In this chapter of Half the Sky, you all read about an organization called Tostan, run by an American named Molly who lives in Senegal. Originally set out to educate others about the dangerous practice of FGM (female genital mutilation), her organization ran into a few barriers until she finally took a "grassroots" approach to educating others about this practice. Tostan made strides in involving the community to educate each other about the dangers of FGM without outright banning the practice. Although criticized for this approach at times, Molly found it to be more effective than laws banning FGM or awareness campaigns that came from other outside agencies. Molly's work would be considered "grassroots," coming from the bottom up. What is the difference between grassroots and treetops aid? Why does the author say grassroots is better?
In your comment, I would like you to choose an issue from a Regional Issues Paper and a solution that you found from your research. Just think of one issue, one solution. Then, I want you to examine the solution and determine whether you think it is a "grassroots" solution or a "treetops" solution and briefly explain why you think it is one or the other.
If you found it is a mostly "treetops" solution, how could it be tweaked to be more "grassroots?" How could it be more inclusive of the culture from which it comes?
In the "Gender Equality..." article, which of those solutions are more grassroots? Could any of these suggestions work to address the solution in your Regional Issues Paper?
If you want, also comment about any ways you can START a grassroots movement to address any of these issues locally. How can you be like Molly in Senegal?
In Rwanda I focused on gender equality in education. Although Rwanda has made impressive strides in the right direction towards gender equality there is still an undeniable discrepancy in the low number of girls graduating from school compared to the number of boys. Ultimately the problem stems from money or lack thereof in rural areas. Girls are forced to stay home and take care of household tasks such as farming to support the family and they miss out on the opportunity of a free education. (The 2003 Rwandan Constitution mandates that elementary schooling is free and mandatory for everyone.)
ReplyDeleteThe solution I proposed in my paper was legislation that would require the attendance and graduation rates of boys and girls to be equal. My reason for this solution is that Rwanda’s parliament is currently made up of 56% women and they have had recent success in passing laws regarding gender equality. However, after reading chapter 13 it seems that legislation is "treetop reform" which may follow the archaic methods of early heavy-handed social reformers.
The frustrating cycle of inequality in education, which was once seemingly impossible to break, is a perfect candidate for a grassroots movement. The parents of the suppressed girls need to be educated about long term monetary and social advantages of having educated children, especially girls. This may encourage parents to hire a farm-hand at home (which they may need to borrow money to pay for) in order to find a way to send all their children to school. I think a subtle way of educating the Rwandan villagers would be to encourage the parliament to send native Rwandan educators to rural areas and hold seminars that are open to the public and demonstrate the benefits of educating girls. I think Rwandan villagers would be more willing to attend such meeting if they were headed by native Rwandans. Furthermore, if donations were collected (from eager to help American) and put towards a free dinner at the meetings it would also increase attendance.
This grassroots solution is applicable in the article titled, ‘The Multiple Dimensions of Gender Equality in Education’ in all four main heading; Equality of access, Equality in the learning process, Equality of educational outcomes, and Equality of external results.
Grassroots reform has been increasingly effective since it was first practiced at the turn of the twentieth century by Progressive Social Reformers. Earlier social reformers, although well meaning, used a heavy handed approach when addressing social issues which often ended with animosity from both the reformer and the people they were trying to help. To me grassroots movements are a kind of reverse psychology in that you let people know you are not going to try and force change which usually results in them making the changes you wanted them to make by themselves. I sometimes use this technique with my 4 year old, I do not mean to say it is used to outsmart anyone or trick them into doing what you want, it is simply a means of increasing the likelihood that people will listen to your ideas and concepts. I fully support the method and think it does more than just help resolve the social issues at hand, it also establishes a basis of trust and friendship between the organizations and people in need through reciprocity. In other words it helps both the helper and the person being helped.
As an aside, anyone interested in the evolution of Grass root reformers in America may want to look at Jacob Riis (1849 -1914). He is interesting to study because not only was he a link between the working-class immigrants in New York and the upper-class Americans he was also a key component to the transition from the insensitive social reformers of the nineteenth century and modern day Grassroots Reform Organization or GRO.
From what I understood grassroots aid is someone local who doesn’t have a high position trying to help local people by spreading awareness of issues, it is starting from the very bottom and working your way up to find a solution. Treetops aid which is people that are “higher in the tree” trying to help foreign people with various issues, it is starting from the top of the problem and trying to work down. I researched women’s rights issues in Saudi Arabia and the main issue I recall learning about was women not having the right to drive. A solution to this problem is women protesting this right and fighting for it. They are speaking up by letting the kingdom know that they want this right. I see this as a grassroots solution because it is local women at the center of this issue that are doing something about it to make a change. I think that with solutions that are more treetops, we don’t see them making as big of an impact because it is not someone starting from the bottom and working their way up. We can’t expect to see changes if we expect to start from the top and look down on the problem. We have to be at where the problem is (the bottom) and keep fighting our way up no matter what kind of challenge we face along the way. I had never thought about these solutions in such a way, but I think it makes complete sense.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between grassroots and treetops aid is quite large. Being that the tops of organizations are typically run by very few people, attacking things from the top down (treetops) is usually a very ineffective type of aid. The head of these organizations are harder to make changes with. While on the other hand, when taking a grassroots approach from the bottom up people are able to make more changes affecting more people and before the people at the top notice what’s happening.
ReplyDeleteI spent time researching Cambodia, and one of the problems that I talked about was the sex trafficking/slavery. A solution that is currently starting to be enforced is more training and education for the police and officials of the country. This is definitely a treetops aid, which is also why this problem has not been significantly improved. By educating the people at the tops, there is likely to be less change rather than educating the women who are at risk of being affected. If outside people came in and began to educate the young women and girls, this aid would turn into grassroots, and has a much greater chance of changing the current sex trafficking/slavery industry.
From the article, “Gender Equality…” the solutions given are a mixture of grassroots and treetops aid. The examples that really stood out to me as being grassroots are the strategies that reach out directly to the parents and children. These solutions that directly involve the children, especially, are more effective. The solution of “reintegrate ex-combatants and other youth affected by conflict” is something that could be applied to the solution of sex trafficking/slavery of the girls in Cambodia. I think that getting the girls that have been previously affected but now have turned their lives around is a great way to inspire the other girls stuck in the horrific situations to get out and fight against what they’re involved in.
I think that community involvement is very important when trying to make a huge change, because if they community doesn't see eye to eye about the problem, there will be no resolution. Tostan was set up so that everyone, including the men had a chance to be educated about FGM and the risk factors that came along with it. As a community they started to see that FGM wasn't necessary to obtain their religious views and slowly started doing away with it. This was an example of the grassroots approach.
ReplyDeleteThe government, however, was taking more of a treetops approach where they were mandating laws to be set on these countries, and basically "telling" people what they can and can't do when it came to FGM, without educating them and without giving them a choice to make. Obviously, you can see why this approach wasn't working. Molly said that signs were hung up outside of villages that Westerner's set up, and half of the population couldn't even read it, because there was absolutely no schooling in the area.
One of the issues that is a regional issue is sex trafficking. One solution that I found and that we have read in Half of the Sky is that agencies would bust into brothels and free the girls that were being enslaved for sexual exploitation. Seeing as many of the girls returned and many of the girls didn't know what to do with their freedom, I would say that this is a treetop solution. Many of the girls in the brothels had learned to accept their destiny and the agencies trying to save them, were doing further damage. When they were presented with their freedom, most of them didn't know where to go from there, didn't know where their families were and basically didn't know how to survive. Instead, I think they girls that were rescued should have been sent to camps or safe homes and educated about the bad things that brothels are associated with, and they should have been given more life options.
In the article, I would have to say that they solutions are grassroot solutions because of the involvement of the community members. Education was given and so was the choice to make their own choice.
Grassroot is local people talking to the public about issues going around. treetop is high up people talking to the public about issues going on. Grassroot is better because the people relate to them more and they do not exactly judge them they are just trying to make it better. Rather then treetop because they are high up so the public feels more temadated by them.
ReplyDeleteFor my project I wrote about womens issues in Amsterdam. One of the topics I talked about was sex trafficing and how women are selling themselves to support their families. A way I came up with to help is by going out there and letting the public and prostitutes know there is other ways to help support your family rather than selling yourself for sex. This is an example of grassroot because it is the public people getting out there and letting them know they do not have to just turn to prostitution to support your family.
For the article, the part that stood out to me to be grassroot would be Equality of External because it is parents making sure their child gets an education. Parents are the public they are not high level people like CEO's.
I had to look up what grassroots aid was. And it said that this was when a group of people were fixing an issue in the community. I think the author says that grassroots aid is better because this aid is helping the community issues compared to worldly issues.
ReplyDeleteIn my research paper I wrote about how poor women’s health was in Bolivia. The solutions to this issue are: to educate them about the issue and also help support them with what they need. We could help with shots and also basic needs like food and water. I feel like these are both treetop aid. I feel this way since we are helping them and we are not in their area. I feel like to change to grassroots aid we would have to educate someone there and get where they want to make a difference in their community. They could ask us for help but it’s getting something started there to help better the situation.
I noticed how Molly pointed out that treetop aid did not work very well in Senegal. She would cringe to see people riding around in SUV’s, giving most of their funds to volunteers rather than the villagers who needed aid. She said that many westerners would also rant about stopping FGC without communicating with native women on why their culture practices this. Molly said that the schools and hospitals that were set up did not have a lasting effect on the residents because aid workers did not really get to know villagers and understand their culture. Molly’s program took a grassroots approach and she educated both men and women on health, hygiene, and management techniques (226). She was mindful of the culture and did her best to include men in her discussions. In my research paper I focused on Afghanistan which has a very high rate of child marriages. Girls as young as seven are married to men forty and older. Families often sell their daughters to other families to end a dispute, gain valuable items or monetary rewards. The Afghan government has passed a law that makes the minimum age a girl can get married at sixteen. However this has not curbed the high rate of child marriages. I believe that to stop child marriage people must educate both men and women, old and young on the harm of child marriage to a girl both mentally and physically. In many child marriages the girl dies in childbirth at the age of eleven or twelve because her body has not matured to the extent that she can bring a child into the world. Officials in Afghanistan need to travel into both rural and urban areas and educate people on all that child marriage entails, just as Molly’s corporation sets out to educate people on all that FGC entails. In the article “Gender Equality” what really stuck out to me are the steps teachers can take to enforce equal opportunities for both boys and girls in their classrooms. This subject related to my regional issues paper because I discussed how many girls are kept from getting an education in Afghanistan while boys are entitled to an education. During my research I found that many girls are threatened or assaulted if they do try to get an education. In the “Gender Equality” article it suggested having officials who monitor pupils coming to class to make sure they are safe on their way to school. I also thought it was a good idea to watch the behavior of teachers in their classrooms to make sure they are giving equal treatment to both their boy and girl students.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between grassroots and treetops aid is the where the majority of the aid is aimed at. In treetops aid, a problem is addressed by going straight to the top i.e. making laws, starting campaigns, and educating government officials and leaders on the issue. Grassroots aid starts at the bottom and works its way up; it targets the people that are affected by a particular problem and seeks to bring awareness and education, allowing the people to form their own opinions and ideas on the issue. With grassroots aid, it is the people affected by the problem that will eventually rise up and demand recognition of an issue by their government because they have been educated on the issue and have formed their own solution to the problem. I believe that the author says that the grassroots approach is better because it is a widely more accepted approach by the people aid groups are trying to help. This is because grassroots aid does not come in shouting "Stop what you're doing! It's wrong!", but instead seeks to educate on an issue or issues and help people to understand why they should want to stop a particular practice or change their way of thinking.
ReplyDeleteIn my regional issues paper, I covered Thailand and the issues facing women there. Two major problems were forced/arranged marriages and human trafficking. These issues are closely linked, and because of this the solution that addressed one issue inherently addressed the other. The Foundation for Women in Bangkok is an organization that promotes anti-trafficking activities and provides legal advocacy and support for women who are, or wish to, pursue legal cases against the perpetrators of these crimes. The foundation has drafted a bill against trafficking women and children (which includes forced marriages) and seeks to empower women through education, legal persecution of offenders, and helping victims to find jobs or learn trades. In my opinion, the foundation has both a grassroots and treetops approach to aid. While the foundation does go to the ‘treetops’ to form new laws and promote court cases, it also stays at the ‘grassroots’ by empowering victims to be a part of the legal process, educating them on their rights, and helping them to find economic stability.
While researching women’s issues in Ukraine I was surprised to find the uncommonly high rates of HIV and AIDS infections in the country amongst its female population. The country has been working on a national level to decrease the rates of new infections as well as increase the number of women receiving adequate treatment through both treetop and grassroots programs. They primary examples of grassroots programs that are helping are women’s sex education courses, clean needle programs, and free condom programs. These maintain their status as grassroots programs because they were started within communities by the community members.
ReplyDeleteThese issues are already being addressed through the many education programs that exist within the country including the national recognition that the problems exist and the incorporation of international programs with organizations like UNAIDS and the Global Fund to Fight Aids.
Treetops and Grassroots solutions are very much opposite solutions to the same problems. Treetop solutions take place at the highest and most impersonal level, whereas grassroots solutions take place at the local, personal level and aim to directly influence those who are personally affected by a specific problem.
ReplyDeleteFor my regional issues paper, I wrote about gender-based discrimination in Sierra Leone and the affect that this discrimination has had on women's safety, health, and education. Sierra Leone has the fourth highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with 1,800 deaths for every 100,000 births. It is important to keep in mind that Sierra Leone is also one of the poorest countries in the world, with 52.9 percent of its population living in poverty. Because of these shocking statistics, Sierra Leone's government implemented a program called the Free Healthcare Initiative. This program provides drugs and medical attention for women in every public health facility in the country for free. While this program has had a positive impact on maternal death rates, the changes have not been as dramatic as one might think. This is because while women do have access to public health facilities, these facilities are often ill-equipped and ill-staffed due to lack of funding. This, along with various other holes in the program, have made a potentially life-changing program rather disappointing.
The Free Healthcare Initiative is what our book would define as a “treetops” solution. This is because, while the intentions for this program are positive, there are no people at the “grassroots” level to support the program due to lack of funding, lack of local involvement, and lack of monitoring. It isn't enough to state that something will change. It takes the participation and motivation of all members of a society to truly make change happen. This is why our book describes the efforts of grassroots solutions as being better. The various factors that might stand in the way of this change (cultural beliefs, customs, dynamics) need to shift in a way that makes these programs successful, and this often has to take place at a personal and local level. This is really difficult to achieve, especially when considering the financial state of Sierra Leone. I think the efforts of a grassroots solution require the help of local men and women who want to help those around them. Those individuals who are inclusive and familiar with a culture are more likely to relate to and have an impact on their audience.
In the “Gender Equality” article, I believe that equality in the learning process is more focused on grassroots efforts than the other dimensions, which seem like products of this learning process. This is because each of the interventions listed seem to be early interventions in the large-scale plan of equality in education. I'm not entirely sure though, as most of these dimensions featured interventions that seemed like they came along later in the life of an organization.
Grassroot organizations and movements start small and pertain/relate to the community in which they start in. They are normally made up of volunteers and local individuals and deal with issues directly effecting their community and are normally from a lower income base. Tree top people are the wealthy individuals that are out of touch with the average individual.
ReplyDeleteIn my study of Romania one issue that stands above for women is education and the ability to afford it. This topic also relates to moral & cultural issues as prolonged schooling and lack of income during have an adverse effect on the family. Another problem is that many Romanian women don't correlate education with higher income, just higher debt. The solution to this issue starts with the Romanian government. Many Romanians that do get a higher education are forced to leave Romania to find work creating a "brain drain" in Romania. Even though the government of Romania is no longer labeled as a communist government they still have a lot of development to accomplish internally to entice individuals to stay and create jobs or get larger corporations to move in. This influx in jobs may make education more of a possibility. This would definitely need to be a treetop movement as large reform in the country, as mentioned above, would need to happen to possibly solve this issue.
Trying to use a treetop type of solution would be much less effective than a grassroots solution. A grassroots solution would be one in which the people who the solution would affect more are the ones who do much if not all of the work, like a lot of the micro-lending cases we talked about. A treetop solution is one instituted and maintained by an outside source, often wealthy. Part of the reason a grassroots solution would work better, is that it shows the women that they can change things themselves, instead of relying on others.
ReplyDeleteOne issue that occurs in Nigeria is that they have very poor maternal mortality rates. I suggested the solution of teaching people to teach. While this starts out as a bit of treetop method, because it has to be instituted by the outside source. However, once some of the local women have learned about how to maintain safe delivery conditions, they can begin educating their peers, which makes the majority of this solution a grassroots solution
According to my research of women in China, an issue that I would like to talk about is Chinese women are hard to be employed. The law states that pregnancy women cannot be fired and must be paid even though they are not working. As a result, companies don't want to hire women who are married but don't have children. Women's abilities are denied is another reason of women are hard to find a job. The solutions are improve the policies, men should be responsible to housework as well, educate both men and women that everyone is equal. I think the second solution is a treetops solution. The first one and the third one are grassroots solution, because they change people's minds and educate people. Once people's minds are changed, women will be easier to find a job.
ReplyDeleteGrassroots aid is when you have not high up powerful people who can make a law work on this. It starts with people who tell other people and it gets higher and higher. With the treetops aid is when the higher up people come in and make laws.
ReplyDeleteIn my paper I researched about Russia and some of the problems women were having. One of the issues I found was domestic abuse. In Russia there are several different shelters that can help these women from being abused from their work to even being abused at home by their husbands. I think this would be a treetop solution because the government is stepping in to give these women shelters. If it was started from grassroots, then it would come from a women who was abused and then told other friends who came together and built a support group. After that it would grow bigger and bigger. I think the authors says that grassroots is better is because you are starting from the community instead of a larger area. I think it is best to start at a small area and then work to get a bigger area.
Grassroot is defiantly a strong way to approach issues because of the first hand issue experience. However, although criticized, treetop approach is necessary because of the economic ties it posses.
ReplyDeleteThe region I researched was Ecuador. This countries economic instability, and the strong cultural beliefs of the indigenous people have caused a high infant mortality rate and harm to mothers. The country drew up legislation to force these tribes to have a more "traditional birth" which would
include modern technology , like a hospital or even midwives. The indigenous women have some birth rituals which includes standing up and giving birth.
I think the approach to solving this issue was more of a treetop one. My thinking is that government legislation will always be treetop because it's the top. The new law does include provisions that allow indigenous women to keep birth customs but just in a more safe manner. So I do think the solution is inclusive of the culture.
Grassroot aid is coming for someone within the community to aid that same community in change where treetop aid is having an outside source like the UN come down onto a community and post laws or rules. Grassroot aid is viewed better because it is more accepted from the people of the community if it is coming from someone of that community. Treetop aid is not viewed as the better approach because it is an outside source telling people what to do and we all know if you tell someone to do something, they will do the opposite. In my regional issues paper I wrote a possible solution for FGM in Somalia would be to have them adopt some human rights movements similar to ours in the United States. Now after reading chapter 13 I see that my solution is very similar to the one given in the book that has been making progress in stopping FGM. Even though my solution is almost identical to the one created by Molly,my solution would only be considered a treetop because unlike Tostan's approach, I would have an outsider educating the community instead of a person from that community educating their community. To make my solution into a grassroot I would have someone from the community like Molly, educate her community and from that newly gained knowledge, make their own choices whether or not they want to adapt some of our Human Rights. Now the complication or problem to this would be finding someone of the community who would be willing to learn and then educate their community. I would like to believe that there is a Molly in every community, but finding that person might be harder then we would like to think.
ReplyDeleteThe grassroot approach was discussed in my small group discussion in a previous class when we were given a problem "women not being valued as much as men" and had to come up with a solution. I remember that my group decided that on a grassrrot approach even though we did not know what that was at the time. Our solution was to empower a community with education to young boys. This way, we would break the cycle of negative connotation against women. My group decided that the idea of women not being valued was a cycle that must of started at a young age for boys. The only way to break this cycle was to start at the "root" of the problem, which was the young boys. We needed to change the way they think, but that could not be done by an outsider. It had to start with someone in their community, in this circumstance probably an adult male educating them on gender equality would start to break the cycle. it makes more sense after reading this chapter as to why grassroot approaches are effective.
Grassroots aid is when you're working you're way from the very bottom (roots), to the top to a solution. The grassroots start with more of a community-based individual, working their way to the top to solve a problem. Rather than the treetops, are already at the top (top of the tree-treetop), wealthy yet not containing a lot of workers or helpers/volunteers, and working their way to the bottom. These two aids are as you can say, night and day. Two completely different approaches, but with the same purpose and solution to work towards in mind.
ReplyDeleteWhile I researched Afghanistan, I saw that women's education is a big issue in their country. I found there were two solutions to giving Afghan women a better education. One solution was to build more schools, in closer and more populated local villages. The few schools that were in the region were far and not easy to travel to. So building more schools in closer villages would help women get more of an education because it's less of a hassle and travel to get there. Another solution to that was to send groups of women who were educated in specific skills or subjects, to start groups and teach women about those specific skills or subjects those women were trained in. For example, women who really knew how to handle finances or sew, would go teach women who did not have those skills, so they could gain those skills. The teachable, would teach the unteachable/uneducated.
I think that the solution of building more schools would be considered "treetops aid". I think this because to build a school in a low income region such as Afghanistan would take some pretty wealthy, upper-class men/government to do so. You'd be starting at the top, to those who can make this possible, and make your way down to the bottom to help those women get a better education.
I think the solution to sending out teachable groups would be considered "grassroots aid". I think this because we'd be starting with smaller groups, people who are willing to aid other women. We are starting from the bottom, and working our way to the top to bring these women to more successful, educated lives.
I chose to study women's issues in Afghanistan and one organization that I think has been very effective with raising awareness and developing programs to help women is RAWA,the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. The organization was started by an Afghan woman who was eventually assassinated for her work. The organization has helped girls attend school, women to receive basic healthcare, and raise awareness of social issues women face. I think they are so successful because it is an organization born from that country and is ran by local people. The grassroots effort has been very successful because RAWA takes culture into consideration when making plans and since they are ran by locals they have a much more deeper desire to help their own people.
ReplyDeleteGrassroots level is localized efforts to solve a social issue and is most successful because it works with the people and helps them based on their specific needs taking into account their culture, location, etc. Treetop efforts come from the outside and usually involve non-native people who have lofty ideas that don't always align with the groups they are working with. I think both are important and if they work together more than they could be even more successful. Large outside sources can help support local aid programs to see the most benefit.
I chose to do my Regional Issues paper on Women's Issues in India. One topic that I focused on was prenatal care for women in India and healthcare in general. The approach that I think would best fit this is a very "grassroots" approach. I believe that a lot of women in India simply don't know how important it is to get medical care before they have children to detect any problems that might arise. While there are very few hospitals and clinics in some of the more poor parts of India, the women should still try as hard as possible to get some treatment before they give birth. I think that if more women knew how critical prenatal care could be to their baby's (and their) health, they would be more likely to seek a doctor. We just need to get some people out there on the ground telling women the dangers of delaying medical care when they are pregnant, or healthcare in general. If women knew how much it could help them to receive medical treatment before anything gets bad, I think they would be more likely to seek it out.
ReplyDeleteGrassroots aid can be seen as coming from the people. It is that aid from people like you and I, people who see an issue that generally affects a disadvantaged group and take initiative to be a voice for this group. The part that makes it "grassroots" is that this initiative starts from the bottom with little to no clout from policy makers and works its way up by enlisting those very people that are most affected by this issue and working with them to put a solution into action. The treetops approach to aid, while well meaning, is more of a topical solution. Generally, treetops aid comes from those who do no more than to say "Don't do this anymore" but don't invest the man power or time into providing a viable solution. Kristof says that grassroots is better because they involve "local ownership" while incorporating and modifying treetops efforts to create more effective models and solutions.
ReplyDeleteIn my Regional Issues paper, one of the issues I focused on was the lack of trained medical staff in (especially rural) Mexico. A solution to this was a Boston hospital partnering in a project that enlisted medical students who provided usually a year of service to the population of this community. Besides providing medical services, they also educate the community on a variety of topics such as preventive care, domestic violence and infant care. If I had to choose one, I would say this is closer to a grassroots approach than treetops because it involves providing education to the community and involving them in the solution. By educating, they are providing a tool for the community to break the cycle of abuse, maternal mortality rate, disease, etc. I think it's definitely possible to make this even more grassroots by enlisting medical students from within Mexico itself. A mentoring program between Mexico's medical schools and its secondary schools would be a partnership that would allow the younger generation to see how they can be a part of a solution within their own home and provide a new crop of health care professionals that might have a better chance of staying within the country after their studies are completed.
In the "Gender Equality..." article, I think the solutions that are the most grassroots are those that address equality of access. It definitely starts from the ground up by making sure schools are located near children's homes, raising the awareness of the importance of an education within the home (to the parents) and providing scholarships that encourage better attendance as well as lessen the financial burden that an education can bring upon a family. These solutions are definitely aimed at working directly with the community, not simply saying what parents should be doing but giving them the means to help to provide this to their children.
Grassroots is the common people at a local level trying to make a difference for themselves and those around them with the same social status, where treetop ais is starting at the top of the problem and working down to solve the problem. In my regional issues paper I talked about how lanuage was a barrier to women and education. Portuguese is the official languagein Angola but Angola has six national languages that the majority of rural people speak,only 10% of the women speak Portuguese, and that is the language used in instruction women are limited on their educational opportunities. One of the solutions to this problem wold be to have the instructional materials printed in the different lanuages of the region. This could be a grassroots movement.
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ReplyDeleteGrassroots is when local people talk to the public about an issue that is going on and kind of take matters into their own hands. Treetop is people from high up talk to the public about the issue. Grassroots is better because the local people probably have had a personal experience with the issue and can relate more and sympathize. With treetop you have people from higher up with money and power, which can be a little intimidating and sometimes you (the public) think to yourselfs, you don't know whats "actually" going on. for my project I wrote about women getting raped, more specifically, the New Dehli college student who was raped and murdered. An example of a grassroots organization would have been the college students and there many protests. They were local students who wanted the injustices to end. The large amount of them grabbed the attention of the public and the higher ups. a treetop from that would be the higher ups (law-makers) who set in affect new laws, for example, the one that identified stalking as a crime. They are still trying to define rape and make more laws accordingly.
ReplyDeleteOne of the issues in Afghanistan is violence. There is an extreme amount of violence that causes many other issues in Afghanistan as well. The violence that occurs in Afghanistan are types of violence that we would never imagine in the United States. For example, one women had her nose and ears cut off by her husband because she tried running away from her abusive in-laws. There are a few agencies and ministries for women's rights and empowerment in Afghanistan that could be a possible solution for the extreme violence. Some of these agencies include the Ministries of Women's Affairs, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Education, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commissions. Hopefully these agencies along with other solutions will cause the amount of violence in Afghanistan to decrease tremendously. I believe that these agencies and ministries are in between grasstop and treetop solutions. These agencies seem like they are well known and are high up there. They most likely started off as a grasstop solution but are eventually turning in to a treetop solution. When these issues in Afghanistan start decreasing and these agencies start making a big difference, they will become a treetop solution. There is at least one solution to every problem but and can't give up on these issues.
ReplyDeleteOne of the issues in sub Saharan Africa is maternal and infant mortality. The rate of women and babies that die as a result of inadequate health care is astronomical. A Grassroots movement would not only raise awareness of the issue on the inside but it will empower and educate the community on health care, prenatal care and health in general. There would have to be some treetop intervention, to pick up where the community may lack but after doing the research it is clear that there would be a major benefit to both a grassroots and treetop movement in sub Saharan Africa.
ReplyDeleteAn issue in China was a historical belief of what a woman is. She is evil or devilish. Adam Sandler made a movie in the late 90s or early 00s called, "The Waterboy". The main character, played by Adam Sandler, was a waterboy that ultimately wanted to play football. Long story short his mother told him that football was evil. Matter of fact, she said everything or everybody that she didn't approve of was the devil. I know I'm being silly mentioning this comical movie, but this is how some people feel and teach others to believe for generations and generations. To me for someone to see others or everything to be evil or the devil makes me believe they have some serious issues. Not the so called evil or devilish people. So a grassroots solution would be to treat everyone the way I want to be treated. Show love to people that may not like me for whatever reason they may have. (they're probably lacking love so they need it) I will treat everybody right, I'll guard that and remain conscious of that because someone's life depends on it. Peace
ReplyDeleteGrass roots aid is an organization that is built from the ground up. It really focuses on getting to the individual person first then focusing on the larger population. Treetop aid focuses first on reaching many people and not helping the individual person. Grassroots is a better option, according to the author, because it helps more then the treetop. Grassroots starts small and at the bottom because it can grow and be so much more. Treetop aid does not grow. It is what it is. Treeetop aid cannot grow and change with what the people may need.
ReplyDeleteIn my issues paper on of my issues was female genital cutting. One of the solutions that was tried was educating the men. I believe this is a grassroots movement because they are reaching individuals. Doctars in clinics talk go out and talk to the men because the culture deams then the head of the house hold. Women arentaught to follow the mens lead sonif they are told by their hisbands not to participate in this horrible act then the women are may listen to their husbands more then poster or aid workers.
There is a huge difference in the Treetop approach vs the grass roots solutions. The Treetop approach is very impersonal and is to me more like giving money instead of becoming deeply involved. Where as Grassroots deal with the personal deep root of the problem, where it begins and more involved in a personal sense.
ReplyDeleteFor my regional issues paper I focused on issues in India, more specifically the issue I would like to talk about ios gender selective abortions. To me the best example would be how the government banned the abortions, however they were still going on. There is a group of women who were going around and pretending like they needed an ultrasound to have a gender selective abortion. Those doctors who agreed would be sent under investigation. The women who did this were not hired by the government they just did this because it was an issue that hit home and was a huge problem in their lives and their peers lives.
In the “Gender Equality” article, I believe that equality in the learning processes focused more in the grassroots sense. I think that making it clear that education is important and helping the parents understand that, and providing schools closer to home will make that possible. This sort of goes along with the issue from mt paper dealing with gender selective abortions. If awareness is raised on how important education can be then perhaps the parents will stop being selective.