132. When Compassion Fails

When compassion fails in the form of social and humanitarian programs it is almost always due to the heart-connection of disaster relief efforts to provide immediate assistance, and less of the minded-connection to figure out “Then, what comes next?”  In the case of short term projects, these programs provided appropriate immediate care and relief as in the case of the recent Ebola epidemic in Africa.  The priorities of that situation are extremely clear:  isolate, quarantine the area, identify sources of infections and reduce and eliminate the threat.  

Short term humanitarian efforts, as in the Ebola outbreak and the care for hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, often reveal their inherent shortcomings once they are completed.  What often remains is the broken, non-functional social fabric of those communities and their larger society down to the family level.  Short term programs need to be followed by “aftercare” humanitarian programs to guide the formation of new families from the remnants of broken families.  Long term humanitarian programs are needed then to develop families and communities as socially functional. 
 
Yes, this would require considerable resources, but it does give you, the reader, a perspective of what it takes to bring about ongoing and lasting social stability.  What we see, however, is that well intentioned humanitarian efforts often leave victims in as troubled a situation as they were beforehand. 
  
Consider the three core values of social sustainability as a standard for validating all humanitarian efforts.  While the quality of life of Syrian refugees was greatly improved when they arrived at the refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan, what comes next for them?  Considering that growth is essential to the process of producing an improving quality of life, are the children involved in some form of education and skill development programs?  Are mothers, homemakers and single women given the opportunity to learn or improve their homemaking and other skills?  Are the young men and mature men given the opportunity to learn or improve their craftsmen skills?  

What I suggest may seem like an incredible challenge to humanitarians, but consider that young men, adult men — and all people seek to find meaning in life; and we do so by some purpose that seems meaningful.  The capacity to improve our quality of life even by some meager means generates hope, particularly in refugees who are idle.  Without hope, the option that often develops is to learn how to use military weapons and tactics.  For humanitarians and militarists, “Is it more productive to put our budgetary money into social reconstruction projects or into military responses?”