Kirwin International Relief Foundation

Bioethics of Poverty or "Structural Violence"

2009-06-07T21:06:00.000-07:00

The greatest bioethics issue of today is the existence of economic and social barriers to health and adequate medical care. In the United States, with the lack of universal healthcare, these barriers are growing with the poverty rate that has the increased by 20 percent between 2000 and 2004 according to a National Health Survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2) According to the same survey, more 40 million people of all ages in the United States went without health insurance in 2005.

Poverty and lack of insurance are structural barriers that deprive people of their health and, eventually, their life. Uninsured children in the United States are at a greater risk of experiencing health problems such as obesity, heart disease and asthma that continue to affect them later in life says Steven Woolf, a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University. (3)

Dr. Paul Farmer, a physician and human rights activist in Haiti, calls these structural barriers of poverty “structural violence.” He defines structural violence as “Large-scale national and international structures that place limits on the ability of individuals to act in ways that protect their health.”(4) An example of structural violence is malnutrition. An estimated 842 million people in the world are hungry or are food insecure.(5)

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, being healthy and having access to adequate medical care is not just an ideal for Americans. It is an entitlement for everyone worldwide, rich or poor.(5) Farmer believes this to be true and has devoted his life to treating the poor and fighting the economic and social barriers to health that continue hurt and kill them. These barriers are behind the current epidemics of treatable diseases such as Tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria as well as chronic illnesses such as diabetes in all countries among the impoverished according to Farmer.

Farmer condemns social scientists and medical ethicists who ignore this problem of poverty in developing countries. “Surely it is an ethical problem, for example, that in the coming year an estimated six million people will die of tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS—three treatable diseases that reap their grim harvest almost exclusively among populations without access to modern medical care.”

Farmer goes on to say that these same social scientists who, in the course of their field research and analysis have observed the day to day suffering caused by poverty but have neglected to document it, or explore it, in their ethnographies, are not only unethical but are in fact may be committing “a human rights abuse.” (7) Farmer asserts that social scientists are complicit in the maintenance structural violence by the powerful elite if they do not document it when they see it. The struggle for social and economic rights is as much a social and political issue as it is a public health issue according to Farmer. (8)

But what can doctors and public health officials to counteract structural violence? As Farmer said himself, these human rights abuses are caused by “large-scale national and international structures”. Here are some recommendations from his book Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor for physicians and public health officials:

1. Make health and healing the symbolic core of the agenda. Farmer cites the example of the Physicians for Human Rights and their partner organizations, which have argued that access to care should be construed as a basic right.(9)

2. Make the provision of health services central to the agenda. Farmer recommends that health workers listen to their patients and partner with local community-based health organizations to figure out the best ways to bring care to those in poverty. Collaborations with people local to a community are necessary to address the increasing inequalities here in the United States as well as in developing countries according to Farmer. However, he cautions that “States, not ‘Western” human rights groups, are best placed to protect the basic social and economic rights of populations living in poverty...State failure cannot be rectified by human rights activism on the part of NGOs.” (10)

3. Establish new research agendas that emphasize analyzing political and economic causes of inadequate health care. Farmer recommends “ serious scholarly work” that studies the health effects of war, political-economic disruption and the pathogenic effects of social inequalities, including racism, gender inequality, and the growing gap between rich and poor.”(11) He cautions that the research must not further imperil or victimize the poor and marginalized populations. He quotes R. Neugebauer, “ Public health research on violence and victimization among these groups must vigilantly guard against contributing to emotional and social harm.” (12)

4. Assume a broader educational mandate for health workers to educate the public about inadequate health care due to structural violence. Education is central to the task of combating social and economic barriers to health and medical care Farmer says. However, instead of teaching a select group of students with an expressed interest in health and human rights, there should be a broader educational mandate to teach all students about human rights issues in academia. Health workers and social scientists who are committed to easing the suffering of those victimized by structural violence should make a greater effort to publicize their observations in the popular media so people in affluent societies can better make the connection between health and human rights. (13)

5. Achieve independence from powerful governments and bureaucracies. Farmer says it best: “We need to be untrammeled by obligations to powerful states and international bureaucracies. A central irony of human rights law is that it consists largely of appeals to the perpetrators.”(14)

6. Secure more resources for health and human rights. As more social and political rights have been attained in some countries, economic and social rights have suffered from structural adjustments such as privatization, deregulation and entrepreneurial programs that favor those of means and further disadvantage the poor. (15)

Structural violence is responsible for millions of deaths each year. Each year about 16 million children worldwide die from preventable and treatable causes. Sixty percent of these deaths are from hunger and malnutrition.(1) We may not be able to eradicate structural violence globally. However, to lesson structural violence even a tiny bit, would save at least one life. To a family, that one life is of vital importance.

Resources

(1) Bread for the World, retrieved on May 2, 2008 from http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/
(2) Rice, Sabriya. “Poverty and poor health are intertwined, experts say.” CNN.com Septermber 4, 2006, retrieved on May 2, 2008 at http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/29/poverty.health/index.html
(3) Ibid.
(4) Farmer, Paul. “Social Scientists and the New Tuberculosis.” Ed. Elizabeth D. Whitiaker. Health and Healing in Comparative Perspective. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. 372-384.
(5) Rice, Sabriya. “Poverty and poor health are intertwined, experts say.” CNN.com Septermber 4, 2006, retrieved on May 2, 2008 at http://edition.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/29/poverty.health/index.html
(6) Farmer, Paul. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005. XXV-23.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Farmer. 2005. 238
(10) Farmer. 2005. 239-240
(11) Famer. 2005. 241
(12) Neugebauer, R. “Research on Violence in Developing Countries: Benefits and Perils.” American Journal of Public Health 89 (10): 1473-74
(13) Farmer. 2005. 242
(14) Farmer. 2005. 243
(15) Farmer. 2005. 243

A scientific explanation of helping others through altruistic behavior

2009-06-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

I like helping people a lot. I discovered this after I finished the Hawaiian Ironman World Championships and tore my Achilles tendon while training to qualify for next year's race. During this time in my life, each day was designated as either a training day or as a rest day or "lost day" when I couldn't train due to work or other un-avoidable commitments. Basically, it was a life that was mostly about my triathlon training and my sales goals and outdoor industry social life surrounding my job at Diamondback Bicycles.

When the micro-tears on my right Achilles tendon threatened to turn into a permanent rip straight through the tendon that would require surgery and months of re-hab, I had to finally stop running and cycling. No more training rides or runs with my triathlon friends. I dropped out of Ironman Canada and focused on swimming Masters five days a week. At least until I blew out my right shoulder. Then I had to stop swimming, too. Soon after, I got pregnant with our first child, a healthy blue-eyed bald headed little boy. As a new mom I discovered the joy and reward of giving myself to helping another. Two and half years later our daughter was born and by then, I was in full-mommydom and basically never saw our old triathlon friends much at all. The tires on my Baby Jogger wore out before my road bike tires that I had bought brand new just before the first baby. Months turned into years between triathlons and I realized that I needed more than a daily workout or a race to feel alive and accomplished. And, I would rather spend hours with my kids than sitting on a bike seat far from home on a 50-mile training ride feeling guilty and rushed. For the next decade I stopped doing long triathlons and focused on an annual Sprint Triathlon or marathon race that I only had to train once a day for. One by one, my old triathlon friends were replaced by new parent friends that I met through our kids.

As the kids got older, they needed me less and things just got plain easier all around. In June 2005 I stopped working full-time and started volunteering more to exercise my altruistic care-taking muscles that I developed being a parent.

In 2005, husband and I started a non-profit organization to help survivors* of natural disasters the week after we returned from living through the Andaman Sea tsunami disaster with our kids during a family vacation in Thailand in December 2004. My husband gave our foundation a big name that reflected his big plans for it: Kirwin International Relief Foundation, or "KIRF" for short. But, it's really just us two volunteering our time, writing grant proposals and infusing it with any cash we have left over from paying the bills. I like to think of KIRF as our way of doing something really rewarding with our lives and a way to exercise our altruistic muscles that needed to be worked out by the both of us since neither of us in a classical "helping profession." I design and build web sites and he's a trial attorney and mediator who doesn't mostly business cases.

We fund sustainable and culturally appropriate projects that help people regain their economic self-sufficiency and we also purchase supplies that people tell us that they need after a disaster. The need I discovered for cultural competency when doing field work, of building rapport with the locals and the many inefficiencies and mistakes made by larger non-profits inspired me to pursue a masters degree in cultural anthropology at CSUN. Much of our sustainable development work and educational scholarship programs that we fun was inspired initially by my mother-in-law Diane Kirwin who started KIRF India and has been helping street children, usually Dalit caste kids, get an academic education, medical care and nutritious food in Bihar, India since 2003.

Since January 2005, we've helped out in seven countries: Thailand, India, Burma, Cambodia, Peru, Mexico, Tanzania and the United States. Most of our projects cost a few thousand dollars. In countries like Thailand, the exchange rate amplifies our buying power exponentially. For example, $10,000 in funds to purchase supplies in Thailand in January 2005 was like having $70,000 here in the United States. With about that much, we funded the rebuilding of a co-operative fish farm, and purchased dry goods, food supplies, school supplies and two fishing boats for three coastal villages that got destroyed by the tsunami flooding in Thailand as part of our tsunami relief work.

I've had people tell me, "Oh, you are going to heaven." assuming that was my motivation. And, I've had others, mostly Thais, insist that we help others to gain merit (for good karma). Which isn't really true–for me anyway. And, I've been asked more times than I can remember, "Why did you come to help us?" or "Why did you start your foundation?"

Honestly, I really didn't (and to a certain extent, still don't–sorry!) have a single or simple answer. When pushed for an answer I would often tell them that it's our way of giving back since our lives were sparred during the tsunami disaster. But the real answer is that it just feels normal. and, it's extremely rewarding and can even be lot's of fun–albeit exhausting with 15-hour days of work while in the field and fundraising is always an un-fun challenge.

But, the truth is, it seems like the right thing to do. I hesitate to give that answer because I don't want to imply that everyone has an obligation to help others by volunteering as a humanitarian. That's judgmental, self-centric and as ludicrous as saying everyone has an obligation to have children, etc. And, that's not how I feel anyway.

So, in my Evolutionary Anthropology course last semester I was delighted to be assigned a book that explained altruism from an evolutionary perspective: Unto Others: the Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior by Elliot Sober and David S. Wilson.

From an evolutionary standpoint, altruism can be explained as an adaptation that helps to promote survival. But, to promote the survival of whom? Certainly not the individual altruist according to this definition: “a person unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others (Dictionary 2009).” This is true in our case at least, in that our "KIRF work" has cost us personally in time, money, and, even, this is difficult to say, but precious time away from our family and loved ones.

An altruistic act is one that gives others a reproductive advantage while putting the altruist at a reproductive disadvantage (Campbell 2/18/09). Yep, that's us. By why do we do this?

According to scientists such as W. G. Hamilton, and many of the scientific community until the recently, altruism was best explained as an extension of individual selection and called “kin selection” (Moore 2001:58). Kin selection is an evolutionary adaptation to promote one’s genetic code by sacrificing oneself in order to help one’s kin (Sober 1998:58). Known as the “father of modern kin selection theory,” Hamilton was one of the first to promote kin selection as more in line with the new individual and genetically based evolutionary model called the Neo-Darwinian or Modern Synthesis Theory of Evolution (Moore 2001:166). The Modern Synthesis Theory combined Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection with heritability of traits and genetic research in the Twenties and Thirties. Richard Dawkins elaborated on kin selection and called it the “selfish gene theory” that claimed that we are “controlled by our genes whose only interest is to replicate themselves (Moore 2001:87).” However, kin selection, based on the modern syntheses’ gene-centric and individualistic theory of inheritance, does not explain the evolutionary adaptive altruistic behavior of non-genetically related (non-kin) individuals.

Group selection is the better theory in predicting altruistic behavior in humans and non-human primates according to Elliot Sober and David S. Wilson in Unto Others: the Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Group selection is “when an allele (or gene) increases in frequency if it bestows an advantage to the group, regardless of its impact on the individual (Campbell 2/25/09).” In other words, Charles Darwin had it right when he explained that a group of altruists would be reproductively more successful than a group of non-altruists. He didn’t specify that they had to be kin (Sober 1998:5). A population increases faster with more altruists according to John Maynard Smith with his Haystack model in 1964 (Sober 1998:68).

On the psychology side of research, studies done by Daniel Batson have shown that the key to altruism is not self-interest (genetic or otherwise) but is empathy. His research has shown that most people have an innate willingness to help a stranger when they feel empathetic about them (Richardson 2005:217).

And, back to the biologists, altruistic behavior is not limited to humans. Biologists have documented several examples of group selection with the presence of altruists increasing group fitness in non-humans. For example, the brain worm (or liver fluke) relies on the altruistic and suicidal behavior of several individuals in a population to promote its survival as a group (Sober 1998: 27). An experiment with guppies shows that even non-human creatures such as fish choose to associate with altruists. In the experiment, it showed that even guppies preferred the company of altruists of their own species who risked sacrificing themselves through dangerous predator inspection behavior. (Sober: 1998:140).” With that in mind, and the greater ability of humans to detect altruistic behavior through cultural transmissions and communication, (compared to guppies), helping others seems normal and biologically natural.

So, according to science, altruism is an evolutionary adaptive behavior that increases the fitness of groups in both humans and non-humans and it's trigger is empathy.

That seems to make sense to me. I can't tell you how many times, after helping a brave family by giving them some mundane items that I bought for them for their temporary shelter, after an earthquake or hurricane leveled their family home and turned their lives upside down, that I've had to fight back tears at their courage. And, I feel unworthy of their gratitude for the little that we could give. If there's one thing that I know for sure (to paraphrase her Oprah Winfrey), is that doing disaster relief is living with lot's of empathy. Too much at times It would be actually, easier to do my job helping others if I had less of it, from an emotional perspective. Just a few months ago, during Inauguration Week in Washington, DC, we helped out a transitional living facility (a fancy name for homeless shelter for little kids and their mothers) by purchasing and delivering play and educational supplies for the Homeless Children's Playtime Project (HCPP). After playing with the shelter's young residents one night, how I badly I wanted to do more for these kids who are being cheated out of so much in life. That part of being altruistic and feeling empathy is not easy at all. Yes, I cried.

But, it feels natural and so good to make a difference, too– even if its a little. At least, I know I did something. And, those that I helped know that I believe that they are worth helping. It's not a lot but it's good enough because I did my best.

Now, even science recognizes the worth of helping others, or altruism, and calls it "group selection"– an evolutionary adaptation that improves a specie's fitness.

I find that re-assuring and cool.

Resources

Campbell, Christine
2009 Human Behavior: Evolutionary Perspective, Unpublished lectures for Anthropology 423, Spring, California State University, Northridge, CA

Dictionary.com
2009 “Altruist”, Dictionary.com, retrieved on May 14, 2009, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/altruist

Moore, David S.
2001 The Dependent Gene, New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company

Richardson, Peter J. and Robert Boyd
2005 Not By Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Sober, Elliot and David Sloan Wilson
1998 Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

*I hate the term "victims" because it doesn't recognize their often heroic efforts to prevail under truly horrific physical and emotional traumas; it's undignified.

KIRF gets media coverage in Ventura County Star "Ventura family fulfilling needs worldwide"

2009-02-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

KIRF got some publicity yesterday (finally!). Journalist Alicia Doyle wrote a nice full page article about our "KIRF work" that was published in the Communities section of the Ventura County Star newspaper.

The article wrote about our "client-driven/ informal aid network" direct relief model of helping others help themselves. KIRF gives in-kind donations and services directly to those in need with the help of local and informal experts such as teachers, medical workers, etc.This model ensures that people who need help the most also get exactly what they need to regain economic self-sufficiency and a life with dignity that is also within their own cultural norms and beliefs.

They printed the photo of us and the kids standing with chai dealer Naseem and his large family at his extended family home that was taken in Bodhgaya, India on December 25, 2006. The photo was taken by Mark's mom, Diane Kirwin. The other photo showed the Mark providing food staples and living supplies to Moken (aka "Sea Gypsies" of the Andaman Sea) several months after they were stranded on a deserted island by the tsunami without adequate food and water. You can read Mark's poignant field report about tsunami relief and helping the stranded Moken at KIRFaid.org.

The article mentioned disaster relief projects that KIRF has undertaken all over the world since its inception in January 2005.

The article also mentioned KIRF's latest project helping the Homeless Children's Playtime Project (HCPP) in Washington, DC last month. KIRF purchased educational toys, art supplies and furnishings for HCPP's play room at the NCFN Shelter in DC. We got to deliver the supplies and play with some of the young beneficiaries of the new toys at the transitional living shelter, too.

The HCPP non-profit serves homeless and chronically ill children by giving them a safe and enriching place to play after school. The "wish list" supplies were purchased with funds donated by KIRF's generous supporters here in Ventura. The airfare and hotel expenses are paid for by us out of our personal funds--like always.

Our "photographer" for this article, Diane Kirwin is an inspirational person in her own right. She is the Director of KIRF India which is a separate non-profit (and certified Indian Charitable Trust with an Indian board of trustees) that is devoted to providing primary and secondary education in rural villages, job training, medical care and public health resources such as clean drinking water and nutrition to landless peasants and street children of the Dalit caste in and around the famed Buddhist holy place and World Heritage Site of Bodhgaya, India.

Click here to read the Ventura County Star article about KIRF online >

Click here to read a copy of Ventura County Star newspaper article about KIRF, February 18, 2009 (PDF, 10.3 MB) >

"Giving where we are needed" and KIRF work

2009-02-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this quotation by John Records, a homeless activist, that describes why I enjoy doing "KIRF work". I read it in the Sun Magazine last month in the Letters section. Here it is:

"We may have more time than we think we do. And we might find a greater happiness from giving where we are needed than from being entertained." ~John Records, founder of homeless rehabilitation center Committee on the Shelterless (COTS), from the September 2008 issue of the Sun Magazine's "Leave the Light On" article.

I like that.

By "KIRF work" I mean doing a service project to help others or help the planet either here locally in Ventura (with an Earth Day beach cleanup, for example) or in a distant community such as in Washington, DC recently or in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

For example, in Chiang Mai we bought an ice cream maker and new freezer for a sustainable business school-based venture set-up by the Support the Children Foundation in December 2006. Our purchases made it possible for them to generate income to fund for their healthy lunch program for disadvantaged children and HIV foster children. The local non-profit Support the Children Foundation is ensuring that this program continues. The Chiang Mai project took a lot of effort to coordinate. I spent days preparing handouts and a poster and did two cookie sales with the Ventura College Anthropology Club to fund it. How did I find the Support The Children Foundation? I emailed friends and family until I found them through my sister-in-law. She recommended me speaking with her former college roommate who is a public health doctor stationed in Singapore and works with the Thai founders of Support The Children, who are a husband and wife team of two physicians who attended medical school in the U.S. Finding them and setting up the KIRF project, fundraising for it, and working in Chiang Mai on this project with our children was a effort. However, we were gong to be in Chiang Mai anyway to visit family so the travel was already taken care of. However, all that coordination took time.

But it was time well spent. The genuine gratitude and happiness of the school principal when he found out about the ice cream making equipment we bought his school made it worth it. Also, it was meeting the kids at the school, meeting the farmer who donated milk for the ice cream at his farm, meeting a local foster care family who was taking care of their HIV+ grandson, and the long day we spent shopping in Chiang Mai accompanying our Thai local experts from the Support the Children Foundation shop was an enriching and heartwarming experience that we will never forget. We still in keep in touch with Support the Children founders. I consider them dear and inspiring friends. The memory of that KIRF work project still makes me happy when I think out it. I am grateful that I had that experience and we made a difference.

That is "KIRF work".

:) A

Ventura Family Witnessed History and Helped Homeless Children in Washington, DC

2009-02-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

Ventura, California (February 3, 2009): Ventura volunteers Mark, Angela, Kai and Makani Kirwin of Kirwin International Relief Foundation (KIRF) headed to Washington, DC on January 16 to provide assistance for homeless children to heed President-Elect Obama’s request for Americans to do a community service project to honor the spirit of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. He called it a National Day of Service. While in DC they also attended the inauguration.

On the Saturday before the Inauguration, the Kirwins met up with volunteers for the a local Target and Best Buy to purchase wish list items for the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project non-profit that serves homeless children at several Washington, DC transitional living shelters. The Kirwins’ two children helped the volunteers chose the best toys and art supplies—stuff that they know kids like. Carpooling with the volunteers they delivered about six shopping carts of needed educational toys, art supplies and furnishings to a local shelter later that day. The Kirwins and their children returned to the shelter on Wednesday and helped build some play structures and played with the kids. Ironically, the shelter’s Playtime was closed on the National Day of Service for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

“Their lives are hard and several of them have suffered a lot. It was so gratifying to see them excited about their new toys and have fun in a loving and safe environment,“ Angela Kirwin said. “Every kid needs to feel special sometimes.”

The Homeless Children's Playtime Project (www.playtimeproject.net) non-profit serves children in local emergency and transitional homeless shelters by giving them a safe and enriching place to play in the evenings. “This is the one place they can go be with their peers and get a lot of love and attention,” Nicole French, a Site Coordinator at the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, said. “Now with KIRF’s help we’re able to make the space more hospitable and kid-friendly for Playtime,” Ms. French said.

The wish list items were purchased with funds donated by KIRF's generous supporters. Angela and Mark pay for their airfare and hotel expenses out of their personal funds.

KIRF is a tax-exempt public charity 501(c)(3) organization as a member of the International Humanities Center (www.ihcenter.org). Donations are tax deductible to the full extent permissible by law. Our Tax Identification Number is 33-0767921.

For more information please go to the KIRF web site: www.kirfaid.org.

KIRF in DC for family service project

2009-01-14T09:51:00.000-08:00

Our family is doing a service project while in Washington, DC to attend President-Elect Obama's inauguration. We don't have tickets to anything other than the flights to get there and the airfare and hotel is over our budget. But that is okay and we will pay off those credit cards eventually. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

What is bothering me about our experience is that no one who I have spoken with seems to be interested in helping others in honor of National Service Day. When I tell many of our friends and business collegues that we are helping out a homeless children's non-profit with our kids they are genuinely supportive of us, but that is it. Are we the only ones? Nicole French, a staff member at the non-profit we will be assisting while in DC, Homeless Children's Playtime Project, told me that her organization hasn't received any other volunteers or requests to help during inauguration. She even called our purchasing some art supplies, furnishings and toys for her homeless kids a "grand gesture". I think that is sad. Especially since Obama is asking Americans to do a day of service on MLK Day, the day before the Inauguration.

I'm thinking that Obama's call to action for American's to be altruistic on National Service Day is going to require a cultural shift that may take years.

I know from my involvement with Roots & Shoots (a youth community service program of the Jane Goodall Institute) that there are many families and individuals out here were we live you are like us and like to volunteer to help the environment or humanitarian causes. But I don't hear of them in the media very often unless it's an organized event like Coastal Cleanup Day or Earth Day. I'm hoping that by publicizing informal efforts like ours that doing community service work will be normalized in our culture and Any Day is a good day to help others.

Helping others should be something that nice people are expected to do for each other and their communities. It should not be seen as a burdensome activity solely for students or punishment for people on probation who trying to fulfill their "community service hours" And, it's not just for church groups either.

Here's a news release I'm sent out yesterday (first one for KIRF in over a year, I'm a bit out of practice) about our DC trip and family service project.

Happy 2009!

For Immediate Release:

Local Ventura Family Helping Homeless Children in Washington, DC During Inauguration Week

Ventura, California (January 13, 2009): Ventura residents Mark and Angela Kirwin and their children are headed to DC Friday to work with homeless children—and see President-Elect Obama become President. They and their two children will be helping children in need in Washington, DC as another family service project.

"I can't think of a better way to celebrate President-Elect Obama's inauguration than do a hands-on service project while we are in Washington, DC," Angela Kirwin said after she booked their hotel reservation the day after the elections. "It will demonstrate our values for helping others to our children. And, we can do this together as a family."

On December 17, Obama's office announced a National Day of Service to be held January 19th, the day before the inauguration and also Martin Luther King Day. "Hey, Obama copied us!" Angela said jokingly.

While in DC, the Kirwins will be delivering educational toys, art supplies and furnishings to the Homeless Children's Playtime Project. The non-profit serves children in local emergency and transitional homeless shelters by giving them a safe and enriching place to play in the evenings. “We just offer a safe place where the kids can really be themselves,” Nicole French said who works with the children at the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project. “A lot of times at school people know they’re homeless and they get treated differently. This is the one place they can go with their peers and get a lot of love and attention.”

“Now with KIRF’s help we’re able to make the space more hospitable and kid-friendly for play time,” Nicole French said.

Items are purchased with funds donated by KIRF's generous supporters. Angela and Mark pay for their airfare and hotel expenses out of their personal funds.

KIRF is a tax-exempt public charity 501(c)(3) organization as a member of the International Humanities Center (www.ihcenter.org). Donations are tax deductible to the full extent permissible by law.

For more information please see KIRFaid.org and playtimeproject.net.

Photos from Burma of KIRF school supplies at IDP camps

2008-08-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

We just got two envelopes of photos taken inside of Burma of two IDP (Internally Displaced Person) refugee camp schools with the new school supplies we sent them via our local partners. We paid for textbooks, writing supplies, art supplies, mats, mosquito nets and medication for these internal refugees that live on despite the military junta's animosity and terrorizing behavior against them and their native villages.

KIRFaid.org will be updated soon with a status report and a few of these poignant photos of the modest school houses built of bamboo with thatched roofs and walls of woven matting. My favorite is of a group of about 25-30 kids standing around their teacher, all smiles and with their candy-colored plastic flip-flops lined up in neat rows in front them. Beautiful.

Here's one of Mark and I's favorite quotes:

"Nobody makes a greater mistake that he who did nothing because he could do only a little." -- Edmund Burke

quote for the day re: helping others

2008-08-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

"It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them."

by HH Dalai Lama (from the book "The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom" 1999)

KIRF is getting disaster relief supplies into Burma (Myanmar)

2008-07-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

Field Report by Mark Kirwin

Mae Sot, Thailand

June 10, 2008

The tragedy in Burma from Cyclone Nargis that his on May 2nd is far worse than what we have been lead to believe. During the last few days, I have interviewed Burmese refugees and seen footage of the tragedy that the locals took using their cell phones and other small cameras. Many Burmese have gathered this information at great personal risk in hopes that the outside world will know the true extent of the devastation, homelessness, sickness, loss of life caused by the cyclone and the Burmese military's interference with the international aid to the victims.

Helping People Help Themselves in Tanzania

2006-05-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

"Helping People Help Themselves" sums up best KIRF's philosophy and method of disaster relief and sustainable development. We aim to develop long-term self-sufficency that enhances natural resources in the communities we assist.

Our humanitarian aid is an act of compassion to alleviate suffering. We know how to help because we ask the recipients what they need. It's pretty simple. Our careful listening to their wishes builds trust. Pretty soon we have an ally to help us help others in need in the same area. Listening to these people also aids the recipients by enpowering them to define how they will be helped or what their future will look like. After a traumatic and chaotic disaster, they are in control of their life's journey during the recovery process.

Relating to our philosophy of "helping themselves": I have read a interesting book about the downfalls of humanitarian relief in Africa called "Famine Crimes: Politics & the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa" by Alex de Waal. Mr. de Waal is a long-time self-described member of the "international humanitarian aid elite. He has worked for the Peace Corps, Save the Children and various other ngo's with a presence (and a large expense account) in Africa. The book's depiction of corrupt "NGO economies" that support a few elites at the expense of the poor seem to be similar to the situation Mark witnessed in in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. The NGO economy or dual economy has one set of prices for Westerners and tourists (at least 100% more expensive that local prices) and another set of prices for locals. I am experiencing a similar situation in Tanzania now.

The book's thesis maintains that famine relief coupled with no local or national government accountability or support, has helped ruin some of the nations of Africa. It has in fact, created more famines and poverty and violence. The author maintains that by giving aid to people who are victimized by their own government's corrupt policies, actually prolongs unjust rule and the suffering of its victims. Chronic poverty is a political problem and can only be solved by political solutions and social change among the local stakeholders.

Humanitarian aid to Africa has increased over the past generation, sanctioned as the morally right thing to do and used as a tool of diplamcy, tax right offs for donor corporations and means to subsidize American agriculture. It is used by both the recipient nations (if you concede to our demands and turn a blind eye to corruption we will allow you to save lives and publicize your efforts so you get more donations) and the giving nations (if you concede to US oe UN demands we will send shipments of aid that will enrich your administration and ensure short-term political stability) but the famines and suffering seem to have gottern worse. Why? I believe it is because not all of the humanitarian aid's stakeholders are outcome-orientated. According to de Waal, the sincerely caring humanitarian individuals who disperse aid, often do so without the will or support from their organizations to end the dependency on their aid. It's an unsavory fact that often journalists gain access to the worst areas only through NGO contacts who they are beholding too. In return for the career assistance, journalists take photos of of the aid's most pitiful and helpless recipients brings publicity which brings in increased revenue and are loath to critize their NGo hosts practices.

This July KIRF will be exploring how best we can help in the east African country of Tanzania. Through my consulting work for the Jane Goodall Institute I have been been introduced to several citizens of Tanzania who are making a difference for good in their country through their own volunteer efforts. In many of the drought afflicted communities in northern Tanzania near Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti Game Preserve, long-term quality of life improvements like sustainable farming techniques and habitat conservation are taught already in the community through youth groups like Roots & Shoots. Through these respected locals in the community, "bridges" between me and my culture to their culture, I hope to be able to make a difference in Tanzania.

Angela

Mark is off to Thailand May 10th for tsunami relief

2006-05-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

Mark Kirwin (co-founder of KIRF) is off to Thailand in a couple of weeks. He will meet with several colleges to see about delivering our educational scholarship funds into a scholarship account for Tsunami Orphans at one of the local colleges. Since, the young tsunami victims who lost one or both of their parents are from predominantly working class and impoverished villages along the Thai coast north of Phuket, we will most likely choose one of the local colleges. We were told that these kids would not be able to afford to live in Bangkok and go to one of the universities there. While in Phuket Mark is considering the viability of visiting another Moken village to assess if some of these poor people are still in need after the tsunami hit. The Moken are nationless sea gypsies who live aboard their boats and for short periods stay at one of the numerous small tropical islands dotting the Andaman sea. We have seen that the many non-Thais in the country illegally--Moken or, most commonly, illegale immigrant Burmese migrant workers, are either afraid to ask for assistance for fear of being deported (a death sentence for many Burmese) or have asked for help and have been refused.

Mark visited an island of Moken in May of last year--5 months after the tsunami hit, and the situation was desparate. The head of the village told Mark that the Thai Navy put them on the island and they had only one boat left after the tsunami hit and it wasn't enough to support over a 100 people in the village. His people were hungry and children were dying of malaria and other treatable illnesses. The villagers were surviving by scrounging for edible items they could find on the island and swim to like mussles (the areas between the living platforms and wooden decks were covered with broken and sharp mussel shells). They were also being supported with bags of rice and some old clothing from a local church community in Ranong. The Moken children Mark saw seemed thin and listless. They showed signs of malnutrition (bloated bellies and reddish hair color). No sanitation in village, no electricity and people seemed in general depressed and hungry.

KIRF was able to deliver a large fishing boat to this village with nets, an engine, petrol, rain water catch basins for drinking water supply and living supplies like cooking utensils, sarongs, and healthful food staples like rice, cooking oil, spices and fresh vegatables. The village people can now provide more nutritious food and an income from fishing to sustain themselves.