CR #7: The importance of being an accompagnateurs

According to Paul Farmer, structural violence is the extreme suffering of premature and painful illnesses as well as torture, institutionalized racism, gender inequality etc. (Farmer, pg. 29). Farmer believes that suffering is only what makes us human and is something that makes us human (Farmer, pg. 50). However, there are different levels of suffering. For example, individuals who undergo extreme suffering are those living in poverty. Farmer quotes the World Health Organization saying, “Poverty wields its destructive influence at every stage of human life, from the moment of conception to the grave. It conspires with the most deadly and painful diseases to bring a wretched existence to all those who suffer from it” (Farmer, pg. 50). Poverty has been known to cause illness and premature death which, according to WHO is the world’s greatest killer. When seeing how poverty is defined, it undoubtedly sounds extremely dangerous and frightening. I believe that the most terrifying this about all of this, is the fact that poverty surrounds all of us whether we are aware of it or not.

Primarily, those who are living in poverty experience structural violence. Unfortunately, this kind of suffering goes unnoticed because of the fact that society believes that “the poor are obliged to die in the silence of history,” a quote taken from Pablo Richard, a Chilean theologian (Farmer, pg. 50). In one testimony, Farmer explains the concept of accompaniment and how it can address structural violence. Accompaniment, hence the name, means to “accompany” a community for a long while. In more detail, one’s duty in accompanying a community would be to help a community solve their issues (not so as to confuse this with just “putting a bandaid on it”) and figure out the root cause and structural policies that must act as a foundation to stabilize a community. Policy-level accompaniment means creating programs and organizations that will help and rebuild an impoverished community. For example, the Ritter Center is an organization that provides accompaniment or have people who are considered to be accompagnateurs. With leaders who know how to lead and create policies to make the world more just, we can create these relationships with those who are in most need and actually become aware of it.

According to Ruti Teitel, the goal of transitional justice was to “account for the self-political change following past oppressive rule” (King & Page, pg. 2). One of the arguments that these authors analyzed explained that although the United States makes large-scale changes, these changes don’t necessarily solve the problem when looking at it face value (King & Page, pg. 4). Cultural humility is an important concept to consider when trying to apply transitional justice. When considering changes within a community, it is import to keep in mind what is the best way to help them in terms of how they function as a society. For example, I believe that the Ritter Center is very aware of the steps that they have to take in order to cater to the needs of the community.

The Whole Person Care program is a permanent housing program that helps an individual by not only finding permanent housing but helping the individual with all other aspects of their life. The concept of Whole Person Care follows the idea that a person can only be stable in life if they have a home, which is a basic need. Through this process, there is a team of case managers who carefully and thoughtfully accompany their client by providing them resources for mental health, physical health, and career choices as well. When working with a community that is severely homeless, the primary solution shouldn’t be to provide them with just clothes or food. However, it should be to create a support system for these individuals who need it the most. By creating this team of case managers, Marin County was able to create a program with the goal of ending homelessness in ways that incorporate transitional justice. This is type of structural level understanding is why this model is proven to be the most effective in decreasing homelessness. However, there is still structural violence that is present in the community which is the “Not In My Backyard” mentality that has hindered this issue of homelessness that Whole Person Care tries to address.