Save the children. The right way.*

SOOOOOO,

On Thursday at 9:30 a.m. I had my very last Social Work 200 class of my life. It's been real. It's been fun. But it hasn't been real fun.

Anyway, my professor, Dr. Roby (who is kind of a big deal out there in the real world. She does all sorts of international research and policy on child welfare and is kind of famous) was talking about humanitiarian groups who "swoop into third world countries to save the children" thinking that they're doing all this good and making a difference in the world, when really, they're only messing things up. Let me tell you why:

1. Attachment. You can't just go to Africa for a week or a month or even a year and become bffs with this little brown-eyed African child and form this great bond. Because guess what happens when you leave and never see the kid again? They're devastated. And then some other humanitarian organization comes in and it happens all over again. Pretty soon the poor kid gets messed up and has all these attachment problems and will probably never have a normal relationship with anyone again.

2. Orphanages. Orphanages are bad. They're like, the last resort for a child who needs a home. Did you know the 80% of kids in orphanages have families? Their families just put them in the orphanage because they thought that they'd be better off there. Which is partially true if the parents don't have any food and can't provide for their kid AT ALL. But underdeveloped countries are trying to change that about themselves. They've finally learned that they need to intervene at the FAMILY level and help the PARENTS be able to provide a good home for their kids. And it's working. They're getting rid of orphanages slowly but surely.

But then guess what happens? Stupid do-good humanitarian organizations come in and build them right back up again! We're so dumb!

Anyway, it was a lovely lightbulb moment for me. Like, HEEELLLOOO? Who's letting these humanitarian groups go in and ruin everything?? Somebody needs to EDUCATE them!! Somebody needs to help them CHANGE THEIR PLAN. Because humanitarian work isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. But we're just not applying it to the right place.

IT NEEDS TO START WITH THE FAMILY.