The above images are images of the artwork in the English department’s meeting room at the Dandelion school. The most interesting part of this artwork is that it is visibly noticeable that some of the artwork is unfinished. You can see the pencil sketches where the artwork is unfinished. Naturally, I was curious as to why the artwork was left unfinished so I asked about it. During one of the teacher English classes (where I teach English to Dandelion teachers), I asked one of the math teachers I was instructing about the artwork. He told me that last year, an African volunteer, around our age volunteered at the school and single handedly drew all of the artwork you see. When she left after 2 months no one stepped up to finish it. This vignette demonstrates one of the limitations of short term volunteer stints in the developing world. What happens when a volunteer with expertise such as Fang Fang leaves and none of the locals are willing or capable of finishing the work? Ian Birrell of the Guardian makes a sobering argument that many foreigners are simply tourists who actively damage the communities they try to help in the article below due to ignorance of the socio-economic dynamics in the community. He notes that foreign volunteers end up causing problems such as displacement of locals from jobs and forcing hard pressed organizations to waste valuable resources catering to westerners and their living standards. This is definitely not an attack on short term volunteers or Fang Fang, but if we genuinely wish for volunteer programs to have a meaningful impact these questions must be considered. As a counterpoint to this rather acrid story from The Observer, I refer to Lilly Yeh’s Awakening Creativity (ISBN-978-0988155937). This book discusses the various projects that Taiwanese-American artist, Lilly Yeh, undertook at Dandelion. For context, Lilly floated on and off campus working on projects over the course of 3 years. I will not be posting pictures from the book on this blog due to copyright reasons. However, if one searches for images of the school campus on the internet it should be easy to find her artwork considering its omnipresence across campus. The first good thing I noticed in Lilly Yeh’s volunteer experience was how informed she was about her environment. In her introduction she makes a brief overview of the major socio-economic forces that shape the environment she finds herself in. Through poignant vignettes and sweeping narrative she demonstrates an understanding of the major Chinese issues of the day including pollution, mass migration, and Deng Xiaoping’s legacy of reform. She also demonstrates sensitivity towards the conditions that the average people around her endure daily. One example of this sensitivity can be found in her recollection of an art workshop she ran for Dandelion teachers: “Teachers work long hours. The lead teachers stay into the night to oversee the students’ study periods… With the rising costs of living, congested boarding conditions, and strenuous schedules, teachers often feel stressed… I knew that if I wanted to get the teachers’ attention and involvement, my workshop had to be relaxing, participatory, and fun” (Yeh 54). I’d like to add emphasis on the “participatory” nature of her work. It is clear that Lilly made large efforts to include locals and leave behind know how. In her discussion of the mosaic project that now covers the Dandelion campus’s walls, she notes that she did not even begin until after she had created a strong team that included the principal, the school mason, the local Communist party official, the school art teachers, other long term volunteers, and enthusiastic students. At the end of the project, Lilly makes these comments: “it was important that the work continue after my departure” and “the fact that the Dandelion community completed the mural project without any help from me was an achievement to be celebrated” (Yeh 104). Keeping in mind the end goal of making the presence of volunteers unnecessary is what denotes good volunteering. Sources 1. Yeh, Lilly. Awakening Creativity. Oakland, CA: New Village Press, 2011. Print. 2. Birrell, Ian. "Before you pay to volunteer abroad, think of the harm you might do." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 14 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 June 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna>.v |
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