N. Kristof @ NY Times—re: new humanitarian aid model

Reblog from allowthenow:

I’m grateful that my friend Alissa shared this great NYT article written by Nicholas Kristof that, in effect, talks about the need for a new humanitarian aid model…

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Here was my message to him:

Dear Mr. Kristof,

I’m writing in response to your article, “How Can We Help the World’s Poor?”

I just recently returned from a humanitarian trip to Rwanda, Africa where I was part of a team that worked with several hundred orphaned survivors of the ‘94 genocide suffering from complex PTSD.

All details, including lots of photos and videos are on my blog:http://mtpglobal.blogspot.com/search/label/mtpRwanda.

What I want to say here is that the more we can work on the internal needs (psychological/emotional) the easier external solutions (to issues such as poverty, homelessness, etc.) will be found.

I think the biggest problem with humanitarian aid is that most humanitarian organizations/ventures are working on the level of “symptom” and not addressing the level where the real problems reside—which invariably is the level of human consciousness.

If we want change, then it is on the level of consciousness we must look. This is true for the United States as well. Einstein’s, “Problems are not solved on the level of consciousness that created them” comes to mind.

I’d be happy to talk about this further, if you were interested.

Thank you.

Christopher Lowman