How to walk away?

“Nias has benefitted from the tsunami.” This is the comment of many an expat referring to the fact that the outpouring of money and the development effort for tsunami relief. A substantial part of which was transferred to Nias after the massive earthquake four months later (2005). It is interesting to consider this statement in light of the situation of Eami, one of our drivers who I chatted with today. Eami worked for the French Croix Rouge in Aceh (presumably tsunami disaster relief or subsequent development work) as a driver and mechanic. He has since moved to Nias where there seemed to be more work with NGO’s. He is now working for ACTED as a driver but will finish in two weeks. When he is finished with ACTED he will head back to his family (wife and nine kids) in Teluk Dalam with little prospect of permanent employment (especially not a well-paid job with an NGO). I have no doubt that many houses built and livelihoods creating through the work of NGO’s have been and will be of immeasurable benefit to the people of Nias. But the shadow this benefit casts is the many people whose expertise (as a driver or translator or logistic officer) is based solely on NGO experience. Their skills are arguably transferable but with few jobs and many people those with specific experience get the roles. There is no easy answer to this problem. I have two thoughts on what the right “answer” might be. The first is to do just that, walk away, these guys will swim once thrown in the deep end that is life without NGO’s (and probably not until then). The other is development projects with delivered with patience and a long-term commitment (both of which are in short supply in the Western world . . . case in point: my 3 months here is a blip) that allow transition where independence is allowed to evolve naturally (and this takes time).