CHAPTER FOURTEEN

MALAWI’S ORPHANS: CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN RELATION TO HUMANITARIANISM, COMPASSION, AND CHILDCARE

Andrea Freidus1

My first reaction is the feeling of helplessness, and hopelessness. Seeing so many eyes of the orphans, innocent and pure makes me feel a little over- whelmed…Poverty and HIV/AIDS, malaria, are now all over southern Africa… Without a heart of compassion and love, without a true passion in helping and offering could not do this. So I give more credit to her now than before, and I see this as a gift to rather than a tool of celebrity propaganda. —MSU undergraduate after viewing Madonna’s documentary on Malawi.

As an assignment for a women’s studies undergraduate course, students viewed the film “.” Produced by Madonna to raise awareness about her organization, , it focuses on the situa- tion of orphans and AIDS in Malawi. Students were asked to respond to the content of the documentary including their perceptions of orphans in Malawi, their overall reaction, and the film’s impact on their desire to be connected or involved with these issues. The above quote is one of many that captures the ability of humanitarians and the organizations they sup- port to use the media to foster an emotional response. This response is based on the recognition of a common humanity and the need to address suffering. The student’s reaction highlights the power of the image of the orphan to bring about a sense of compassion drawing on the innocence of children. Nearly all students in the course were ‘moved’ by the images of the sick and dying AIDS patients, the orphans left behind, and the overall poverty evident in the film. Madonna’s documentary is also effective in framing the situation of orphans as an emergency placing it within a humanitarian response

1 A Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship funded this research I would like to thank Anne Ferguson and Bill Derman for their guidance during the fieldwork that went into this project. Finally, I am especially grateful to Daimon Kambewa, Bunda College, and the innumerable Malawians who graciously hosted me and participated in this work. 304 andrea freidus matrix. This crisis rhetoric and its subsequent humanitarian call to action are exemplified in the story Madonna tells. Victoria Keelan, a local Malawian, called Madonna pleading for assistance saying that there are over a million children orphaned by AIDS. Victoria says that there are not enough orphanages, and children are sleeping on the streets, in aban- doned buildings, and under bridges. Children are being abducted, kid- napped and raped. We are told, “this is a state of emergency”. Madonna is elevated to the position of humanitarian who believes she is capable of and required to make a difference, despite having limited knowledge about Malawi, orphans, or AIDS. This belief materialized in the creation of her NGO, Raising Malawi, and the orphan projects she funds and imple- ments. Madonna is not alone. Innumerable others have followed suit. This chapter focuses on orphan care associated with western-directed humanitarian interventions. I present an analysis of the particular images and discourses revolving around orphans in Malawi produced by NGOs used to generate a global response predicated on a moral imperative to bring relief to those facing a crisis. I focus on images and discourses because they are both a means to legitimate NGO responses as well as serve as an indicator of the logic that frames NGOs activities (Manzo 2008). I examine the rise of a particular type of humanitarian—the “lay” humanitarian (Hefferan 2009). These are individuals or groups, many of whom are enthralled by global images and discourses of orphans, that cre- ate or become involved with orphan projects despite having no training or limited knowledge concerning humanitarianism, childcare or develop- ment. Many of these individuals are professionals in other areas whose involvement with these projects occurs during their free or volunteer time. I begin with a brief overview of the development of humanitarianism and explore the emergence of what Hefferan (2009) notes are “ordinary” citizens becoming humanitarians, development workers, coordinators, and funders. I argue that lay humanitarians occupy a unique position within the larger field of humanitarianism. They are in contrast to previ- ous and current waves of professionalization and institutionalization of humanitarianism (Barnett 2005). These lay humanitarians are quite differ- ent than those associated with the professionalization of humanitarian- ism that has been occurring since the 1990s. While humanitarian work has become a highly specialized enterprise, where technical, medical, legal, and economic knowledge combined with experiences and familiarity with emergencies have evolved into sub specializations required in the expanding humanitarian industry (Barnett 2005), I demonstrate that lay humanitarians are also a part of the burgeoning humanitarian machinery.