Garfield/Palouse students get third world project report

Courtesy Dennis Griner

The 47 senior and junior students from Garfield-Palouse High School’s history and current world issues classes were invited by Dr. Bill Smith, director of the University of Idaho’s Martin Institute and Program in International Studies, to meet Vincent Renaud, an authority on third world economic development. In a lecture and question and answer session with Renaud, students learned of his project for development across Central Africa and in the nation of Togo in particular. He noted many of the day-to-day comforts taken for granted by Americans are luxuries to many of the world’s peoples. These are clean water, indoor plumbing, electricity and schooling.

To help third world countries acquire these same comforts, Renaud explained, is much more complex than just providing money or equipment to address the need. Local history, culture and government play major roles in establishing real change in third world countries. He used the example of garbage pickup to illustrate his point. The idea of someone picking up your trash and then for you to go to a governmental office to pay for the service is very foreign to African rural cultures.

Renaud’s projects are designed to overcome the cultural issues through the training of local people to assume the much needed support roles in the local government and business community. The goal of his work is to use these trained local people to build the needed infrastructures so these basic projects that have been started will have a better opportunity for long term success. Providing money, equipment and technology is important, but they are not enough. The people of the area need to acquire the skills necessary to maintain and expand upon the projects that have been started.

Renaud told the students they are the fortunate ones. With a flip of a switch the lights come on and a turn of a nob they have access to fresh, clean water. The dramatic gap between the have and the have not peoples of this world, although it is shrinking, still exist. It became very apparent to the students, that if they chose to do so, they could use their abilities to make a major impact in the world.