07.02.2022 – Field Visits

#Unbiased

“Amen” said the paster.

The end of the prayer announced the beginning of what turned out to be an enlightening interaction with a local community of 500 persons. We, NEWAL, from one side were facing the community with only the translator as a middle man. We were handed the chance to ask all the questions about the lifestyle of this community in an unbiased, unprejudiced, and impartial exchange.

Time was limited but our questions were not. Every answer transformed assumptions into facts and added a new color to the comprehensive image we were trying to paint in our minds. Of course, due to our common interest in water and life, the blue color, referring to the water, were dominant.

We discussed various and diverse issues: from sanitation to water access, local activities to education. However, two main challenges impacted the village the most: water access and lack of tables and chairs for the high school. For the former, water was fetched by woman who would manually pomp on average 10 minutes. For the latter, the inexistence of a carpenter has caused the absence of basic resources (chair and tables) which decrease the quality of the education in the village.

In fact, unbiased, unprejudiced, and impartial discussions shall occur more often even in our occidental communities. This would lead to safer environment, judgment-free debates and maybe a less-polarized society.

Written by Mohamed Ali