Meredith Walker’s Photos from Malawi

Priorities. They are sometimes easy to figure out, but many times they give us choices that seem to compete for what we would consider best. They become difficult for us personally, and feel even more difficult for us as a community, or a nation, or if we look far enough, they make the whole world a place to fight over priorities. Tough choices seem to just keep coming.

Let me be more personal and specific too. Right now I am traveling as a guest of the One Campaign and Heifer International. Looking them up will tell you more than this space about what they care about and how they go about that caring. I am with a group of people who are in Malawi looking over some of the projects funded partly by Heifer International’s donors. Some of the programs are also funded by the US. We are seeing economic progress in a part of the world that often has seen far too little of that. We are seeing lives of everyday people changed for the better, in developing sources of income, sustaining food for families, and building self-reliance. In fact, I wish that everybody I know could have the opportunity to see what I am seeing, hear what I am hearing, and know what good is taking place here for generations to come.

That’s where the question of priorities comes in. Some people have asked why we are doing this in places like Malawi, when there are so many needs in our own country? Why are we using taxpayer money to do work so far away from us, instead of rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure? I think the term “instead of” is where we need to have a conversation. Our infrastructure is in real need of repairing, replacing, and offering our people the safety and confidence they deserve. But, I don’t believe we need to do one thing instead of another, when that other requires so much less funding and produces such progress far and above what funding it does take. We are great and caring people, and we always have been when at our best. We are the people the rest of the world looks to for leadership, and that leadership is never best exercised in isolation. We need to make sure our bridges and roads and all the other things that are part of the vital infrastructure of our country are safe and secure. And we need to show others what can be done when we put our minds and hearts to it. We don’t just feel sorry for somebody else, we roll up our sleeves, and yes, take some of our money, to offer the kind of example of leadership that others can join. When we help make other lives better, that makes the world around us better. Being part of making the world better is a spectacular goal, even when our part is just a small one in a remote place. The human faces are as close as we are capable of feeling.

I am not just being romantic here, I am able to see what wisely used funds from the United States of America can accomplish. Enlivened women, working farms, community — I am convinced that we are strong enough to do both and that should be our priority.

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Meredith Walker is the co-founder of Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. She is a television producer, mentor, public speaker and advocate for Smart Girls everywhere. You can follow her on Twitter at @meredeetch.