My friends react first off with excitement on my behalf, and encouragement. Always grateful for that. After the emotional support, two questions that come up a number of times since leaving for Cambodia, and two things I myself used to be wary of:
> why go; you know you’re just part of a corporate machine to line someone’s pocket (and the less cynical: what makes you think you are actually helping these countries)
While still studying Anthropology, and looking at opportunities for the summer and beyond, I was frustrated at the social development model. The lack of efforts towards cultural understanding in these outfits that would pop up in rural communities astounded me.
Then, too, comes the question of measurable impact. Back in college, going on social impact trips was very explicitly a learning opportunity. It was meant for us young ‘uns to meet people to inspire us. To meet people and have experiences that would drive our passion to incite positive change in the world. It was a given that our two weeks in the field would not, in fact, change the farmer for the better (although there is the argument that a consistent flow of excitable college students working on a project can in fact sustain a long-term goal).
So at first the choice to come here to work full time does seem suspect. But my job here addresses both of these points. iLab champions the human-centered design methodology — the idea that it is not only feasible but advisable to work towards understanding the end user when designing a solution. And iLab’s goal is to change the way social develop projects work; its vision is to foster building holistic solutions that counteract the way money is currently flowing into the black hole of charity and philanthropic shoulder-patting.
The fact that this team of innovators is acutely aware of the short comings of our current NGO sector and in turn focus their energy towards changing the system piqued my interest. Mine will not be the hand that feeds the poor. Not directly, anyway. But down the line I hope to see a change in the way solutions are implemented in the philanthropic sector, and I’ll be proud of the work I’ve done here. And I get to do that by designing products and services! It doesn’t get any better than that.
> there are so.many.people.here in the US that need help — why leave for a different country?
Given that I am planning on coming back to the US to work after this fellowship, my coming here in the first place could be seen as merely a step along the way towards solving US issues.
I, in a sense, am coming to learn about the extreme users of the social community — those who are in the “base of pyramid”. Those whose poverty extends beyond any existing social net. Extreme users oftentimes are a gold mine for designers, because through conversations about their lives, I can arrive at insights about behaviour, about products, about attitudes, that are universal to all. It is simply another form of the expand-contract model— in this case, that one slice of information, the extreme user, opens up the door to the, oftentimes more subtle, information pertinent to a vast majority.
My work here is laser focused; basic needs are not being met, and yet millions of people on this planet have still found ways to survive. This constraint, that people’s daily efforts surround the very basic necessities my fellow expats easily take for granted, in turn opens up a whole new plethora of behaviours, attitudes, and work-arounds.
In a slightly more abstract sense— I am helping the US, in the long run. We are truly in a global community these days. Individuals from one country are collaborating with people in virtually every other corner of this globe. And political beliefs aside, it is in our human nature to thrive within a community, which means helping a community member out.
The idea that we can simply muddle our way through our own lives, “minding our own business” is laughable given that we, politically & economically, are not in fact “minding our own business” — human kind has been traveling for trade (and cultural exchange, and political refuge, etc etc) since we had feet to walk with and food to carry along for the ride. Given how easy it is to distance oneself from geo-political messes (in the US, anyway; I’m sure war-torn countries will tell you otherwise) it’s easy to be unaware of how inter-dependent we all are.
We know diversity makes for a more successful team; and so working on these wicked problems of the world (economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, to name just two) will require a level of diversity we haven’t always been comfortable with.The more we lift diverse communities out of poverty, the greater the chance these individuals will add to the global conversation. And the more voices we have, the more truly innovative solutions we can create.
