WEBVTT - Barbie Savior 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.400 What you hear in this podcast does not implicate any 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.840 individual or entity in any criminal activity. The views and 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.119 opinions are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast. 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.440 Previously on The Missionary, I'm going to come and do 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:15.880 my own thing so i can be my own boss 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.880 and run my own show. That was very, very very 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.640 much a trend and a lot of my years of blogging. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.560 I was young and I wanted to share life can 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.280 look so different than what I thought it looked like 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.720 as a girl from a rural town in America. White 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.920 people fetishize black suffering or like get off on black software, 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:39.640 like seeing those pictures of those like malnourished Ugandan babies. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.080 People love that ship. You don't get to place yourself 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.400 in an e er. And then claim was an emergency. 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.080 She wasn't a good Samaritan, she was a fraud. Yeah, 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.120 because I didn't read the papers. I just listened to 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.839 what I was told. And if that was an oversight 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.800 by our nurses, then I was an oversight. Not to 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.760 cast any blame. It's not about saving kids. It's about 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.600 you being someone who shade these kids. That's what this 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:05.760 is about. You don't know anything You're just such a 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:07.640 new me, you know, so definitely a part of me 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.680 thinks like, oh, come on, Jackie, like bless your heart. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:19.520 There's a photo on Instagram that you might have seen, 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.280 might have even liked. It's a Barbie Doll wearing a 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.360 white coat, standing in front of a hospital with a 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.960 little black baby doll in one hand and a pink 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.720 stethoscope in the other. The caption reads, there are no 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:37.639 trained medical professionals or hospitals in Africa, so I'm drawing 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:39.880 on my vast amount of knowledge to cure and heal 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:44.399 those around me. It was posted by Barbie Savior, a 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.560 satirical profile that documents the adventures of a Barbie Doll 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.919 following her calling in Africa, holding little black baby dolls 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.080 in her arms, tattooing a map of Africa on her chest, 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:59.320 banging on drums in a far flowing village. The account 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.880 has a hundred and fifty followers. We didn't do any promotion. 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.640 We just started posting stuff and within the first few 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.920 weeks it started going viral and then kept getting picked up, 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.800 and it was very clear that we had struck a nerve. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.600 That's Emily Warrel, one of the co founders of the account. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:23.040 What people assume with Barbie Saviors that we were trying 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.400 to like solve something, and that was the opposite of 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.520 what we were trying to do, Like we were just 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.320 trying to process what we had experienced. The other co 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:38.880 founder you might actually recognize, Yeah, that's Jackie Kramlick, the 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.160 same nurse that saved Patricia's life. Some of the first 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:46.600 ones were honestly straight up mocking Renee, because the one 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.720 where Marbie's like getting on an airplane, that's like getting 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:56.920 backrup with how Renee leaving for you got. Barbie Saviors 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.080 started out almost as therapy for Jackie and Emily, a 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.680 way to event the endless frustrations of life in Ginger. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:08.560 This culture of anything goes as long as you are 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.600 trying to make a difference. You are put on a 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:18.960 high pedestal and respected and unquestioned, and when you're in 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.160 your early twenties, that's like a drug. Emily was an 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.360 archetype of the Ginger missionary, a twenty something white woman 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.400 from the States who came to Uganda with good intentions, 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.480 the support of folks back home, and the dream of 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.920 running her own ngo. You get praised for what you're doing. 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:36.880 You get put on this pedestal, you get all this 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.240 respect and like your your brain hasn't even formed yet. 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.760 But after a few years of running a charity for 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:48.480 children with disabilities, Emily became another archetype, the ex missionary 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.080 who crawled out of the cave and tried to coax 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.080 the rest of her friends to come out too. And 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.040 so that realization that maybe you shouldn't have started an 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.839 NGO was that all of a sudden or a slow realization. 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.400 It was more of a slow realization. Um, But then 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.840 all of a sudden it was kind of like, can 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:12.160 I cuss on this? We encourage it? I got a funk. 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:16.800 What have I done? Basically, so, I think pieces were 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.120 chipped off over time, and then there wasn't like one 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:24.719 incident or one like aha moment. It was just coming 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.359 to terms with the fact that something I had built 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:32.400 my life around was not something I believed in. Her 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.719 transformation came in the mid twenty a time when young 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:40.320 Christian missionaries were arriving in ginger In Mats You reversibly 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.359 changing the face of this once tight knit community. I 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.359 understood why Emily recoiled from it, because the deeper I 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.760 got into the missionary world, the clearer it became that 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.760 Renee wasn't just a fluke. There was a whole industry 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:00.200 of mission trips, evangelical politics, and international aids were rolling 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:04.440 around Ginger. All those things came together in what seemed 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:08.320 like a perfect storm to create someone like Renee and 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:13.760 eventually tear this community apart from within this ship. No, 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.880 it was just something I had never seen before, and 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:21.520 honestly like something I still failed to put words to. 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:26.880 It was just such a bizarre random events that led 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.279 to what seemed like a catastrophic breakdown of an entire 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.240 community that was supposed to have each other's backs. It 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:39.360 was just, honestly like mean girls on steroids. In association 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:43.640 with I Heeart Media, I'm ROGI GOA, I'm helm CONDI, 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.400 I'm Malcolm Burnley and this is the Missionary Episode five 0:05:49.040 --> 0:06:05.320 Barbie Savior. In s a Baptist minister named William Carey 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.120 published a book titled An Inquiry into the Obligations of 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.280 Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.599 That obligation was the Great Commission, summed up best in 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:24.000 the Book of Matthew Chapter verse nineteen. Therefore go and 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.960 make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.560 of the Father, and of the Son and of the 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:35.240 Holy Spirit. William Carey is considered the godfather of the 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.520 modern missionary movement, and his book was the manual for 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.080 generations of missionaries setting off from Europe to the uncharted 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:48.039 continents full of so called savages and nonbelievers. It's said 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.359 that in those days, missionaries packed their clothes in a 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:56.200 coffin and never expected to return home. That's because the 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.279 story of Christianity of Jesus and his followers is one 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.719 of martyrdom of believers so faithful that they were willing 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.400 to give their lives in service of the Lord. It 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:12.120 was even written in Philippians Chapter two. Have the same 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.720 mindset as Christ. Jesus he humbled himself by becoming obedient 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:21.560 to death, even death on a cross. There were a 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.480 few places a missionary could put their faith to the test, 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.360 like Africa. So many died there and en route that 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:33.000 it became known as the white Man's Graveyard. Someone who 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.360 really feels that they've heard God's voice might talk about 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:38.960 it as a call. It implies, and I think it 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:40.840 often is the case that it's not something that I 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.680 went around and studied or planned, or you know, I 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.920 didn't necessarily go to college and learn all the languages. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.080 I just felt it. That's Dr Melanie McAllister. She's a 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.680 professor at George Washington University and the author of The 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.080 Kingdom of God. Has no borders about the role that 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.080 missionaries play in the modern world. And this is a 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.920 language that says, this is not just about me wanting 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.560 an adventure. This is about me feeling God's action in 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.240 my life. I'm doing this by virtue of a fourth 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.800 grader than me. But Dr McAllister says that the way 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:18.160 missionaries answer that calling has changed a lot in the 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.600 last fifty years. There was a transformation and how missionary 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:27.440 work happened really beginning in the sixties. With the increase 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:32.000 in flights and the lowering of costs of flights, people 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.680 were able to go for shorter periods of time and 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.120 get there more quickly. Nowadays, any teenager can hop on 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.839 a plane, travel halfway around the world with their church, 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.960 build a school, take some photos, and come home with 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.280 stories to tell. What used to be a life's work 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.439 was now a spring break tour package. It was now 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.880 a multibillion dollar industry selling a shortcut to righteousness to 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:00.959 nearly two million people a year. Kurt Verbeek is a 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.240 professor at Calvin University. He spent the last twenty years 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:09.360 studying this stuff. How it's sold is often that this 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.120 is risky, and you know, going to put your face 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.960 to a challenge, and you're going to go and share 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:25.840 the gospel, and there's this chance for God to use 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:30.120 this to do great things. It was the same language 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.440 that was used to recruit long term missionaries, and it 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.760 was now targeted at teenagers. In a sense, these short 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.719 trips were a form of role playing. You could live 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.640 the life of a missionary without the long term commitment 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.840 and sacrifice from the pulpit and in the pews. It's 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.319 more of this is going to be this life changing 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:56.400 experience for the people who receive us. But what lots 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.839 of times I think the parents and the leaders are 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.839 hoping for is a life shaping experience for the people 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:08.679 who go. After a century of colonialism and forceful efforts 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.160 to change local cultures, Africa was now a place where 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.400 Christians from the West could reconnect with God to heal 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:20.640 their own souls. They would see in Christians from these 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.880 parts of the world a kind of idealized faith that 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:30.200 they saw as perhaps more authentic, more passionate, more pure 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.120 than their own, and they looked to those parts of 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:39.360 the Global South as a kind of spiritual resource. If 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.600 all this work was just a way to find yourself, 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.800 then it didn't really matter what the work was, or 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.880 if it was even useful at all. I talked with 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.760 Dr Verbeek about a story I heard about a mission 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.480 in Mexico that really made that point clear to me. 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.720 Every summer, an American church group brought volunteers to Mexico 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.000 to help build a wall for a local orphanage. After 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.160 a week, the group would move on and locals would 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.000 tear the wall down in preparation for the next crop 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:11.319 of volunteers. There's sadly a good chunk of stories like that. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.200 In haiti Un, there's some school. It's a sleep in school, 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.680 but the only time there's kids in the school is 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.320 when the church or mission groups would come down, and 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:22.840 then they would send them all back to their homes 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:38.600 until the next group came. Jesus does not ask that 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:43.120 we care for the less fortunate. He demands it. I 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.199 would like to invite you to come with me on 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.920 this journey that is so far from over and see 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:53.199 what God will do next. One woman seemed to embody 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:57.320 the perfect balance of self discovery and serving others. She 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.720 did it so well that she made ginger as snary Mecca. 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.040 I'm Katie Davis. I'm twenty one years old and I 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:08.040 lived here in Uganda. I ran a Maggima ministry. Katie 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.680 Davis's story is one that you might recognize by now. 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.120 She was fresh out of high school when she felt 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.560 God calling her to Africa thing and I'd always said 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.680 I wanted to be mother to resetch just because I 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.600 guess I just loved her heart her children. So she 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.040 left her Tennessee town and said off for Uganda on 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.360 a short term trip just a few months. But when 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.480 she got there, she couldn't believe the poverty around her 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.040 and felt she needed to do something about it. Lord 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:34.800 with all your heart, and then you're to love your 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.960 neighbor as yourself. I'm like myself doesn't want to be starving, 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.079 and so I don't want other people in the world 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.040 to be starving. So she started an NGO to offer scholarships, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:51.280 schooling and resources for thousands of vulnerable children across the country. 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.240 But that's not what made her famous. What made her 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.800 famous were the thirteen Ugandan children she adopted as her 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.240 And the littlest one looks up and she calls me, Mommy. 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.160 My heart breaks in two. I have no idea what 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.840 to do, but something clicks. I'm even more scared than 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:12.880 the day that I stepped on that plane, but I 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.520 know that this is right. She wrote a book about it, 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.440 called Kisses from Katie, and it made the New York 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.360 Times Best seller list. The recording You've been hearing is 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:26.400 from a Simon and Schuster advertisement for that book. The 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.920 cover shows a young, smiling Katie Davis on a dirt 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:33.600 road surrounded by laughing children, and inside the book features 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:37.520 a photograph taken by one of Katie's best friends, Renee Bach. 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.760 Being a missionary today was not just a way of 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:48.240 life anymore. It was a lifestyle brand. Blogging about your 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.199 daily adventures, posting photos of your picture perfect Christian family, 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.920 sharing heart wrenching videos of children in need. It wasn't 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.760 just about selling a cause, it was about selling yourself. 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:06.240 The aspiration used to be martyrdom and conversions. Now it 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:11.280 was a book deal and influencer status. It wasn't just 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.440 Katie's book or Rene's blogs that were filled with photos 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.359 of people like Nabucosa skinny to the bone or Patricia 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.960 swollen to the point of bursting and all in need 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:27.000 of rescuing. There were tons of missionaries out there, carefully 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:31.120 curating their online personas and posting similar images across every 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:36.240 social media outlet. The missionary brand depended on a charismatic, 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.960 selfless white woman surrounded by black children in need. It 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.920 required everything to be exaggerated. The missionary had to appear 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.760 more selfless, and the Africans had to appear more needy. 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.720 Here's Elizabeth Nicholson, one of the older missionaries in Ginger 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.280 in Uganda. If the children are go out and play, 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.200 it's muddy and dusty and dirty, so you put them 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.840 in the crimest clothes they have and they go out 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.680 and play. But somebody coming from the first world just 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.760 sees these dirty children in rags on Sunday. They're all 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:13.320 cleaned up and in their Sunday gloves. But actually this 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.000 is just a very old tactic on you platforms. Here's 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.480 Dr McAllister again. There was real pushback in the nineteen 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:27.720 fifties and nineteen sixties by African Christians about how Africans 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.320 were being represented and a young Congolese Methodist who then 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.160 comes to the US and sees how missionaries are talking 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.600 about Congo, and you know, he's saying, this is a 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.000 We're part of an African continent that is on the rise. 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.000 We have you know, big cities, We're going to be modern, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.080 we have decolonized, we're talking about freedom, and you all 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:52.880 are still showing pictures, literally showing pictures from thirty years previous, 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.440 in order to present Africa as inherently and uniformly backward 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.640 and mired in poverty, in order to praise money for 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.479 the missionary work. All of this revolves around a deceptively 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:09.160 simple question. What is a missionary's job? Is it to 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.400 serve the vulnerable and needy? Or is it to convert 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:17.120 people to Christianity and save their souls. Renee believed that 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.320 it was to serve. She thought that providing medical care 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.680 and healing children was a way to open the door 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.080 for a conversation about God. My job there was to 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.560 like show people the character and the nature of Christ 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.360 by just acting out of love and kindness. And being 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.720 so compassionate. And I do think that that was effective, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.120 not in people just walking up to me and being like, 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.200 oh my gosh, like you must love Jusus. I'm like, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.280 I want to love do thus too. But I had 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.240 a lot of experiences where people would just be like, 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.200 why are you being so nice to people that aren't 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.080 even related to you. There's something different about you, and 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.320 I like wonder what it is. And I think that's 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:57.000 a far more rooted place to start a discussion about God. 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.840 But her board disagreed. When they responded to accusations of 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:06.440 Renee's malpractice, they quoted a nineteenth century missionary named Oswald 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:10.560 Chambers in missionary work, the great danger is that God's 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.080 call will be replaced by the needs of the people. 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:16.960 We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.840 all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:25.600 their education, nor their needs, but as first and foremost, 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:31.080 the command of Jesus Christ. In other words, saving souls 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:34.080 was the only thing that mattered. Her job was to 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.399 win conversions, and there was no cost too high. The 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:43.760 dead kids were just collateral damage. That's a staggering mindset. 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.800 So you can understand Ugandans who looked at a hundred 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.800 years of colonial history and at the current state of 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:55.080 things and saw darker motives in Africa or in a community, 0:17:55.280 --> 0:18:00.159 is a people grotify what people? That's Olivia Alasso, a 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.440 social worker and the Ugandan co founder of No White Saviors. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:09.000 If people are not held accountable, if people's bad vices 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.920 are not brought up, a people continue to praise them. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.600 This is also one way of creating awareness in our 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:21.400 communities by actually calling up people who are doing what 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:27.520 we consider inhuman. To Olivia, the missionaries continued a white 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.879 supremacist system that placed Ugandans on the bottom, subject to 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:33.919 the whims and fancies of people who would come to 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.640 do good, a system she and No White Saviors were 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:42.240 determined to dismantle. This also works up the community for 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.320 them to stand and ask next time to see a 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.840 white person and say, hey, look, you're coming in to 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.440 present yourself as a doctor or as a teacher, can 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.199 we see your papers? This gives them the confidence because 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.000 they have seen someone held But if we leave things 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.680 past like that, then this will continue on the African 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:07.320 continent because for us here all the time, when you're 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:13.400 white is right and black is wrong. Olivia was only 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:18.640 one of many Uganians trying to ensure accountability. Margaret Chambaku 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.360 Laba is the head of the Ginger and Geo Forum, 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.399 an independent body set up to coordinate the activities and 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:27.960 offer oversight. Tell the hundreds of organizations in Ginger and 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.760 they're still happening because you will find when you go 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.720 to Facebook pages there's so many organizations and when you 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:35.440 go to the ground to look for them, you don't 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:38.520 see them. But when you really want to interact and 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:40.280 say where are you based? Can I come and visit? 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.639 Can I come see the people you're really working with 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.040 the community? You don't see them and they will change 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.840 their names in the face. For years, Margaret has been 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.760 on the front lines doing her best to police and 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.520 geos with a few resources. She has She worried that 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.800 many of the missionaries were only out to enrich themselves, 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.200 but you'll see they're receiving funds that are receiving money. 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.399 The people who want to help, I think as pathetic 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:07.639 when they hear a story that is so touching, they 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.679 will send the money before they realize it's just a fraud. 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.360 We really have so many of those cases. Margaret told 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.399 me that there were over nine hundred registered organizations in 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.520 Ginger that came out to one NGO for every five 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.440 people in the district. Now, to be clear, not all 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:30.080 NGOs or missionary run and many are actually Uganda owned. 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:35.200 But still the numbers blew me away. I asked Margaret 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.600 where Renee in serving his children fit into that picture. So, 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:41.840 based on the allegations you have heard that she was 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.680 an unlicensed medical facility, that she was providing medical care 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:50.680 without having medical qualifications, do these allegations surprise you given 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:55.320 what you know about how NGOs operate here. Um, of 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.560 course they don't surprise me. I know anybody here can 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.600 come and people be live in foreign people very much, 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.280 even you when you're time to see your doctor. No 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:09.000 one would quote the question your qualifications or anything. So 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.480 to me, it's not a surprise. Do you think it 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.879 could happen again now? Yes, it could even be happening 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.040 somewhere else right now. I wouldn't be surprised to see 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.600 Anson being you know, cold to doing the same thing. 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:25.560 Every person I spoke to in Ginger had a horror 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.439 story to tell. Some orphanage was abusing kids, or an 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.680 NGO was embezzling its donors, and well, you didn't hear 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.200 this from me, But did you hear about that American 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.679 couple's sketchy adoption renee box story is actually quite a 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.560 bit more common than you might think, maybe not the 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:46.919 hundred and five dead children, but other parts of it. 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.840 In the year I spent in Uganda, I saw a 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.720 surprising number of missionary scandals in the headlines, like the 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.520 American evangelical who was deported after giving Ugandans a miracle 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.840 drug to cure cancer. US passed up from New Jersey 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:07.640 had been giving MMS miracle mineral solution, which is basically 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:12.600 like a bleaching agent to over fifty thousand Ugandans. Or 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.359 the old white guy who was caught on video punching 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:26.000 a hotel concierge while shouting Uganda hates Jesus, got Jesus, 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:34.040 oh yeah feeling and though he wasn't a missionary. A 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.560 German national who ran a children's home was arrested on 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.480 charges of defilement and child trafficking. We first said the 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:47.000 complaint AGAINIST team said that team or Navigations of Sexual 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:53.960 Actors againist because she was taking care of it was 0:22:54.080 --> 0:23:12.679 clear that Ginger needed a radical transformation. To be honest, like, 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:16.200 I mean, there is a personal aspect of this case 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.800 for me, and I can't pretend there's not. But the 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:24.479 personal aspect is not how we'd It's also just knowing 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:29.040 that she's not the only one like this is not 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.520 Renee is not the only person doing this, not in Uganda, 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:36.000 not globally, and there needs to be a new standard set. 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:41.000 When Kelsey Nielsen graduated college, she received a copy of 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:44.240 Kisses from Katie and soon became one of the hundreds 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:48.480 of young women who followed her footsteps to Ginger. She 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:52.120 signed up to volunteer by chance at the same orphanage 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:56.359 that Renee volunteered at. After a few months there, Kelsey 0:23:56.400 --> 0:24:00.680 founded an NGO called Abide Family Center to support vulnerable 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:03.520 families and offer them an alternative to putting their kids 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:07.840 up for adoption. It was thrilling to be a twenty 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:11.520 something CEO in a foreign country rubbing elbows with your 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:14.639 celebrity role models. And I just remember being like so 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:18.720 amazed at Katie and Renee and thinking like they're the 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:21.679 pinnacle of like what I should be striving for of, 0:24:21.760 --> 0:24:26.600 Like they're so self sacrificial. They they just say yes 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:31.639 to everything. To Kelsey, they were the real missionaries, giving 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:34.760 everything they had to the poor people of Ginger. They 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:39.480 were making real sacrifices and changing lives. So when Renee 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:42.879 asked for a favor, Kelsey jumped at the chance. I 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:45.600 sat there and washed. What was I watching? I don't 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:47.679 know what I'm doing? Why am I Why am I 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:50.760 going to the hospital watch a child? But I did 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:52.400 it because I was like I wanted to be friends 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:55.280 with them like they were they were the cool girls, 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:59.480 and so being was like that's I wanted to be 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:03.280 your friends of them. But the more unmeshed Kelsey got 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:06.960 in the Ginger world, the more she saw another side 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:09.679 to their image. They set the tone to us what 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:12.240 would normalize? Like they basically set the tone of like 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:14.840 this is what is acceptable. So if you, like, if 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:18.600 you had a kid die or you had um, you 0:25:18.640 --> 0:25:21.200 have just had like an overwhelming amount of like dizziness. 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:23.680 It was like, Oh, you're doing it right, Like this 0:25:23.760 --> 0:25:26.040 is like this is where God you see God work. 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:29.359 God works when like things are chaotic, probably when you 0:25:29.359 --> 0:25:32.320 create the chaos. It was easy to see why Ginger 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:36.040 was an exhausting place to be martyrdom was once the 0:25:36.080 --> 0:25:39.240 highest calling of Christian missionaries, and in a lot of 0:25:39.280 --> 0:25:43.280