There is an abundance of organizations in western countries like Canada working abroad to help solve perceived problems. Some of these organizations build wells, houses or schools, while others may promote human rights or female education in these developinig countries.
However, an element lacking in some of these organizations is a willingness to listen to the very community they are helping. What are the community’s priorities? What do they require first? What are their needs and current resources?
This is why I joined Heart-Links in my second year at Western. These important questions are sometimes neglected in the attempt to cater project ideas to appeal to donors in developed countries. It is also sometimes done to cater to donor preference for finding criteria for measuring improvements in the community.
Through my volunteering in planning and participating in their events, I learned Heart-Links is a small charitable non-governmental organization based in London that works in communities in northern Peru. Among other activities, they support participatory programs there that help feed children and youth in the community, promote literacy and address familial and child violence. An important aspect of their mission is to “link Peruvians and Canadians through friendship and support for mutual growth and enrichment” and to “collaborate with community initiatives in the fields of education, nutrition, health and income generation to promote self-sufficiency.”
This approach to aid and development is what I found so powerful about Heart-Links. Many Heart-Links members who have gone to Peru on the three-week work/awareness trips will tell you how much they have learned from working alongside the Peruvian women in the community kitchens, among other things. This idea of mutual help in aid is a very humane one, recognizing even those of us that are financially better off in life can benefit by sharing time and resources with those from other parts of the world.
It is out of this relationship the Heart-Links cookbook was born. Heart-Links had already been working closely with mothers in Peru, providing training from nutritionists, for many years to support the operations of community kitchens. These kitchens, called comedores, help provide meals for undernourished children in three Peruvian communities: Aviacion, Mocupe and Zaña.
In summer 2012, the women working in the comedores took the initiative to write a cookbook for Heart-Links. The cookbook features many Peruvian recipes the women had developed over the years, and is a proud testament and compilation of years of work. The cookbook, A Taste of Peru, has been translated to English by Heart-Links volunteers and every copy has every recipe in both Spanish and English, side-by-side. The cookbook is a prime example of the mutual and collaborative work Heart-Links does in these Peruvian communities.
It is this kind of aid and development work that I find inspiring: work that enables those of us from more developed countries to help bring training and resources to communities and thereby helping them achieve their dreams. More importantly, this humble approach to aid and development in other countries fosters active participation of the communities recognizing the mutual benefits of the organization and community working together.
Gaëlle Groux is a second-year Scholar’s Electives student at Western working on a double major in Medical Sciences and Political Science. She is originally from Niagara-on-the-Lake, where she has been involved with various charities throughout the years.