Care bear
A TAO researcher discovers what’s important in development work
by Gwen Lucero
“When you have learned to take care of yourself and your relationships, it will be easier to understand and to work for the development of other people’s lives not according to your standards but according to the people’s standards even if sometimes these contradict each other and complicate matters.”
Development work. What does it mean? Who are the people we call development workers? What do they do? These are some questions I’ve been asking myself.
Time and again, I have been drawn to reach out to those who are less fortunate than I am not only economically but also in other aspects. Although my life is far from perfect, I consider myself very blessed to have all I need to be happy. I have my family who complicates my otherwise boring life. I have my friends who I have known from preschool to the present who stimulate me intellectually or help me to be emotionally and socially grounded. I have been blessed with the gift of faith in a Higher Being who I rely on when nothing seems to make sense. The gratitude I feel for all these blessings does not allow me to remain unaffected by all the pain I see around me. And so I help others to lessen if not remove the ache I feel inside.
The way I see it, development work should first look into the individual, the development worker. It’s best to understand your motives and to recognize that what you want for yourself may not be what others want for themselves. Thus development work is not about what you want for others but what others want for themselves or their loved ones. On the other hand, respect for other people’s beliefs and way of life should not stop you from having discussions or arguments since these are also necessary to better understand yourself, others, and the system that binds you together. The study I did with TAO-Pilipinas on the lessons learned by different communities in their struggle for security of land tenure provided new insights that direct me in the career I’ve taken, grown to love and still trying to understand.
