When you go to some of the most rural areas, particularly in Africa, but elsewhere as well, often the only healthcare you come across happens to be faith – inspired organizations,” said Edward Mills at the Presbyterian Church’s national offices in Toronto. “However, within the public health community there is a lack of recognition of the major [faith – based] players and they tend to be considered with some suspicion.”
Mills, Canada Research Chair in Global Health at the University of Ottawa and an associate professor at Stanford University, was part of a working group meeting in mid – January on the role of faith – based organizations in providing healthcare around the world. “The public health community may look at faith – based organizations as minor players but actually if you start looking at it and how healthcare is actually delivered it is a very large presence.”
Mills was amongst nearly two dozen academics, theologians, healthcare advocates and public policy advisors, representing major world religions and some key healthcare organizations, including the United Nations, to “create an interfaith dialogue on healthcare and profile the work done by faith – based organizations.”
Azza Karam, one of the participants, presented what she called “the chapeau,” an over – riding document that could guide the conversation.
During her lunch break, balancing her plate on her knees, speaking passionately of the days of conversation ahead, she told the Record: “You can’t understand how faith – based organizations deliver healthcare without first understanding where they are coming from in terms of their faith in general. And, obviously if you’re talking about health services you have to understand where the health world is at and what are the issues of the health world and how to unpack all that.”
Karam has several titles, including being a senior advisor for the United Nations Population Fund, and has been a leading advocate for further dialogue between the secular healthcare and development delivery community and faith – based organizations. Writing on why the UN should reach out to faith communities, she states: “The reality is that religion has not retreated to the private sphere, as anticipated by myriad modernist and secular theories. In fragile and post – conflict states, religious groups are often leading advocates for peace and reconciliation.”
In conversation she expands: “Faith communities have predated every mechanism. They are the quintessential providers we have ever known. There is a history, a missionary history, which is both beautiful and sometimes highly problematic. But a faith was taken to peoples in other parts of the world and in that process there was also the delivery and the organization of delivery of social services.”
Karam is careful to downplay the extent of proselytizing faiths—”sometimes, in some cases, delivery of resources was attached to the spreading of the faith.” The ‘beautiful’ parts of the missionary history have created one of the largest, most sustainable networks delivering care around the world.
In her UN document she writes very pragmatically to the secular community: “Apart from the range of critical—often life – saving—social services provided by faith – based organizations, religious communities are also capable of unparalleled social mobilization. They often boast unparalleled worldwide convening capacities and are also owners of the longest – standing mechanisms for raising financial resources. In times in which traditional secular development is confronting its strongest set of resource challenges, these capabilities cannot be underestimated. Given the realities of service provision, resource mobilization, and political presence, it becomes clear that being knowledgeable of the work of FBOs is necessary if we are to take seriously the fundamental dimensions of social development and social capital as we consider the imperatives of future development agendas.”
Edward Mills suggested to the Record two reasons why faith – based organizations have fallen out of favour—hence Karam’s sly reminder that religions still exist in the public sphere—with the secular development community, despite having a long history of providing healthcare, often to society’s least privileged and most marginalized. First, FBOs “are usually not involved in marketing what they do. My observation has been that they are a lot less ego driven and a lot less financially driven than some others that have strong advocates working for them.
“I think about the context of the Salvation Army, for example. You have officers joining a very low paying career. And for life. Even a general doesn’t make a livable salary. So, people are driven out of humility. And they’re doing it out of a sort of value system which is poorly understood with the healthcare community.”
The other reason he speculated FBOs are under – recognized might have to do with some controversies “around recommendations that affect health—should you be using condoms, should they be engaging homosexuals, issues like that.”
The working group will prepare a series of papers on the history, breadth and issues surrounding healthcare provided by FBOs. They hope the series will be published later this year.
