Helping without harming
“Do no harm” as a principle of supporting people without creating new injustices.
“Peacebuilding – creating peace” is the title of two projects of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM) in the Gambella region of Ethiopia.
How can this succeed? How can this be done in a region that is marked by food shortages due to floods and subsequent droughts, as well as by ethnic conflicts and strong migratory pressure from civil war refugees from South Sudan?
The project is working on two levels. On the one hand, the people in the region are to be enabled to rebuild their own livelihoods. This is done through training in business start-ups. Start-up capital, seeds or small livestock are given out in combination with training on how to manage income, found a savings group and develop a savings culture.
A material basis to be able to secure one’s own life and that of one’s family, to thereby mitigate the distribution struggle and to take the ground out of most conflicts, is a prerequisite for peace.
But that alone is not enough. There is also the active practice of peace-building actions: the formation of peace clubs in schools where girls and boys are involved, and psycho-social discussion groups where traumatised people can talk about their situation and what they have experienced.
All these measures are intended to enable people in about 1,600 households to live together in peace.
This is a beginning and a sign of hope.
But the most important framework condition is that this project follows the principle of “do no harm”. The project leaders themselves confirmed this as their greatest learning success. Sometimes, in the attempt to support people, new injustices are created. This is to be prevented. For example, in the project not only the refugees from South Sudan are supported, but also just as many people from the host communities who also have nothing and even shared what little they had. A balance is to be established and the local people are involved in the process.
Gabriele De Bona
