Dignity and Value

Burning Question:  How do you instill in someone purpose, dignity and value into their work?  Into their life?

Without these things, people feel-----Helpless.  Hopeless.  Degraded.  Dis-empowered.

Think about it.

If you don't feel as though you or your work has any value, if you don't believe that you have dignity and purpose, then what is the point?  Without these attributes, people can't and won't take responsibility for their situations and actions.  As a result, we will not try very hard to make a difference, to rise above our situation or overcome hardships that come our way.  I see this happening all the time.  It's everywhere--the people I work with (inside and outside the office), the people I see at the stores, the conversations I overhear in coffee shops and on the trains, the people I hang out with, the people I try not to hang out with....it doesn't matter.  We all at some point or another have these tendencies in life to feel helpless and unable to rise to the occasion.

However, this is a HUGE problem that I see in poverty stricken areas in South Africa (which I guess could be applied to other 3rd world nations as well).  In South Africa, the initial lot of the displaced population was a product of a cruel political regime and thus could not do anything about their situation outright without risk of certain danger and even death.

BUT, times have changed.  Constitutionally, there are now more freedoms, more rights, more opportunities to break the cycle of poverty and improve society as a united country.  Just because the legislation has changed, doesn't mean the people have changed though.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of improvements and strides being taken to develop and sustain a growing economy.  After all, that's a huge part of why I'm drawn to this place--the potential for growth and development.  But people don't just change overnight...

Because of the cruel apartheid regime and now broken or time consuming promises from the government lead people to start playing the blame game.  Here again, we find a lack of responsibility as people wait for handouts.  They become reliant on the somewhat random influx of resources and find ways to survive from one to the next.  If you can sit around all day and not have to work--why strive to make a change?  Where is the incentive?

So this brings me back to my initial burning question--How do you instill dignity and value in a person and empower them in such a way so that they, in turn, take charge of their situation and rise to overcome.  Community development isn't about coming showing up for a short period of time and leaving.  It's about instilling a sense of longevity and sustainability in the lives of other people that is contagious.

If a person has dignity, they realize that their life and work have value.  If we then have value, we will have respect for ourselves and thus a desire to improve.  If a person sees that the people around them have the same dignity and value as they themselves have, the respect goes beyond oneself.  The beggars, the trash-pickers, the shop sales people, executives, parliamentarians, the ticket checker....they all hold the same value.  While it is up to them to take responsibility for their actions and discover their own value and self-worth, we shouldn't hold back on showing every single person the respect that they deserve.

At the end of the day, we are all human beings with a desire to be loved and treated with respect.

So the answer to my burning question??  Well, the verdict is still out there.  I'm miles away from figuring it out so any and all ideas, suggestions, comments are welcome.  These are just things that have been on my mind and I thought I'd share.