Cold

Week #2: Cold

I didn’t expect the challenge to throw me a curveball so soon. But when the theme word is ‘cold’, it’s a little daunting to attempt to apply it to a place called where the humidity is 90% at dawn and it was at least 36° Celsius in the shade.

But then I realized that my thinking was too “inside the box”. I needed to be a little more creative. Temperature is the most obvious way to interpret the word, but I think I found something that fits both the photo challenge and my own fresh application I wrote about last week.

Let the record show, I could have gone the easy route and simply posted my little cold-blooded gecko buddy:

But I decided since the point of this exercise is to tell stories as well as profile photos on the theme, I would try another angle.

Cold Reception: The manner in which something, such as a guest or a new idea, is negatively received.

Every day in Malawi, we were greeted with warmth and enthusiasm. Everywhere we went were met with singing, gifts, embraces and grateful words. We were honoured. It is hard to imagine that this was not always the case.

I always falsely assumed that World Vision would be welcomed with open arms in their new communities – that desperate people would be receptive and see their presence as positive. But the truth of the matter is, starts can be slow and the reception, well, chilly.

Some parents in Malawi misunderstood the concept of sponsorship initially. In fact, at one point, the Mposa Project Manager, Dan, had to organize a meeting and explain that sponsorship does not mean that the children were sent away – parents feared enrolling their children in the program meant permanently losing them. Can you even fathom that? With that terrifying prospect, no wonder they were resistant! With all the local dialects to communicate with, this is such delicate work.

The village chiefs often attended our visits in Malawi, and they were also approaching Dan about sponsorship. “Attitudes are Changing.” Dan told me the last day. Dan and I spoke a few days before Christmas and he reaffirmed that our presence indeed made an impact on the Malawian families: “I’m not sweating to get sponsorships,” he told me, “You make my work easier”. One man had quite strenuously refused to sign up his kids for sponsorship. But after our departure from Malawi, he came to Dan himself with a change of heart. He had seen our presence, perceived our true motives, and it was corroborated by the families who were visited.

I read an article recently that questioned whether short-term overseas volunteer projects were worth all the time, money and effort in the long-term. It’s a valid and necessary question. And as someone who has done it twice, it has challenged me. I don’t want to be part of something with little value in the end for the sake of charity or my own ego.

But I have to say, that I am hearing such affirmation of World Vision’s DLC program. Four staff members spoke to me in the last days of our trip about the effect our visit had on the community. As I hugged him goodbye, case worker Gabriel told me “Families ask me, are the sponsors real”? “Your coming assures them it is real.” Dan confirmed. The staff no longer have to justify to people the legitimacy of Canadians who desire to help. As participants in the DLC Program, we validate the process of sponsorship for them, just as these families corroborate it for Canadians who disbelieve.

While World Vision’s reception in Mposa was clearly cold initially, we are very proud to see a symbolic thaw in “The Warm Heart of Africa”. Children in Mposa will have a whole different kind of future thanks to fresh belief in the sponsorship program and their vital sponsors in Canada.

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13 Jan This entry was published on January 13, 2012 at 11:43 am. It’s filed under CameraShy Challenge, Canada, Child Sponsorship, Malawi, Photography, Poverty, World Vision and tagged cold, Malawi, photo challenge, Photography, World Vision. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.