Trying to find a balance...

One of the challenges here is finding a balance between doing top quality research and empowering the local organizations to take ownership of the work (capacity building). I like that the organization I'm with leans heavily towards local involvement, although bridging the gap towards western rigor is accomplished by lots of work.

Every time I'm in a situation like this I'm further struck by how much knowledge I take for granted. Concepts like objectivity, random sampling, bias, are all things thoroughly ingrained in anyone who has been educated in a developed country. Here where people haven't had the benefit of much education those concepts are foreign and difficult to explain. I like to think that someone who has no education outside of watching US television would know more about science, healthcare, surveying and statistics than the average person here. Not that I advocate such exposure to television, but it highlights the level of knowledge that the average westerner is assumed to have.

Having said that, there are some amazing people here, like the guy who said he'd never seen electric lights until leaving Burma, who in a matter of years have learned English, public health methodology, healthcare, budgeting, and many other skills. The sad part is that they are trapped in the clinic or refugee camps.

I have recently been made aware of the difficulties of not having a nationality. Gaining Thai acknowledgment (a visa or whatever) is extremely difficult if not impossible. The citizenship requirements in Burma are such that most people born there will never been citizens. In that situation you have orphans in the camps who can never be adopted because there is simply no structure in place for the adoption of children with no nationality. I spoke with an English teacher in the camps who has a very bright student that he thinks would do well at a university. With the international interest and resources coming into the area, sending him to a foreign university would be an option, except that his lack of nationality would make the paperwork impossible. At least that's my understanding of the situation.