“We have a lot of goodwill, but we still need to eat…”: Valuing Women’s Long Term Voluntarism in Community Development in Lima

Abstract

This paper focuses on recognizing the contribution made to development by grassroots women working on a voluntary basis in long term development projects. Using the example of healthcare, the paper problematizes the widespread move towards an increased reliance on voluntary and third sector provision. Drawing on literature around women's community activism, the research considers the extent to which women carrying out health promotion work in Peru have taken on this role as more than ''just voluntary work,'' highlighting their long term commitment during more than a decade of health promotion activities. The paper develops debates around the professionalization of voluntary work, particularly considering the issue of economic remuneration for health promoters, and emphasizing the gendered nature of their voluntarism; concluding by questioning the sustainability of poor women's long term, and largely unpaid, involvement as the linchpins of community development projects.Résumé Cet article met l'accent sur la reconnaissance de la contribution bénévole apportée au développement par des femmes issues du peuple sur des projets de développement à long terme. En prenant pour exemple les soins médicaux, l'article met en perspective le mouvement à large échelle vers une plus grande dépendance vis-à-vis du volontariat et de la prestation du troisième secteur. En considérant les écrits ayant pour objet l'activisme communautaire des femmes, la recherche considère à quel point les femmes prenant en charge la promotion de la santé au Pérou ont pris ce rôle plus au sérieux qu'un «simple travail bénévole», ce qui met en valeur leur engagement à long terme, durant plus d'une décennie d'activités liées à la santé et à son développement. Cet article a pour objet les débats liés à la professionnalisation du travail bénévole, particulièrement en considérant le problème de la rémunération des promoteurs de la santé, tout en mettant l'accent sur la nature sexuée de leur volontariat, en concluant sur la question de la viabilité de ces femmes pauvres à long terme et le plus souvent non payées, pilier des projets de dével-oppement de la communauté.Zusammenfassung Dieses Artikel konzentriert sich darauf, den Entwicklungsbeitrag, den einfache Frauen an der Basis durch ehrenamtliche Arbeit in langfristigen Entwicklungsprojekten leisten, zu würdigen. Anhand des Beispiels medizinische Versorgung problematisiert der Artikel den weitverbreitenden Schritt, sich stärker auf freiwillige Helfer und den dritten Sektor zu verlassen. Gestützt auf Literatur über das Engagement von Frauen für die Kommune, prüft die Forschungsarbeit, in wie weit Frauen, die gesundheitsfördernde Arbeiten in Peru ausführen, diese Rolle als mehr als''nur freiwillige Arbeit'' übernommen haben und heben deren langfristiges Engagement von mehr als einem Jahrzehnt gesundheitsfördernder Aktivitäten hervor. Der Artikel fördert die Auseinandersetzung um die Professionalisierung von ehrenamtlicher Arbeit, insbesondere unter Berücksichtigung des Problems von wirtschaftlicher Vergütun...

Who bears the cost of ‘informal mhealth’? Health-workers’ mobile phone practices and associated political-moral economies of care in Ghana and Malawi

“…This moral framing of health-workers in general, and CHWs and volunteers in particular, is also closely associated with a wider neoliberal development discourse that has long promoted ‘community participation’ and voluntarism as routes to self-reliance. This ‘sustainability doctrine’ ( Swidler and Watkins 2009 ) began to gain currency during the structural adjustment-enforced retrenchments of the 1980s/1990s, when public funding cuts shifted the financial burden for healthcare increasingly towards the private/voluntary sectors ( Molyneux 2002 ; Jenkins 2009 ). More recently, it has re-emerged in the form of ‘task shifting’, promoted by the World Health Organization as ‘ the rational redistribution of tasks among health workforce teams […] from highly qualified health - workers to health - workers with shorter training and fewer qualifications’ as a ‘ pragmatic response to health workforce shortages ’ ( WHO 2008 :3; see also Zachariah et al 2009 ).…”

Negotiating the Boundaries of Voluntarism: Values in the Indian NGO Sector

“…NGOs dealing with international donors may conceptualize voluntarism differently, but may be constrained in how it is operationalized in order to meet donor expectations. For example, Jenkins (2009) observes that despite the different context and form of labor in a Peruvian health program, the conceptualization of ''voluntarism'' meaning no or limited payment prevailed. This was despite the long hours involved for the predominately female and poor workforce, and the importance of their wages to support their family.…”

Peruvian Grassroots Organizations in Times of Violence and Peace. Between Economic Solidarity, Participatory Democracy, and Feminism

“…Still, the active members are not discouraged and continue to invest time, energy, and dedication in their associations and work as volunteers, even when this limits their income-generating possibilities. As Jenkins (2009) shows in her research on women's long-term involvement in community development in Peru, women are expected to be continuously committed to fulfilling needs, due to the absence of the state in the organization of welfare. Like the kitchen and victim-survivor organizations, however, this is based on voluntary efforts.…”