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BUT WHAT CAN WE DO?
After analyzing the causes of Luis’s death, the next step is to ask the question,
“What can we do?” It is often easier for people to think of possibilities and
discuss them openly if they first consider what other people might do. So ask:
“What could the villagers of Platanar do to help prevent the death of other
children like Luis?” Members of the discussion group may have a wide range of
suggestions, some more realistic than others:
“Organize the community to insist that nurses from the
health center come to vaccinate the children.”
“Hold raffles and dances to collect an emergency fund for
poor families that need medical treatment in the city.”
“Arrange to have someone from the village trained as a
health worker.”
“Start a cooperative, so people will not have to spend
so much on food, and can afford sandals and other basic
needs.”
“Try to get the authorities to enforce laws calling for the
redistribution of large landholdings.”
“Organize the poor farmers to take over the land they now
work as sharecroppers.”
“Arrange for loans to groups of small farmers, so they can
buy land they now farm as tenants.”
“Unite with poor farmers’ and workers’ organizations to work
for the changes that will put an end to sharecropping and
other causes of poverty.”
These are all suggestions that have been made by villagers in discussion groups
in Latin America. But they are not only suggestions. We know of community-
based programs and health workers who are carrying out various combinations of
all these ideas!
Clearly, people from different lands and circumstances will have ideas different
from those listed above. Both the suggestions people make and the ways they
carry them out will depend on local factors.
In some places, villagers may not be ready to make many
suggestions. Or they may make only ‘well-behaved’ suggestions
such as, “Talk to the nurses and see if they would be willing to
come vaccinate the children!” Any suggestion that the poor people
organize, insist on their rights, or take action to resist the abuses of
those in power may seem strange or fearful to them.
Even in places where more and more people are awakening to their own
possibilities, most of the poor still feel there is very little they can do to
change their situation.