Content Warning: mentions of refugee experiences, trauma and mental health

Last month our incredible OWP facilitators, Sarah and Radhika, ran a seminar called Upskilling: An underrated pillar of social activism. In this session, they coordinated an engaging and thought-provoking discussion on aid dependency and the impact of ‘well-intentioned’ humanitarian aid organisations. They were joined by Saba Abraham, director of the social enterprise restaurant Mu’ooz. Saba provided insight into her own experiences with activism, and the community focus needed to help drive change.

A little about our guest speaker: Saba Abraham is a freedom fighter and deeply passionate women’s rights activist, who migrated to Australia in the 1980s as a refugee. From an early age, Saba has been a vocal and dynamic activist, joining the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) when she was just fourteen years old. She has since carried on her passion throughout later life, establishing Mu’ooz in 2003, an African social enterprise and restaurant, as a way to connect with, and upskill, other refugee women. Mu’ooz believes in empowerment and community, giving training, employment, and new opportunities to help refugee women make the transition from their past trauma and experiences, to a new life in Australia. Since Mu’ooz opened, over 240 women have been given work experience, skills, and empowerment. Saba believes that ‘social justice cannot happen if women aren’t involved’.

On face value, the concept of humanitarian aid seems like an altruistic solution to help those in need. Unfortunately, however; it’s not always so straight forward. Aid and activism is, in fact, an incredibly complex issue. For the purposes of this seminar, Radhika and Sarah focused upon aid dependency, by looking into a few contemporary examples that exhibit how aid is often facilitated.

To get us started, Radhika opened with two definitions; firstly that ‘sustainable humanitarian aid and activism provide local communities with the means and agency to overcome dependence of external donors’. Secondly, that ‘overcoming aid dependency is necessary for the fostering of self-sufficient, thriving communities’. At the end of the day, ‘effective aid should not foster dependency’. This sentiment was repeated throughout the seminar, and was mirrored in the interview with Saba, who exhibits how facilitation, not intervention, is a more sustainable way to provide aid.

With intervention, communities that rely upon aid are susceptible to how easily it may be withdrawn, leaving them vulnerable. Commonly in intervention programs, the aid itself does not fit the community it serves, resulting in the waste of resources (like time and money), environmental damage, and the neglect of underlying issues, such as poverty and food insecurity. Consider the instance in the 1990s when USAID dumped rice in Haiti, ultimately putting the local farmers out of market, and damaging the natural environment. Or similarly in 2016, when peanuts flooded the Haitian market. Both of these examples were used by our facilitators, as prime indicators of how humanitarian aid can be detrimental to the function of a community, if said community is not consulted or collaborated with.

Amongst governmental aid, Radhika and Sarah focused upon consumption related philanthropy, looking into companies such as Tom Toms and Cotton On, the idea of neoliberal capitalism, and – what I found especially interesting – the concept of voluntourism. As someone who has often considered the idea of volunteering overseas, particularly in an environmental capacity, understanding how problematic volunteering can be, if not facilitated properly, was exceptionally eye-opening. They explained that most of the time we see volunteering organisations tailoring to the consumer, rather than the community, not holding importance over the duration of a stay, and more often than not, positioning the recipient country as dependant, lacking in knowledge, and ‘lucky to have us’. Quite sickening, and reminiscent of white saviour complexes when you really think about it.

Two case studies were examined; Eli Abroad and Palms Australia, to showcase examples of clearly marketed voluntourism (Eli Abroad) and more aid and community-focused programs with clearly outlined goals (Palms Australia).

Ultimately, the two argued that in order to overcome aid dependency and ensure reliable and sustainable humanitarian aid, we need to:

Trust local communities – focus on facilitation rather than intervention
Support localised grassroots work – open clear and effective communication channels
Regulate or standardise minimum requirements for agencies
Raise awareness of problematic issues – critically analyse the language used by organisations

Look forward – what will the recipient country, and the work you’ve done, look like in 10 years?
Audit efficacy of current sectors

As such, good activism will often look like:

Transparent systems (regular audits, annual report, and advertise contact details)

Systems of accountabilities (does the organisation have a vested interest in the success of their work? Or could they easily abandon their projects?)
Long-term plans to build relationships with the aid-recipient community
Representation of the recipient community in the organisation
Consultation practises with all the stakeholders

These concepts, and more, were explored in an interview with Saba:

What motivated you to create this social enterprise?

‘I am a freedom fighter…but my passion is also for social justice. My core philosophy is social justice cannot happen if women aren’t involved.’

Saba explained that because female refugees often need support to build their independence, she was struck with such an overwhelming desire to bring these women together and empower them. ‘Even if women come to this country for the freedoms and opportunities, because of their background, they often have very little education, or no education at all… they are totally disconnected; disconnected from the culture, their family, and surrounded by a new language… so while they have peace, they suffer again… As a human being you have to feel a part of the society around you.’

Do you think having that understanding of their culture, helps you help those women?

‘Yes, it helps to understand what life looked like for them, as it will have been difficult. So that really makes me want to find them and connect with them …and find out what the problem is for them to feel settled in this country.’

Saba expressed that she felt there was a lack of understanding from the providers of refugee facilitation organisations to help the women, as well as the other male refugees. ‘My focus on the women is purely related to my passion, even though a lot of refugees suffer a lack of employment or underemployment, isolation, and cultural and language barriers; this is common for almost every refugee. What makes it harder for women, is that they are treated by their own culture as second citizens…In order to break that barrier, they of course require help. A lot of them are suffering from mental health issues, and mental health is such a taboo in our country too…so many of them didn’t accept the services provided for them.

I gathered these 32 women to discuss the problem and how we can solve it. We had a meeting, and then from that meeting they said “we feel isolated, we don't feel we are learning the language, even though the government and the people are trying their best, because of our background it’s hard for us to get to school to learn. But it would be easy if we got a job to learn practical skills”. They were really desperate to feel a part of society; desperate to work, [and desperate] to not feel dependant all the time.’

Saba stated that she found cooking was the only thing that truly made these women feel happy and comfortable.

What do you think the most important thing you’ve learnt since starting Mu’ooz?

Saba expressed how the biggest learnings for her have been, ‘that everything is possible when you’re positive…everyone has potential to make change…and the best way to help others, is to identify how they want to be helped.’

Why was upskilling these women so important to you? Why did you care about making them independent?

‘Because the best way to help is to provide a sustainable thing that people can enhance and grow on…if you [up]skill them, they can work and could eventually create their own business… you give them empowerment. You give them something they feel they have forever…Money and food will run out, but skills will always stay with you.’

Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to start their own social enterprise?

‘You have to believe in what you do, and you have to be ready for challenges…to use it as a learning process, rather than being afraid to fail. Let the challenge empower you, rather than disempower you…[and] consult experts to understand what to do!’

We often see organisations and humanitarian aid groups focus on what countries and people don’t have, rather than what they do. Instead, what Mu’ooz represents is that we need to focus on what people can do and empower based on that ¾ that's when you see a real change.

The references our facilitators used throughout the seminar are listed below if you’re interested in reading further!

Further Readings:

Eikenberry, A. M. (2009). The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing. Stanford Social Innovation Review. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_hidden_costs_of_cause_marketing#:~:text=Also%20known%20in%20the%20business,the%20types%20of%20cause%20marketing.)

Erni, J. N., & Shi-chi Leung, D. (2019). The dilemma of mobility: on the question of youth voluntourism in times of precarity. Cultural studies (London, England), 33(6), 915-943. doi:10.1080/09502386.2019.1660691

Georgeou, N., & Haas, B. (2019). Power, Exchange and Solidarity: Case Studies in Youth Volunteering for Development. Voluntas (Manchester, England), 30(6), 1406-1419. doi:10.1007/s11266-019-00103-w

Howie, S. R. C., Hill, S. E., Peel, D., Sanneh, M., Njie, M., Hill, P. C., . . . Adegbola, R. A. (2008). Beyond good intentions: Lessons on equipment donation from an African hospital. Bull World Health Organ, 86(1), 52-56. doi:10.2471/BLT.07.042994

Kermer, M., & Zwane, A. P. (2006). Cost-effective prevention of diarrheal diseases: A critical review.

Marks, I., Thomas, H., Bakhet, M., & Fitzgerald, E. (2019). Medical equipment donation in low-resource settings: a review of the literature and guidelines for surgery and anaesthesia in low-income and middle-income countries. BMJ Global Health, 4(5), e001785. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001785

McGloin, C., & Georgeou, N. (2016). 'Looks good on your CV': The sociology of voluntourism recruitment in higher education. Journal of sociology (Melbourne, Vic.), 52(2), 403-417.doi:10.1177/1440783314562416

Miesen, M. (2013). The Inadequacy of Donating Medical Devices to Africa. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/the-inadequacy-of-donating-medical-devices-to-africa/279855/

Nijman, S. (2019). UN Alliance For Sustainable Fashion addresses damage of ‘fast fashion’.

Shah, A. (2005). Food Aid as Dumping [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.globalissues.org/article/10/food-aid-as-dumping

Stanford, V. (2015). Aid Dependency: The Damage of Donation [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.twigh.org/twigh-blog-archives/2015/7/31/aid-dependency-the-damage-of-donation#:~:text=Aid%20dependency%20refers%20to%20the,is%20given%20by%20foreign%20donors.&text=Food%20aid%20is%20particularly%20criticised,production%20by%20reducing%20market%20demand

Vodopivec, B., & Jaffe, R. (2011). Save the World in a Week: Volunteer Tourism, Development and Difference. European journal of development research, 23(1), 111-128. doi:10.1057/ejdr.2010.55