By Katjusa Cisar
kcisar@themonroetimes.com
MONROE - By now you've probably heard of "Kony 2012."
It's a publicity campaign to bring to justice a Ugandan warlord named Joseph Kony, who has for years been accused of orchestrating human-rights atrocities on a massive scale.
The campaign's call to action is a 30-minute video, made by the American group Invisible Children and posted online March 5. The "Kony 2012" video swept the Internet and attracted millions of views on YouTube with a message that is simple enough for the filmmaker's 5-year-old son to understand.
The video has also raised questions about the role of the international community in assisting developing countries. An overwhelming backlash against Invisible Children charges the organization with oversimplifying the issue, coming across as condescending to viewers and promoting "slacktivism."
The campaign especially irritates Ugandans, who prickle at a narrative they feel is misleading and centers around do-gooders from the outside instead of locals on the ground.
Monroe native Jill Hall is in a unique position to evaluate "Kony 2012" - or at least the role the international community can play in helping people in developing countries.
The 1999 Monroe High School graduate, now living in South Central Los Angeles, has done development and relief work in Morocco, Zambia and southern Uganda, on the Thai-Burmese border and in Spain with North African refugees.
Last year she spent five months volunteering in the Philippines with Kiva, a nonprofit based in California that allows individuals to loan as little as $25 on Kiva.org to entrepreneurs in developing countries via local microfinancing institutions.
"I'm very fascinated by people and generosity," she said during a visit to Monroe this week.
She agrees with most of the criticism aimed at "Kony 2012," but also sees some value to the campaign.
"If anything, people are aware and beginning to research. That conversation-starting is a positive thing," she said.
In her experience, sharing stories is the most potent motivator behind altruism that leads to change and empowerment.
While she was in the Phillipines, Hall interviewed and photographed borrowers for profile updates on the Kiva website. Kiva's mission is based around storytelling: a lender decides where to send money after reading profiles of people and their business plans.
"You're enabling their potential. You're really part of someone's story, or several people's stories," she said. "People are apt to be more generous when they feel like they're part of something."
This type of technology-enabled crowdsourcing isn't just gaining traction in the world of philanthropy and finance. Similarly crowdsourced funding endeavors are happening in journalism (Spot.Us), the arts (Kickstarter and IndieGoGo) and engineering and science (InnoCentive).
Hall's background is not in finance. She graduated in 2003 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in occupational therapy and moved the next year to L.A. to work with at-risk youth. She first got into international relief work with members of her nondenominational Christian church, Mosaic. Now she can't get enough. Her ideal setup would be to work six months of the year abroad and six months in the U.S., she said.
She saved up for her unpaid Kiva fellowship by scrimping, accumulating airline miles and driving an "old jalopy" - a 1998 Ford Accord.
Right now she's between jobs and looking for her next project. With several years of experience under her belt, she has a better idea of the direction she wants to take.
"I want to work for an agency that promotes independence and potential for an individual. What I love about microfinance is that it provides a mean for someone to support themselves, but it also provides purpose and acts with dignity because it empowers a person to be their own solution," she said.
Most importantly, she added, microfinancing organizations like Kiva entrust the work of locals to care for their own. (Invisible Children's flashy awareness campaign, by comparison, is criticized for doing exactly the opposite.)
Kiva "collaborates with locals to do the work so that it is Filipinos working with Filipinos or Indonesians with Indonesians," she said.
One of her favorite success stories is Andresa Javines, a Filipino who runs a tuna-packing business and used Kiva loans to build her company and create jobs. Microfinance lenders are pushing for the creation of more mid-sized businesses like this, Hall said, because they provide a livelihood to more people.
Hall documents her experiences abroad on her blog, jillhall2.wordpress.com. In a recent entry she wrote about meeting a former street dweller who pulled himself out of a life of poverty, forced labor and gangs. Now in his 30s, the man works to help current street dwellers.
Hall writes, "As he explained about the blessings he has received, the one thing that struck me was the tone of awe he had about how he had met a wonderful woman at his church and they had married.
"He turned to us as he said, 'You know too, my wife, she is college educated. I explained to her how I haven't even finished high school but she said she didn't even care. All she cared about is the man I am now.'"
kcisar@themonroetimes.com
MONROE - By now you've probably heard of "Kony 2012."
It's a publicity campaign to bring to justice a Ugandan warlord named Joseph Kony, who has for years been accused of orchestrating human-rights atrocities on a massive scale.
The campaign's call to action is a 30-minute video, made by the American group Invisible Children and posted online March 5. The "Kony 2012" video swept the Internet and attracted millions of views on YouTube with a message that is simple enough for the filmmaker's 5-year-old son to understand.
The video has also raised questions about the role of the international community in assisting developing countries. An overwhelming backlash against Invisible Children charges the organization with oversimplifying the issue, coming across as condescending to viewers and promoting "slacktivism."
The campaign especially irritates Ugandans, who prickle at a narrative they feel is misleading and centers around do-gooders from the outside instead of locals on the ground.
Monroe native Jill Hall is in a unique position to evaluate "Kony 2012" - or at least the role the international community can play in helping people in developing countries.
The 1999 Monroe High School graduate, now living in South Central Los Angeles, has done development and relief work in Morocco, Zambia and southern Uganda, on the Thai-Burmese border and in Spain with North African refugees.
Last year she spent five months volunteering in the Philippines with Kiva, a nonprofit based in California that allows individuals to loan as little as $25 on Kiva.org to entrepreneurs in developing countries via local microfinancing institutions.
"I'm very fascinated by people and generosity," she said during a visit to Monroe this week.
She agrees with most of the criticism aimed at "Kony 2012," but also sees some value to the campaign.
"If anything, people are aware and beginning to research. That conversation-starting is a positive thing," she said.
In her experience, sharing stories is the most potent motivator behind altruism that leads to change and empowerment.
While she was in the Phillipines, Hall interviewed and photographed borrowers for profile updates on the Kiva website. Kiva's mission is based around storytelling: a lender decides where to send money after reading profiles of people and their business plans.
"You're enabling their potential. You're really part of someone's story, or several people's stories," she said. "People are apt to be more generous when they feel like they're part of something."
This type of technology-enabled crowdsourcing isn't just gaining traction in the world of philanthropy and finance. Similarly crowdsourced funding endeavors are happening in journalism (Spot.Us), the arts (Kickstarter and IndieGoGo) and engineering and science (InnoCentive).
Hall's background is not in finance. She graduated in 2003 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in occupational therapy and moved the next year to L.A. to work with at-risk youth. She first got into international relief work with members of her nondenominational Christian church, Mosaic. Now she can't get enough. Her ideal setup would be to work six months of the year abroad and six months in the U.S., she said.
She saved up for her unpaid Kiva fellowship by scrimping, accumulating airline miles and driving an "old jalopy" - a 1998 Ford Accord.
Right now she's between jobs and looking for her next project. With several years of experience under her belt, she has a better idea of the direction she wants to take.
"I want to work for an agency that promotes independence and potential for an individual. What I love about microfinance is that it provides a mean for someone to support themselves, but it also provides purpose and acts with dignity because it empowers a person to be their own solution," she said.
Most importantly, she added, microfinancing organizations like Kiva entrust the work of locals to care for their own. (Invisible Children's flashy awareness campaign, by comparison, is criticized for doing exactly the opposite.)
Kiva "collaborates with locals to do the work so that it is Filipinos working with Filipinos or Indonesians with Indonesians," she said.
One of her favorite success stories is Andresa Javines, a Filipino who runs a tuna-packing business and used Kiva loans to build her company and create jobs. Microfinance lenders are pushing for the creation of more mid-sized businesses like this, Hall said, because they provide a livelihood to more people.
Hall documents her experiences abroad on her blog, jillhall2.wordpress.com. In a recent entry she wrote about meeting a former street dweller who pulled himself out of a life of poverty, forced labor and gangs. Now in his 30s, the man works to help current street dwellers.
Hall writes, "As he explained about the blessings he has received, the one thing that struck me was the tone of awe he had about how he had met a wonderful woman at his church and they had married.
"He turned to us as he said, 'You know too, my wife, she is college educated. I explained to her how I haven't even finished high school but she said she didn't even care. All she cared about is the man I am now.'"