Even when a project is well designed it will encounter difficulties. It is sometimes useful to identify the most frequent ones to avoid them but it is the unexpected difficulties which may threaten the realization of the project! Do not become overcome by discouragement, but rather take this opportunity to do an objective evaluation of the situation and to determine the course of action that must be taken, benefiting from the criticisms and the difficulties.

In most cases the difficulties can be traced back to the conceptual phase of the project. The lack of global or situational analysis in society, or of the problems to be corrected often lead to a lack of relevance and to mistakes, such as: wanting to attack the effects rather than the cause, acting upon problems of secondary importance (even if they are more spectacular and get greater media coverage ) and leaving fundamental questions unanswered...

The most frequent difficulties are those that are produced as a result of the size of the project. It is either too ambitious or not ambitious enough. These kinds of estimates are difficult to make but they are absolutely indispensable in taking into account the capacity for action (the readiness of brothers and sisters involved in the project) and the financial resources available.

The time factor is without a doubt the most formidable. A project always requires more time than anticipated, because there is not only the action to carry out, there are financial and administrative management and public relations... If the project is successful it will require other interventions, a training component, media relations. A project requires more time than you could ever imagine... And if you do not have the time to deal with it, it will simply shrivel up and die. However, this should not stop anyone from wanting to begin a project, the important thing is that there be a team in place!

One of the problems related to availability is duration. It is not sufficient to launch a project, one must stay with it and see it through to maturity. There has to be a long-term commitment...but not too long. Remember a project is not the property of its founders. You have to know when to let go. You have to prepare people to take over and one day accept to leave, to mourn its disappearance from your life. This is never easy, even with the best good will in the world. We should never lose sight of the fact that the project is not there to serve our best interests, it is there to serve the poor. It might be a good time to go back and read Luke 14:7-11, about the "first and the last".

Teamwork is an absolutely fundamental element. It is important that you not want to do everything yourself, but seek out other brothers and sisters. This is where the relevancy of the OP family shows up. Working together on justice and peace can provide a marvelous opportunity to share with other branches of the Order.

For the past 32 years, the Dominican family in the Philippines has been in charge of a 100 bed hospital reserved for the poor in Manila. According to the definition of the directors, it is "a hospital with a heart and a soul, a hospital totally dependent on Providence." It all began in San Juan Convent in Manila in 1959 when one of the parlors was converted into a small hospitality room to receive the indigenous people. As the needs grew so did the hospital. Today it is a four story building with sectors for medicine, surgery, pediatrics and gynecology. From the very outset the main focus has always been on surgery, because this is "the service that is most inaccessible to the poor." The care is free of charge, but patients are invited to contribute according to their possibilities.

The hospital is directed and managed by the Dominican family, on a purely volunteer basis. Brothers, sisters (Missionaries of St. Dominic ), and laity work together and share the various tasks: pastoral ministry, accounting, care, visiting the patients... A group of physicians known as "the San Martin of Porres Group" volunteer their services to the hospital in the same spirit. The volunteers make it possible to keep the operating costs to a minimum and many donations maintain a balanced budget .

Over the years the hospital has managed to acquire some very good equipment for the exclusive use of the poor. Since 1990 a new program has been in place called "Operation Smile" consisting in free medical intervention for poor children suffering from facial malformation (harelip).

Similar places exist in Mexico, Brazil, Europe ... The Dominican family can be very creative when it comes to projects such as these.

If our actions and our words are to be consistent we must devise ways to include the beneficiaries in the management of our projects. Granted, this is not an easy task because a victim does not become someone who takes responsibility for his/her life overnight. The active participation of those directly affected in the search for viable solutions to their problems must be given top priority and be included as one of the components of the evaluation. We should not be doing "for" them, but "with" them, even if it means having to revise our strategies.

An inadequate communications policy whether it be internal or external could break the project or at least slow it down! Take the time to do a thorough job on the communications component; make the tools pleasant to look at: information booklets, explanatory leaflets, brochures... and whenever you travel be sure you have these tools with you.

The hasty or uncontrolled evolution of a project can be another source of difficulty. Beware not to go "too fast" (or worse still, "too slow"), and do not get involved in things that are too hard and complex. Try your wings first with smaller scale, less intricate projects.

Another sometimes dramatic difficulty resides in the fact that we tend to forget to include costs for depreciation and maintenance in the budget forecast and management of the project. The project will deplete itself of its funds if the costs related to the depreciation and deterioration of equipment are not provided for in the budget. Workbook #5 will offer some guidelines to help you in the planning process.

A bit of friendly advice, to conclude with. Slow changes in mentality might wear down the initiators if a justice and peace project. It's easy to let oneself be overcome by discouragement due to the fact that there are no clear indicators to measure the advancement or regression of the work of Justice and Peace. Discouragement is the worst thing that can happen, it is the most difficult of all difficulties. Therefore, we suggest that you read through this list of difficulties quickly and then forget about them, so you can be free to get on with the work at hand!

| Back | Index | Next |