On April 12th, Cassidy Troy and I hosted our first ever dialogue session, entitled “Poverty Porn.” The dialogue focused on misconceptions about poverty in developing countries and how best to help these countries through service projects and volunteer work.
The dialogue began after the monthly Honors meeting. Everyone who attended was given two sticky notes and asked to write the first word that came to mind when they heard the words “poverty” and “service.” After the dialogue, these words were used as a jumping-off point for a brief reflection session. After placing the sticky notes on the board, we addressed common myths about developing countries and poverty, such as lack of resources, food shortages, foreign aid, and more.
A lot of people came out for the dialogue. Cassidy and I put a lot of work into creating it, and were really glad that there was a nice turnout. We tried to take a very serious subject and make it a bit more lighthearted, while still making clear the consequences of believing “poverty porn.” We learned a lot while planning the dialogue, and hopefully we passed some of that knowledge on to the others honors students. I really hope to do more dialogues and reflections in the future, and inspire others to reevaluate their service projects so that they help, and don’t hurt, the people they are trying to aid.