Utilitarianism states that in order
to determine what is good or right, you must choose actions that will result in
“the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” While I do not personally
subscribe to the Utilitarian ideology, there are some cases when following this
method appears to be the most rational and ethical course of action. Sometimes
this means that we must choose the lesser of two evils, or to decide which way
will do less harm. The management of Sunrise Children’s Home found itself in
this predicament after a meeting with the village chairman on August 1st.
There has been for almost 2 years
now, a rift between Sunrise Children’s Home and the village government, perhaps
the village as a whole as well. Originally in 2009 a village committee had been
established to aid in the developing of the Sunrise NGO (non-governmental
organization) and the building of the orphanage complex. This committee
disbanded in Fall of 2010 while Bibi Kay was in back in the USA visiting
family. The reason why the committee resigned was not quite clear, although
there was some suspicion that it was due to issues with Fredy, the man whom
Bibi Kay placed in charge during her absence.
In my first few weeks here in Tanzania, I
quickly developed an amiable relationship with Fredy. As Bibi Kay’s local
partner, he has been an integral part of the orphanage since the inception of
the project. He served as the foreman during the construction of the buildings,
and then not only was he in charge of the farm, but also drove the tractor and
fixed all the vehicles, in addition to all other facility maintenance duties. Above
all, he also acted as a father figure to the children, spending time counseling
as well as teaching gymnastics. While we did run into a few miscommunication
issues over the months, in general I was grateful for his ideas for the growth
of the orphanage, but I especially appreciated his heart for the children. I
was oblivious to the fact that unfortunately Fredy’s place at Sunrise was a
detrimental towards building a positive working relationship with the village.
It wasn’t until that meeting with
the village chairman that the direness of the situation was laid out before me.
At first we discussed various issues at hand, such as the need for additional
staff as well as the idea to start up a feeding program for underweight
children in the village. Then I mentioned that we wanted to have again a
village committee to give advice for the orphanage. The conversation, up until
this point had been fairly pleasant and agreeable, however this topic caused an
evident shift in temperament. After a series of evasive answers and vague
suggestions, we were able to decipher that many people in the previous
committee still harbored negative feelings towards Fredy. Therefore we were
informed that as long as Fredy still worked at Sunrise Children’s Home, we
would not have the cooperation of the village.
The exact reason for the seemingly
collective adverse sentiment is still a mystery; however we are aware that
jealously is prevalent and that certain prominent people within the village
were coveted Fredy’s position at the orphanage. It appears that many people
were envious that Fredy drove the truck and tractor, and was living with
wazungu (white people), although he was not from the village, but rather the
town of Njombe. There may have been previous disputes that added to this issue,
although the pervasive envy appeared to be the primary factor. After Bibi Kay
and I discussed the matters from the meeting, we decided to take the
Utilitarian approach and ask Fredy to step down from his position at Sunrise in
order to build a positive working relationship with the village. Although Fredy
assisted in so many different aspects at Sunrise, one man is not as important for
the survival of this orphanage as the support of the entire village.
