Today we are sharing thoughts about a recent ProPublica article which has gained considerable amount of coverage, including in West Africa, which critically investigates the workings of and accusations against an American-run charity in Liberia whose mission was to “save” young girls from sexual exploitation. Far from being “saved,” many girls reported multiple incidents of rape by an employee of the charity, all while it raised millions of dollars in donations from around the world. The story in this repost has also been covered by AlJazeera here.
By: Titilope F Ajayi
Katie Meyler’s weak attempts at damage control/disaster management are frenzied at best in the full glare of the scandal laid bare in Unprotected, Finlay Young’s expose released last month. The painstaking report details calculated, widespread rapes of already highly vulnerable children by a now-deceased male staff of schools run by More Than Me, a charity set up by Meyler in 2013. The sordid saga is just another painful instance of the White saviour humanitarian complex at work where overtly inexperienced, unqualified good intentions are welcomed at the highest level of many African governments and empowered to wreak havoc with minimal scrutiny or accountability. The international development community has lambasted it for years in medical humanitarianism, but here is evidence of it creeping into education. Many multilayered problems are embedded in stories like this and the cords of complicity far transcend More Than Me. However, one of the biggest challenges is our continued tolerance of the good intentions of outsiders who often do more harm than good because they simply do not know what they are doing.
Context matters: anyone with the most basic understanding of the social dynamics in Liberia or any other post-conflict situation would have known that SGBV was a huge problem and not taken it for granted.
Experience matters: good intentions can provide necessary muscle to make things happen, but on their own they don’t solve problems without strategic direction. Good intentions that feed their owners’ egos over/at the expense of the help they intended to render are misplaced from the start.
At CIHA, we feel it is of utmost importance to examine and question the motivations and dealings of those who want to “help Africa,” which is why we highlight these discussions on our blog frequently. Additionally, we consistently discuss the work of NGOs operating on the continent to challenge the unequal power relations and paternalism often present in our Humanitarianism, Charity, and Development section of the blog. CIHA is deeply disturbed by the incidents that have been reported here and are interested in reading your thoughts and comments below.