Initiative in Uganda: Enough of the help of the “white rescuers”

Snapshots with children in care, aid organizations with well-known hierarchies: an initiative in Uganda wants to show what often goes wrong in development work. Their aim: to align aid with local experiences.

When Olivia Alaso was a child, she had to greet white visitors so often. She grew up in Jinja, a town on Lake Victoria in Uganda. There are many aid organizations and tourists who want to do good during their vacation. “They usually visited us at school. We never really understood why, but then we had to sing and clap for them,” she recalls. Even then, Olivia Alaso found these forced performances wrong, with which the children were supposed to say thank you for a few exercise books or pens they had brought with them.

She sees it as even worse today when white people go to children’s homes, hold babies in their arms and pose for photos: “In their own countries they couldn’t take pictures like this. They don’t have the right to do so. But if they When they come to Africa, they see it as completely normal,” she says. “Why does it have to be normal for African children to be attractions for tourists?”

Foreigners often have the power to make decisions

Thirty-something Alaso is one of the founders of No White Saviors. The team’s goal: To make it clear how wrongly aid is often approached on the African continent. Alaso experienced this herself when she was employed as a social worker in various organizations. The foreigners had the power to make decisions there, she says: “As a social worker, I knew the communities I looked after well. But then someone from outside told me what I should do. That’s not right correct.”

Skin color often decides whether someone is considered competent. That could even have deadly consequences, says Alaso. As an example, she cites the case of a missionary from the USA who is said to have treated malnourished children in Jinja without having the appropriate training. Some of them died because no one questioned the woman’s actions. The organization “No White Saviors” wants to prevent something like this and promote a rethink.

Africa’s “helper industry”: good business

One means of reaching a large audience is through a regular podcast. “If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not listening properly,” the intro says. The discussions revolve around how aid can be decolonized. Because so far the system has been based on old power structures, says Alaso: “The helper industry in Africa is a thriving business for whites. They pocket salaries here that they would never have gotten at home. They have all sorts of privileges: fancy houses, company cars , Extra payments. But who does all the work and writes the reports?” These are mainly the local employees, who are paid far less.

“No White Saviors” works with various Ugandan organizations. For example, she supports them in raising funds – to show that the people of Uganda can lead themselves: “They know best what is needed.”

One of the organizations is called “Faces up”. She wants to help children and young people in Uganda get a better education by auctioning off paintings – the proceeds will then be used to pay school fees.

A “white savior in the learning phase”

In addition to Olivia Alaso, “No White Saviors” has another founder: Kelsey Nielsen, a white American. She came to Uganda as a social worker and now describes herself as a “white savior-in-training”.

“You deal with the issues and hope that one day you will only be a small part of the problem,” she says. “This is what conscious anti-racism should look like. I’ve been a better person since I’ve known Olivia.”

Together they want to develop the organization further. Always according to a motto that is also at the very beginning of every podcast: “We don’t want to exclude white people. You just shouldn’t be the heroes of our story.”