“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” – Malcolm X.
Many of us spend our lives cocooned in a comfortable carefree existence where the services and amenities we take for granted are only considered when it’s time to pay the monthly bills. We have been fortunate to live a life where food, water, shelter, education, healthcare and safety are a normal part of our day to day routine.
For as long as I can remember I have always wondered what made us part of the fortunate group, when there were people in the world who had so little, and struggled so mightily. While the only conclusion I have been able to come up with is that it was simply the luck of the draw, I also established a personal belief that those of us who have so much have a responsibility to provide some means of relief to those who have so little. It can be as simple as a donation of money, to the commitment of time and abilities, to ensure that those less fortunate receive an element of care and dignity. What matters is that we do give – in our own way – in any way we can - as long as it’s meaningful.
Several years ago I had the privilege of participating in an Urban Renewal programme in an economically depressed area of Nassau. This was an area that was deemed the “ghetto” by everybody. It was dangerous and many people would not travel through there in the daytime, much less at night. Young girls were turned out to prostitution at a very young age, boys were conscripted into the local gang life and the squalor was incredible. There were open cesspits throughout the neighbourhood and abandoned buildings and derelict vehicles were everywhere. Mangy dogs chased cars and filthy and hungry children chased the dogs with sticks.
Despite all of this there was something about the people that lived there that I couldn’t put my finger on – they certainly were not the kind of folks that I would have been drawn to spend time among in Canada! I may have started out with the idea that I was going to come in and make everything better by having the cesspits filled in, cars towed away and the buildings torn down or fixed up. While that was a Band-Aid solution that made things look a bit better for a month or so, it wasn’t the real problem and the same visual problems crept back into the landscape fairly quickly. What really ailed the people of this neighbourhood was a lack of self-respect and a sense of worth.
The Urban Renewal Project got off to a very slow start and eventually drew children into a programme where they found a safe haven. They had opportunities previously unattainable, where they could become part of a choir or dance troupe performing at the National Theatre; where they became members of a band that performed at cultural events; where they learned to be part of a group of similarly disadvantaged children who finally saw a different way to go. For some of them it was a sense of belonging that they never had before – these children blossomed and grew beyond my expectations and I realized that while my contribution didn’t make them who they had become – I did have a small part in pointing them in the right direction and that was good enough for me!
