A growing number of Americans want to assist people considered less fortunate in our increasingly interdependent world. We silently weep while watching "Save the Children" advertisements and damn the companies who support child labor. Weare eager to help but suspicious of non-profit bureaucracies. How much of our "Only twenty dollars a month!" will the televised boy with nothing to eat really receive?

In order to investigate these issues further, over the last few years I have volunteered in countries from Japan to Peru, eager to understand the way different cultures live and think about the world. In particular, I spent six months working for a small NGO in Ecuador to get a sense of what development work is like first-hand. I found that many up and coming NGOs try to help indigenous peoples by giving them what they think they need with little regard to what the peoples of the community actually want. Nowhere was this more evident than in the small indigenous group of Bua. A non-profit entered the community and decided to help the people by starting fish farms. This NGO dug huge pits on farmlands to make a series of ponds. After the holes were dug, they filled a few of the ponds with fish and water but left: the people to finish them. They gave them little instruction on how to care for the fish. As a result, most of them died. Today, vast holes can be seen interspersed throughout the community, occupying space once used for traditional farming.

As the internet gains prominence and the ease of travel increases, the temptation to blur this line between assisting and assimilating only grows stronger. It is my goal to work in the development field not to "save the children" but to allow those affected by their problems to take action themselves. Accordingly, I have thoroughly researched manydevelopment programs and have found that (insert school here) fits my interests best because of its dedication to the notion that those affected by community change ought to be involved in its conceptualization and implementation. (continue with details about school and faculty).

Elevated awareness of development issues has undoubtedly done much good; however, we still face significant challenges. My goal in life is to help usher in a new era of international aid: one where we do not pity those who do not drive a Hummer or own TiVo, but instead help unique cultures with unique problems instigate change for themselves. It is a difficult task to fight globalization, but what we can fight is homogenization ofthe world.