Interview with Marián Čaučík, a member of the board of the Platform of Non-Governmental Development Organizations and director of Dobrá novina. What does a person who has been mostly working in Africa as aid for over 15 years understand by the word poverty?
I picture a family or a person who, even if they really want to, has no basic income and no means to live in dignified conditions. The poverty I saw in Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan is much worse than what exists in Slovakia. People there do not have reliable access to clean drinking water, which brings illness. They do not have money for medicines or access to basic healthcare. They do not have money for food for their families, no stable job, and they do not know anything like unemployment benefits. Every day they compete for wage labor. In the morning, women offer to wash clothes and clean up for middle-class people, while men offer themselves for wage work in factories or hitch up to carts transporting materials. If they find work, they receive a few shillings—and in the evening they can feed their children. But they do not know what tomorrow will bring. Parents cannot send children to school, and those children are often forced to go to the streets to beg, steal, or prostitute themselves just to survive.
Africa’s problems are truly huge, and NGOs alone cannot solve them. On the other hand, I see individual people in need and communities that can be helped. And we see results. If you help one person, that may be charity. But in development aid, work with groups and communities is what matters most. People in a community do not accept help passively; they actively seek paths for their own development. They themselves define what they need to change and then turn to us as partners with a request for help in the areas where they do not know how to manage. Very often that is financial support. With limited resources, they can still do a great deal. These people are immensely grateful for help.
In what situations do you feel that it really makes sense?
When after two or three years you see children going to school and the capable ones getting a chance and studying at secondary school. When you see that young people, thanks to this type of support, also continue to contribute to the development of their community. I believe that working with specific people and communities also offers solutions for the broader development questions. If a number of such initiatives are properly connected and combined with pressure on local authorities—which should be primarily responsible for the development of their own community and country—then there is a chance that the needs of developing countries and local people will be better defined. Donors' money will not go to waste, but gradually something will change. It is hard work. A marathon. Work at the level of small communities, villages, and small towns, where things are changing slowly, however, confirms that it makes sense.
Why should Slovakia care about, for example, Africa?
In my view, the question is not whether Slovakia should care or whether someone else should. When we see that a large part of people live in undignified conditions, I think it is our shared responsibility to make sure these people can also live better. It is a matter of the common good. If we can live in conditions where our basic needs are met—often even beyond standard—then we should also think about those who have nothing and look for ways to help. Each in their own measure. Governments bear one kind of responsibility, specialized organizations like UN agencies bear another. But overall, there should be a global effort by the developed world to help developing countries change their situation. I consider it a scandal that today—in the 21st century—people still die from hunger.
Some might say that Africa should mainly be cared for by its former colonizers. In addition, Slovak development aid is based on specific Slovak experiences and advantages. What advantage do Slovaks have in Africa?
The advantage is precisely that Slovakia was not a colonizer. Our relations are not burdened by such a past, so we can come with a clear head and ask about the power relations that exist there. We can ask more easily why development aid works the way it does. Why high-ranking officials live on large salaries while ordinary people have no food. I would place Slovakia’s role among all countries in the effort to ensure people have dignified living conditions. I believe people in Slovakia understand this better than the foreign-policy priorities of the government within official development aid.
Interview conducted by: Daniela Balážová From an interview published in the bulletin Prečo rozvojová pomoc. It is published by the Platforma mimovládnych rozvojových organizácií (MVRO), which is an association of legal entities—the umbrella organization of 31 (23 full members and 8 observers) Slovak nongovernmental organizations that focus mainly on international development and humanitarian aid.