Twinning between affluent and poor villages

Mary Williams

From a letter to the Institute.

On the principle that small is not only beautiful but also much more manageable, I would like to suggest a small way of helping with world problems.

Twinning, at present, is generally between towns of the more affluent countries, eg Tunbridge Wells is twinned with Wiesbaden. It seems to consist in many instances of junketings between the great and the good of those places, although doubtless it produces some social benefit too.

'People can relate much more easily to helping on a small scale, where they can personally identify with others'

How about a twinning system between towns and villages here and those in developing countries? People can relate much more easily to helping on a small scale, where they can personally identify with others. Oxfam now works with many small-scale projects and finds them highly successful.

'Compassion fatigue' sets in, even among the kindest, when there are so many calls to help: Somalia and Bosnia are only two of the urgent cases clamouring for aid. But a small viilage in need somewhere could be supported by a community here, morally as well as financially, with benefits to both participants. Could it be tried?

I'd like to help if such a project ever got off the ground.

Mary Williams, 12 Weigall Road, Lee, London SE12 8HE

Editorial Response

I once suggested (in the first edition of 'How to Save the World', published by The Fourth World Trust, 1982) that the EC and USA allocate to every village and neighbourhood within their areas a twin village in the Third World. I even managed to persuade Action Aid to try a few such Community Links; and for instance, Neal's Yard Wholefood Warehouse, a business in Covent Garden, adopted an Indian village as a result; but the Community Links programme did not seem to have quite the emotional appeal of Action Aid's adoption scheme, where you adopt a particular child in the Third World. There were one or two community link projects that were flourishing independently, however, such as between Bishopston in Bristol and K. V. Kuppham in India.

The best approach might be simply to go ahead with your immediate neighbourhood in Lee and find a place overseas that you would like to adopt and try to set the link up as a model that others can adopt.

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