ships. The big NGOs cant guarantee justice either.

But our project had the vision that personal bonds

and network building would somehow result in

more justice. Because when a network widens,

more and more people have the chance to take

part in it so that ultimately everybody can benefit.

Powered by self-responsibility and peoples ownactions, it will have an impact over and beyond

local boundaries and inspire people to take their

own futures in their hands. Established NGOs often

export their own view of things with what they

believe are the proper courses of action to be taken.

WE on the other hand want to get to know the per-

sonal connections, the individual worlds in which

people live, and work from inside to motivate them

to autonomous action.

Photo:AlexanderRausch


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What have you learnt about the needs of people

in Benin? In the light of your present experience,

what is the best way to support them?

Ulrike>

Given the staggering poverty there, its quite certain

that % of the population are involved in a bare

struggle just to survive from day to day. For women

every day at sunrise this means trudging the long

way to the fields with a child on their back, anot-

her in their hand and a heavy weight of baggage

balanced on their head. Day in day out without the

slightest hope of change or improvement.

It wasnt the poverty that shocked me in our travels

through the country. No, the people might be chro-

nically poor but they have a tremendous zest for

life something that is lacking in us here. What

depressed me and what depresses me still is thatthere are countless numbers of people there who

simply dont see any chance of a better future.

Theyve almost resigned and accepted their lives as

they are without the slightest hope for the future.

Weve been into schools and gazed into faces that

I shall never forget for as long as I live: emptiness,

emptiness, sheer emptiness. Not a trace of pride or

dignity. Possibly just the hope that when whites ap-

pear they might be given a handout. But that is pre-

cisely not the way to do it! These people dont need

handouts and they dont need someone to showthem or tell them how they can best survive in their

own country. They know that already!

We have to reawaken to new life everything that

has been destroyed by long decades of develop-

ment work and the behavior of the former colonial

masters. We have to restore these people to their

dignity and recognize them and view them as our

equals in the ecosystem of the earth. We can help

them sustainably and for the long term if we only

let them be themselves.

My dream is to hear more people in Benin sayingYes, we can! and to see more people like Mme.

Abiba take control of things with her own two

hands and get them done. You can help them to

find their own way but then you have to let them

go it alone. And that will only happen on a broad

basis if WE say to them Yes you can do it! If we

give them back their dignity and treat them with

respect and are willing to learn from them the

whole host of things that they can do and we cant!


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we_special_/

And it is important even if its very hard when you

look into the empty faces of the poorest of the poor

as an affluent European its important to say to

them We havent got any handouts for you. You

have to do it by yourselves and you can do it!

Thats the only way were going to make a perma-

nent change for the better!

From the very beginning youve relied heavily

on the mechanisms of the network, both for

those giving and those receiving. Calls for

donations on the Web, in blogs and so on. How

is your network now shaping up on both sides?

Ulrike>

For us the Internet is the key instrument, on the one

hand for enabling education and on the other for

promoting and building up the networks internalto Benin across the world. That is a vital basic

requirement thats needed if the people in all the

countries of this world are to gradually build a form

of life that makes life livable for all. This is a deve-

lopment that the governments of the world are

going to have to come to terms with over the next

few years. The Internet has turned the world into a

global village.

In Benin weve created the first node. How this will

develop in future depends solely on the people

there and how relevant network content is to theirdaily lives. The network is tremendously useful for

our work in terms of donations and information,

and it also brings us into contact with similar kinds

of projects. As weve learnt, it functions extremely

well!

And what does the future look like for WeBenin?

Whats the next step youre planning?

Ulrike>

I intend to return to Benin in early August. With two

main things on the agenda: firstly, we want to find

out how we can use the Free Radio Network there

to build a network infrastructure, and secondly we

want to start preparations for building our library

in Aledjo at long last. If everything goes according

to plan, the architects Johannes Hucke and Barbara

Quentin will be coming with me and were going

to talk with the people on the ground on how to

take further measures to promote reading and wri-

ting in the region. The idea is to start with a group

of about women in Aledjo and to work out a way

with them how they can best teach the other inha-

bitants of their villages to read and write.

Do you have any connections now to similar

projects in other countries?

Ulrike>

No, this sort of connection doesnt exist in any phy-

sical sense even though its something were very

much thinking about. We do think that projects that

have been successful in other countries including

countries outside of Africa could be transferred

to Benin. We dont mean classical development pro-

jects but rather those initiatives mainly sponsored

by private individuals which start out on a modest

small scale and which like we do subscribe to thehelp people to help themselves principle. Projects

which make people strong in their dignity and

which put them into a position where theyre able

to build something themselves projects that I call

enablers.

In particular, Im thinking about the Cinema Jenin

project which is also discussed in this edition of we-

magazine. So why not build a cinema with a media

square in Porto Nuovo or Naittingou? This would

have the advantage that the partners in Jenin cer-

tainly have all the know-how needed to set up aproject of this kind in Benin and we can simply learn

the lessons of what theyve done in Jenin. Film in

Africa is a huge topic.

Weve also been following a project in Winneba,

Ghana with very keen interest. Winneba is a town

about km west of Accra on the coast where

what is known as a NIC or Network-Improved

Communities was set up with help from the Free

Radio Network from Berlin and an initiative from

Taiwan. The technical infrastructure comes from

Berlin while on the local level people are schooledin using PCs and networks by Taiwanese students.

The people whove had their training then go on to

train others so theres a snowball effect.

The Free Radio Network enables many small units

to share the low network costs which means they

can be connected to the Net. Such a structure could

be applied to Aledjo and enable communication

between various localities without any of them

being linked to the Internet backbone. When you

think how hard it is for most people just to cover


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we_special_/

the km to the next village, its easy to see what

kind of benefits such a system would bring with it.

Both Winneba and Nigeria too in places where

these NICs are now part of everyday life have seen

a considerable rise in the living standards of the

stakeholders in terms of educational level and

income.

People everywhere are now seizing initiatives

off the beaten track and fighting for a better and

more livable world. Theres an uprising among

the culturally creative. Would you label your-

selves as such?

And do you see any signs of an emerging new

trend or movement comparable with the environ-

mental movement?

Ulrike>

I dont like being put in boxes! But I do indeed think

that you can speak of the formation of a movement

that bypasses the traditional channels of develop-

ment aid. In my view its exactly the same pheno-

menon we can see in politics, education or in enter-

prises: if something cant make a breakthrough in

its proper system or just takes an incredibly amount

of time about it, it goes ahead and builds its own

system. And thats much easier to do nowadays

than it was years ago, thanks in great part to theadvent of the Internet. On the one hand having

access to the Internet means that people can now

clearly see and hear those previously unknown and

oh-so-remote places, while on the other new

media also enable the rapid and effective networ-

king of all those who want to get active.

To what extent has the WeBenin project changed

your outlook or your reality? Do you view the

world differently now to the way you viewed it

two years ago?

Alexander>

For me personally my view of things has changed

because I now know what it means to have lived

out Marshall McLuhans dictum the world is a glo-

bal village in my own person. The Internet and the

network have shown us that there are a great num-

ber of people out there ready and willing to give

immediate and easy help and support. The blogs

didnt just ask for donations, they also spread the

news about us and this attracted more and more

new helpers to swell our ranks. Ulrike too has had

a lot of instantaneous support and feedback per

Twitter from Los Angeles and other parts of the

world. To keep it short, this is the first time that Ive

really understood the network principle on such a

huge scale and Ive really caught the bug. Network

communication is ultimately the very best means of

helping people and of hopefully creating a better

world.

I always used to be aware that I myself bore sole

responsibility for the kind of life I wanted to lead.

Webenin has now shown me that we can reach the

whole world with the Internet and that by working

together in networks we can slowly but surely take

more control over what our lives should look like.

The opportunities it offers are breathtaking! Many

many people are now using them and their num-bers are continually growing. Since Benin, all my

thinking is along the open tracks of self-organi-

zation, networks, the global village. So WeBenin

has changed my life as a whole by changing my way

of thinking. Its a wonderful feeling even though it

does give you a very stark view of the degree of

(personal) responsibility you bear for the whole!


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Photo: Alexander Rausch


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