Justice?

I wrote this a few weeks ago for the Chaska Herald, and have been waiting on it to be published before I put it here. However this is how I have been feeling for the past few weeks, and the most articulate I think I could make it...

My first two weeks working to change the world have proven to be both incredibly rewarding and incredibly frustrating. The more I learn about the problems facing Sierra Leone, the less I understand what could be done to fix them. The conventional rules of development used in the Western world simply don’t seem to apply here.

The distinction between charity and justice has also become quite evident during my time here. Charity, short term assistance aim at the immediate needs of an individual person, is easy to do here. Justice, long term changes to policy and systems meant to address the root cause of the problem facing individuals, is difficult to do here. I have been able to do much charity work- helping individuals buy food, visiting HIV/AIDS patients, counselling, praying, and simply listening. As rewarding as these activities have been though, Sierra Leone needs both charity and justice.

One of the many wonderful people I have met here is Joseph. An ambitious soon-to-be 18 year old, Joseph is always smiling and always working. Joseph works with his uncle, Kaba, cleaning the YMCA hostel we are staying, hoping to earn enough money to pay for his last three years of high school. Kaba splits his salary (which, at about $50 a month, is barely enough to pay for food and transportation) with Joseph, but saving the $25 needed for one year of school fees is nearly impossible despite the fact that Joseph is one of the hardest working individuals I know. Since I firmly believe that every person has the right to an education, I was overjoyed to sponsor Joseph’s next year of school. He nearly made me cry when Joseph told me, “before my future was almost dead, but you have resurrected it. God Bless you.” I truly believe that small acts like this with great love can change the world.

However, there is a nation full of young, ambitious, wonderful individuals just like Joseph, who would like nothing more than the opportunity to go to school. Charity cannot send all of these children to school, only justice can do that. While I continue to help individuals, it is important to also ask what systematic changes can be made to help all of the individuals of Sierra Leone. As I mentioned earlier, it is incredibly difficult to formulate and execute effective systematic changes here, as all of the problems are densely interrelated. Over the next few weeks I am embarking on the daunting task of better understanding of the problems facing Sierra Leone and how our community can better help our global neighbours. It can easily become overwhelming, but no one ever said working in the least developed nation in the world would be easy, they only told me it would be worth it.