Persist
“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.” – Cornel West
It is amazing to have a total of 8 hours of sleep, albeit not continuous sleep, but I will take it. I have been drinking coffee and coca-cola like it is water for the past week. I have only been here for one week. It feels like months. I can’t imagine what every day feels like for a refugee living here. I have found joy. Disappointment. Hope. Struggle. Resilience. I have found all these and more.
It never occurred to me in all my traveling until now, the role of branding in the non-profit or non-governmental sector. I am seeing branding everywhere in Kakuma. At times, it reminds me of the time I lived in Korea, where I thought, the signage on buildings served as visual pollution. They seemed to scream at me. At night, you did not need lights, for the signs offered neon glares. In Kakuma, there is limited electricity so the adverts/advertisements for each non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are visual distractions during the day. In many aspects, the simple act of wearing one of these t-shirts and driving these vehicles creates borders, with a chaser of capitalism.
When I worked in Lebanon, we had signage issues, as well, when we wrote USAID grants. It was mandatory that we slap a sticker “From the American People” on everything. For some, I may say something controversial here, but often times, American policies made by American people are complicit in creating conflicts. Too often Global North policies are the reason why there are conflicts. So, slapping a sticker that tells them this aid of food is from Americans is another slap on the face. This was apparent in southern Lebanon.
I digress. I do recognize the purpose of branding for fundraising, strategic planning, partnership, and so forth, yet it claims turf. My issue is that it claims turf not only on a physical place but also on the very people they are trying to create a safe space for. Perhaps I am naïve, but isn’t it turf wars that continues to get us in conflicts in the first place? Nowhere in any NGO mission is there a place that commodification of people is stated, however I think that this is happening to an extent.
We have seen NGOs turf wars in the wake of the tsunami in the Indian ocean and more currently Haiti. According to Kylander and Stone (2012), “The models and terminology used in the nonprofit sector to understand brand remain those imported from the for-profit sector to boost name recognition and raise revenue” (para. 5). In other words, often times, mission statements are usurped by the economic machine of grants and not necessarily driven by the heart of the mission that started the NGOs.
While I think NGOs play a small role in the commodification of people, I think funders and governments keep the engine churning. Bazian (2016) writes, “If any western country sells weapons to the armies that are fighting whatever type of war or are engaged in extending U.S. and European economic interests in the form of oil, natural resources and market share, then their minimum responsibility is addressing the flood of human misery caused by it” (para. 8). Personally, I don’t feel like I get an exemption because I am not a government entity. In fact when I sit and drink my skinny mocha no fun (sugar-free) drink, I ponder, more often than I would like to admit, what my role is in the mass influx of migration of people. This complicity sends me into despair. I feel overwhelmed by the enormity and perhaps you reading this, do too. Being in Kakuma has taught me many lessons, but the biggest is do not stop trying and persist. In two days with the inauguration of our new president, it is even more critical that we persist.
