Last week, HBO released a trailer for a documentary about Renne Bach. Many people were outraged by the teaser, and rightly so, because it appeared to portray Renne Bach as a victim of "good intentions gone wrong."
For those who are unfamiliar with this controversy, Renne Bach is a USA missionary who founded a non-governmental organization in Uganda called “Serving His Children” which she operated as a treatment facility despite the fact that she lacked medical experience, a medical license, and medical personnel on her staff.
The center took in 940 severely malnourished children 105 of whom died in a period of over 5 years. In all of this, Renne was lauded as a savior by the donor world and got massive donations, but to Ugandan women and families who lost their children, she is an angel of death.
This forced me to think about Malawi and its previous encounters with non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) like orphanages operated by foreigners. Especially where the existence of some of these groups has brought more harm than good. We have heard of the atrocious cases of the abuse in orphanages which went on for years and years without notice. For instance, the case at Victory Christian Home where a US missionary molested several children under his care, and a more recent case at Kondanani Children's Home. Following this, I have a sneaking suspicion that there might actually are more cases than we are led to believe, where individuals get away with malpractice.
I believe it is very easy for non-governmental organizations to get away with misconduct in Malawi as there are a lot of loopholes in the guidelines and regulations monitoring the NGOs. A Nation's newspaper article from March,2023 revealed that there are actually several unregistered non-governmental organizations operating in this country, making it much more difficult for government and other bodies (NGO Regulatory Authority) to track and supervise them.
NGO's are doing a fantastic job of relieving the government's and its resources' load, but it is still important that they are closely monitored to ensure that they benefit those they intend to serve. Particular attention should be paid to organizations that work with children and the vulnerable (i.e. children’s homes, senior homes). Doing so will encourage and increase accountability and transparency, reinforce adherence to norms and and guarantee that issues of misconduct are discovered and dealt with immediately before they cause further harm.
Remember; Good intentions are not always sufficient and do not always guarantee good deeds.
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