The Importance of Dialogue
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Giving up a week away from his family and missing his daughter’s second
birthday, Arun Kumar Naik has agreed to be our host for our time in
India. He is a vibrant man, quick to laugh, full of joy and passion for
his people. He is a man of depth and focus; driven by a desire to
fulfill Christ’s calling to work with “the least of these”.
Arun
works with an agency called EFICOR: Evangelical Fellowship of India
Commission on Relief. With a tagline of ‘Working towards a just,
responsible, and compassionate society’, EFICOR only attracts those
dedicated to its cause and call. As a Christian agency, EFICOR is
working in a Hindu system that does not allow a lot of room for looking
after “the least of these”.
EFICOR works with the mahadalits in
the northern Indian state of Bihar. Mahadalits are considered the lowest
caste of people and are not deemed worthy of acknowledgement in the
Hindu system. EFICOR works with them to improve their access to
different government programs, which improve their quality of life. One
program is to ensure that children who are in school receive one meal a
day. EFICOR works with the community members to support them as they
lobby and struggle with governmental representatives to ensure they are
receiving all the support they are entitled to.
The villages we
visited were rural – hours away from the nearest city. Our group of
eleven split into three or four range rovers each day to make the
journey to the next village, often riding with EFICOR staff. I cherish
the times when I rode in the same vehicle as Arun, learning more each
time about his depth of wisdom. From him, I learned the importance of
dialogue.
On one of these trips, as we bounced up and down over
potholes and through areas where the road has simply fallen away, I
asked Arun what he thought about some of the terms I learned in my
International Development studies, referencing the term “least developed
countries”. Arun asked those of us travelling with him whether
computers and machines are the only indicators of development? He
gestures to the people we are passing and says, “We have developed
cultures and ways of life. We may not have all the machines, but we are
developed”. His preference for the term “developing countries”
acknowledges both that there is vibrant culture, and also that there is
room for growth.
We talked about other terms and learning from
his time with EFICOR and where he hopes to go in the future. He is
currently working at a Disaster Risk Reduction degree, which is his area
of interest. As we bounce along, having finished a very fruitful
discussion, I reflect on the importance of dialogue. As a citizen of a
donor country, sometimes my ears are closed to hearing the words of Arun
and others like him, especially from the comfort of my living room. But
when I am here, in his country, talking with him and seeking to listen
to what is said, and those things which remain unsaid, it is not nearly
as easy to disassociate.
Arun, thank you for dialoguing with us,
with me. I hope I listened well.
By Ellen Paulley
Ellen
works as the Resources Assistant at the Foodgrains Bank. She was a
participant on the 2010 Food Study Tour to India and Bangladesh. Ellen
is pursuing a degree in International Development at the University of
Winnipeg.
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