Aid/Community Based Approaches!

“When we launched Kony 2012, our intention was to share the story of Joseph Kony with new people around the world”

- CEO of Invisible Children Ben Keesey

In macro work there are two basic approaches that can be taken: aid based and community based approach. Let’s tackle the biggest one first and that would be aids based approach, which can be loosely defined as an outside source or organization attempting to solve a problem that does not directly affect them or their living area. This can be compared to the “Kony 2012” an organization called Invisible Children in 2003 started campaigning against the LRA and Joseph Kony and his part in the civil war in Africa. Kony is charged with being one of the worst war criminals in history and abducts children into his rebel army.
Invisible Children was started by three college students who went to Uganda and found children who were being abducted and forced to be child soldiers. Much of how most aid based approaches exist they are created in the Western world to solve a problem that they are little educated about. Which leads into the badvocacy role of aids based approaches. These organizations often give a western-civilization view to issues that shouldn’t have it and insist on involvement and that all Americans must jump to action immediately. Which is part of the main criticism for Kony 2012. Many people feel that Invisible Children is using money in the wrong ways and spreading a message about an issue that is mis informative and made to draw attention to the organization not the problem. It’s pretty hard to wrap your head around these issues, an organization tells you to do something important for people who are struggling and critics say don’t! But in my opinion, I think you should do what you feel is right after proper research. Aid based approaches always start with good intentions but don’t seem to end that way, they try to end world hunger by donating shoes and stop criminals with bracelets. If there is an aid based approach someone is passionate about and they want to make a difference they should research! Make calls, don’t be afraid to ask questions about where your money will go and what the plan of action is. Just because a famous actor tells you to donate, doesn’t mean you have to reach for your checkbook. But in macro social work there are always criticism and adversity that organizations and people have to overcome, regardless. And that’s part of working with such a large amount of people, you can’t please everyone!

These organizations such as Kony 2012 differ very much from community-based organizations such as Women, War and Peace. This is a community-based effort that is about stabilization of the community and not the quickest way to get help. It’s working within the communities to find the best approaches in helping them. In Women, War and Peace their organization is using a different approach. They are not trying to advocate for woman affected by war but empowering woman to end conflict that is an obtainable goal and something that will come over a length of time. This organization is working along side these women to help and advocate for them rather than in an office.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell is also a community-based organization that was formed by woman in Africa. These women saw a problem, the same of that with the LRA stealing children, and decided to take action anyway they could. These two organizations are fighting for justice for the same thing but using completely different approaches. In PDBH, it is women who are fighting for a cause, which is rare compared to Kony 2012 who was started by men. But perhaps the biggest difference is that Kony 2012 was started but three men who have visited Uganda, the area they think is being harmed. In PDBH, the woman live in Liberia where they know the conflict is happening. They are experiencing it first hand and trying to change it in their community for themselves. Kony 2012 is trying to simply bring attention to an issue, not resolve it. They wish to only get it recognized so it stays on the radar of the United States. The two are similar because they are fighting for the same cause, to save the abducted children of Africa and are both filmed in a documentary format. I think in the end their intentions are pure at heart in that they want to end something that is affecting a population so greatly, and cannot do it alone. It’s social workers like me, who want to work on the international level who have to help these organizations be capable to expand and reach a whole community of people.

The approaches of these organizations are so different and all come with criticism and conflict so the real question is:

What is the best approach to solving these macro issues across borders?

EDITORS NOTE: As I mentioned in previous blog posts, the Invisible Children organization has been something I have been involved with for 5 years. I have participated in many events, donated money, given presentations and have personal connections to the organization. I’ve even applied to an internship with Invisible Children for the summer 2012. I tried to stay professional and keep my opinions based on facts and readings and not on my personal opinion. If I seemed biased this reason is why. People should look to the overview of the organization; it’s about spreading the word to get people talking about issues!
This is me with a survivor of the LRA! These issues are real, go out and fight for them!

My Community Interventions!

This class has come such a long way and it's so exciting to see everything falling together. As much as I dislike giving myself praise or claiming I did a lot of tasks, I'll write up a few things that were "my job" for this community interventions class! I really do dislike giving myself credit for anything I've done because I believe this is truly a group effort and no one person's contribution is more important than other. It's the face that we all work together and try to make this event happen that's important!


I really have enjoyed being a part of the Leadership Team for our class. Not only do I get to help make these exciting decisions but I get to learn so much from my other classmates. The people on the leadership team are intelligent and teaching me so much about community interventions and social work itself.
Broken down I am on team Publicity! Which is exciting in it's own ways because we get to spread the word about!
One of my main jobs on publicity was Student Announcements. I had to research student announcements and figure out how we would get the word of our events out to the whole community. Once I had that issue solved, I put out a few reminder announcements for the fund raising class about their bake sale and save the date for the stop the violence events!
My next task I have been working on is researching signs for the clothesline project as well as the other events. The signs will stick in the ground around campus helping to say "clothesline project -->" etc. This task is still in the works because of it's communication with fund raising and our budget but we shall see!
Contributing time and ideas is one of the hardest tasks and I think that's the one everyone can say they've accomplished the most and will continue to accomplish until these successful events happen! Keep that in mind :)