OUR WORK > cbm co-worker stories from West Africa > Returning Down Under
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Returning Down UnderTime passes and you adjust to, or accept, your environment – we have adjusted in many ways and not in others. Pictures do justice to some situations but here in West Africa I struggle to take photos of people sometimes. It makes me an observer, an on looker, removed behind the camera, rather than a living part of this environment.
Anyway, why would I want to take the photo of the man on the street corner down town whose legs are little twigs, who gets around with dumbbells in his hands and his withered body on a type of skateboard? He is just struggling out his existence begging.
Marketing analysts would say he is in the place classed as the best place for “foot traffic”. His best place is not foot traffic just real ‘traffic’ in the median strip of the busiest road where there are lights and the cars have to stop (assuming the power is on). We unfortunately have too many corners like this in Lome, and Accra and Freetown and Monrovia and Bissau and, and, and, and… To this, I hope I never adjust. If I do I have lost my compassion.
A photo could show you the bedraggled bone thin woman sitting high on top a pile of rubbish – it cannot show you that she is mentally ill, yelling at each car that drives past. Or our other mentally ill patients who you easily identify walking the streets, often they are stark naked or dressed in rags ship-wrecked by life. You just know they are locked in their own minds.
These ones on the streets are the lucky ones, the community deems them safe enough to be out and about. The story is worse for those who aren’t seen. They are often still literally chained up through their bad episodes. I admire our organization cbm who have taken on the mandate to help those with mental disability. Many NGOs just skirt issue: too big and not wildly popular from a fundraising point of view.
In Nigeria we have a fantastic psychiatrist from the UK who is passionate about getting basic treatments into the communities. He is training mental health nurses and workers who can treat patients and educate the communities.
People with epilepsy, which so simply treated with inexpensive drugs, are often seen by the community as being “possessed by the devil”. Hence they can be dragged from Christian healing services to witch doctor to voodoo priest in the hope of healing by exorcism, some are painful invasive sessions.
All the while the family doesn’t know that treatment is available. Similar stories emerge for people with Schizophrenia and Depression. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is notable in place like Sierra Leone and Liberia where the atrocities of civil war have scarred the mind. All the more so in these countries where child soldiers were kidnapped, forced to become cocaine addicts and indoctrinated.
I am equally admirable of cbm when I see the polio victim crawling on hands and knees to cross the street using jandals (i.e. flip-flops, go-aheads) on her hands. I take comfort knowing cbm has so many Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programs running in this part of the world to help those with physical disability. These programs have trained workers who find the people with disabilities (PWDs), link them to medical and other resources, help get them involved in appropriate apprenticeships and educate the family/community.
With this polio victim my immediate thought was a tricycle would help you get around better. cbm often funds these and other devices and aids for the disabled: Braille machines, calipers, orthopaedic shoes, tricycles etc. cbm is an INGO in the forefront front of CBR work for persons with disabilities.
So while the West goes into decline because of money issues and economic collapse we wonder what will happen here. The cracks are already showing. Funding is already significantly down to organisations like ours.
We are being told to brace for a 30%+ reduction to the budget for our projects this year. The BBC report ‘Senegal’s lifeblood drains away’ says 70% of the Senegalese who live in Europe & States send money back to Senegal. This has dropped significantly with the world economic crisis. These remittances have in the past made up 10% of Senegal’s GDP.
The situation will be no different all our countries. West Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world … and it’s just about to get poorer. How will people cope? I am not sure. One has to hope on the resilience of the human spirit to overcome adversity. “The poor will be with you always” someone told me once, and even more poverty is hitting the world – both here and in the West.
So our friends, we travel back down under for a couple of months, to a place we regard as beautiful, comfortable, and privileged. We see big challenges for our world.
Our simplistic thoughts are: now is the season to get life back to the basics, enjoy and laugh with the ones you love. It may not feel like it at times but there is always someone worse off than you – a simple smile or a chat over cup of coffee can give them hope. Give where you can and that isn’t necessarily all about money - time and prayers are precious gifts. We will be back in touch when we return to West Africa in July.
All our love, God Bless
Tania and Neil
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