Journal 3 - A Day at a Time

An Aside: This morning I listened to D. Todd Christofferson talk in a replay of the CES Fireside this last Sunday. He taught about taking things a day at a time when you feel overwhelmed, instead of focusing on the sometimes daunting future. I felt that his message applied to the "to do" list for this research opportunity. While I feel a desire to participate in this program, thinking about all there is to get done can get me quickly overwhelmed. The talk helped me see that even though it may be a challenge to get do Ghana and do field research, because I think it will be a shaping and worth-while experience, I can do it if I take things a day at a time.

Now for the thoughts I've had on my project design. Something that really helped my research process this morning came from a diagram in the library website...
From this diagram I researched the basics of a topic I've been leaning toward: International Development Theory. In my research I ran into some theories about "developmental sustainability" that caught my attention and drew my interest. The basic tenets of this idea are that once developmental aid is provided or offered, how sustainable is the aid? I didn't realize until I studied the ways that one can increase sustainability that this was something I identified with success in development efforts, the ability of the people a project helps to continue it on their own or to contribute in a major way.

A reason I can identify this as a major factor in developmental success deals with the personal experiences of my friends and myself. One example: I had a friend who volunteered to travel to Ecuador with Habitat for Humanity. She commented on her surprise that, although the members of the community were friendly, the effort her group was making to build these homes seemed less effective because members of the community weren't involved in the effort. It seems like a project would experience more success and more beneficial to people if there is more working together between a community and an organization. It might also be easier to increase the longevity and reach of the cause if it involved input and participation from the recipient community or population.

After reflecting on this theory and the points made, I thought about the Salvation Army clinic in Wiamoase that I've been considering doing my project on. What are the views of the community toward this clinic? How much involvement does the community have? What policies make community participation necessary? What SA policies might limit that involvement? Does the clinic's longtime presence in the community indicate policies that facilitate sustainable efforts? What are these? Are there attitudes of the community that help or hurt the clinic's sustainability?

What do you think about my questions?