X-Factor #1
X Factor #1
I wrote this a month or so ago and didn’t publish it because I felt like I couldn’t express myself properly without sounding like a heartless capitalist. It’s a controversial subject, corruption in charities, non-profits and non-governmental organizations. There is a fine line for being compensated for your expertise, and earning what one would earn in the non-profit sector. It should be proportionate not according to your expertise because you could go work in the corporate world, but to what you are trying to accomplish. The real payoff is the satisfaction of teaching someone to read, or how to set-up a business, that’s why it’s a non-profit.
It seems that a revision must take place regarding providing students with scholarships. Even though we have a “sweat equity” program as part of the curriculum (working in the student clinic, and internship at the major resorts in Nepal for two months), it feels to me that it’s not the right way to empower people.
I mentioned the idea of providing student loans and giving one scholarship per semester as a way to give financial aid, instead of just giving free training, and also giving the students a free stipend. There is no self-reliance built in that. Sure it’s great to empower people by providing an opportunity when they wouldn’t normally get one. Sure it’s wonderful help the poor, but what are we ultimately cultivating?
We, Himalayan Healers are taking all the risks, providing quality training and education at no cost and then find them jobs abroad. There is no pro-activity coming from the student’s side. It’s imbalanced. There needs to be (besides requiring the students to volunteer) a better way to convey their commitment and who is passionate about this work.
After meeting with a couple of different potential students, I felt that people are taking take advantage of us; that people aren’t really passionate about massage therapy. It seems like a mindless decision motivated by a free training program and getting a little pocket money. There is no incentive for them to stay in the program, to actually learn the material. Maybe at the end of the training, they don’t want to work in this field. It’s a big investment of money that we haven’t received yet. And I can’t ignore this feeling that people so far that we’ve met aren’t serious about the work. That they would go into this half-heartedly, because it’s a free opportunity to live and work abroad. We cannot afford this type of mentality, the idea is to cultivate healing, not just getting a job. This isn’t a normal type of job. And if they aren’t capable of giving quality treatments, we cannot place students in luxury spas in Asia, because then we look unqualified.
We have a lot of trust to gain in Nepal, and with spa employers in Asia. I am very passionate about healing and teaching others. I do think this program will work, it just needs some tweaking.
A lot of foreign aid pours into Nepal annually, making the country dependent on donor agencies. It’s big business here, to open up a non-governmental organization or international non-governmental organization, apply for aid, collect the money and whatever is left over, actually delivered to the population(s) it was initially intended for. There are a lot of reports made, which means you have to pay the administrators, the researchers, who are collecting data. If 20,000 NGO’s and INGO’s are actually doing the work they say they are doing, then I think Nepal would be a different country than it is now.
Of course some could argue that the civil war is affecting the effectiveness of these INGOs and NGO’s. But they are still in operation, doing what it has yet to be seen.
You can’t just throw money at a situation; because that’s all you end up doing. There needs to be an understanding of the situation and asses which would be the best way to help.
My cousin just finished her BA in social work. She and I had a discussion about the project, and she commented that we are making the Dalit’s dependent on us, by giving everything for free—training and money.
She said that Nepal is like a homeless person on the street holding out a cup and begging for money.
She said most foreign volunteers, which she is happy that they come here to help, make Nepali’s dependent on the aid agencies and make their programs inefficient. She told me a story about how one foreign aid group built public toilets in the village, using the side of a hill or road, or backyard as a toilet. When the aid agency was in the village, the toilet program worked, but once they left, the villagers abandoned the toilet. Why? Primarily they weren’t taught how to properly clean the bathrooms, why hygiene is important, why one should use a toilet, etc. So the money they spent, which was heartfelt, failed in the end.
And I’m not saying that people are deserving of a scholarship. I can only go by my intuition and know that giving out free training, is going to be effective. It just seems after reviewing the applications, reading the essays, that, it would be better to give loans to those that cannot pay, and give a few scholarships. In a nation that is dependent on foreign aid, it has cultivated a certain mentality.
I get the feeling that providing scholarships to all students is not something that is conducive to recruiting students. After just looking on paper, at the applicants, I am not impressed with the potential with the students. Yes, it’s very one-dimensional, their essays are as well, just giving the generic answer of what it means to be a healer, and why. It’s almost like they copied the essay answers off each other.
There are some really good things about the youth in this country, and that people are hungry for opportunity, will work for it, and are very open to learning. On the flip side of that, it also means that any opportunity for training, with the prospect of working over seas, coupled with the idea of it being on scholarship, seems to get people that might not be able to complete or want to work in the healing arts.
Part of the problem is that the applicants do not understand what they are applying for, just applying because it sounds different, and is a free training course, so why not?
We will do an orientation for all the applicants, to explain who we are, and what we do. Also, I will do a quick demonstration of hand reflexology, and everyone will work on another, so that they understand massage.
I feel that offering of a loan, will weed out the one’s who aren’t serious. Of course, that might not happen either, after all, people want what they want, and might come into this not willing to repay the loan. We have an answer for that as well, when the employer hires a student; they take a percentage directly from their paychecks until the loans are re-paid. This way it instills self-reliance, self-responsibility and makes the students who are passionate about healing stand-out.
It’s all a learning process and in this case, with so many x-factors, it’s good to think them up ahead of time.
Tags: Kathmandu Work
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