Organizations Struggle To Aid Africa

A Maasai tribesman looked down onto a shimmering body of water in this dusty, drought-stricken patch of land, and smiled.

Dozens of cows were taking a dip in the pond, which was built with financial help from the World Bank to provide a clean, long-lasting drinking supply for the Maasai's most prized and valuable asset — their cattle.

"The cows," the tribesman said, pointing at the luxuriating animals, "they love it!"

But while the cows were clearly enjoying themselves, a representative of the World Bank saw some issues to be addressed — particularly that the cows are just supposed to drink the water. Bathing muddies the pond and kicks up silt, severely depleting the water table.

"This is a problem," Christine E. Cornelius, lead operations officer for World Bank operations in East Africa, said as she searched for a translator so she could speak to the tribe's leader. "There is supposed to be a fence."

Providing aid to rural and nomadic people in Africa is a tricky business — cultural differences, problems gaining access to far-flung lands, even language barriers can throw a wrench into the best-laid plans to offer assistance.

"It is hard to say, 'Look, if you ruin this we're not going to build another one for you," Cornelius said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But they are the ones who have to make sure this thing lasts."

Africa, which is home to some of the world's most corrupt governments, already has a bad reputation for well-intentioned projects that devolve into boondoggles. Scores of half-completed irrigation pipes and roads leading nowhere are all testaments to corruption and poor judgment.

But it's not just corruption that interrupts the good deeds.

"Sometimes your plans are just scuppered if you're on a runway in the middle of nowhere and it rains," said James Lorenz, a Nairobi-based spokesman for Doctors Without Borders. "There are places with no roads, no real functioning mobile telephone network."

Conflict can add an even more treacherous dimension to an already dangerous job. In Sudan's Darfur, eight humanitarian workers were killed last month, the deadliest for aid workers there since a rebellion erupted more than three years ago. The United Nations said at least 250,000 people in Darfur who needed aid at the end of June could not be reached because of the insecurity.

Lorenz said some aid workers in eastern Congo, which remains restive despite a peace treaty that ended a series of wars elsewhere in the vast country, had taken to painting pink stripes on their cars to show they weren't part of the United Nations.

Anne Njugma, an aid worker in the Dadaab refugee camp in northeast Kenya, home to more than 100,000 Somali refugees, said having local staff is key to bridging the cultural divide.

"If you get an African volunteer it's good; a Somali is even better, and a Somali from Dadaab is the best," said Njuma, who is the coordinator of CARE International's Infant and Young Child Feeding program.

Njugma, who is Kenyan, said she has watched as refugees open up more to Somali aid workers who know their language and, in many cases, have had many of the same experiences in their native country.

Prudence Smith, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization's Roll Back Malaria initiative, also said involving local residents is vital.

"It's all very well and good to go dropping in mosquito nets (to prevent malaria), but people have to be empowered to take charge of their own development," she said.

Cornelius, of the World Bank, said the Maasai in Kajiado might have ignored the need for a fence around the $10,000 pond because they are so focused on their animals' well-being.

Even the tribe's leaders, who have an integral part in maintaining the project, were unfazed that the pond was shrinking. "Our animals are happy," said Rincho, chairman of the tribe's water committee. "So it's OK."

Cornelius said the World Bank will bring tribal leaders to see a protected cattle pond.

"You have to get a bit tough and say, 'Look, we did our part and now you have to do yours,"' Cornelius said. "And sometimes, seeing is believing."