Service Learning: Organizational Structure

A recent experience gave me some unique insights into how things are run at Xa Mẹ. When we arrived at XM on Monday of last week, we were surprised to see that the kids were acting much differently from the way that they usually do. They were really quiet, didn’t smile that much, seemed a little tense and didn’t seem that excited when we arrived. We soon realized that the older woman who co-runs the orphanage, “Bà,” was there. She informed us that the children were going to start having lessons during the time that we volunteer, and that we would have to reschedule our Monday hours. It was really striking to experience a completely different atmosphere in the space—to see the children so somber and controlled, especially since they are often somewhat wild when we are working with them. This experience suggested to me that Bà, and possibly the older man who also runs the orphanage, are really strict with the children. This, along with the fact that the children are not allowed to go outside, emphasized to me the ways in which the children are extremely controlled at the orphanage. It also made me reflect on the fact that it is possible to control the children more effectively, and that we need continue to talk about and reflect on how we as volunteers can structure our interactions with the children in the best way possible.
Actually, it seems that the children are simultaneously unusually controlled and unusually free at Xa Mẹ. I think the structure of the organization supports this, in that the man and woman at the top, who co-run XM, are very cautious and controlled about what the children can do and who they can interact with, but the other people involved in the children’s lives, such as the woman who cooks for them, exert much more limited control. If the structure of the organization, in terms of people who regularly interact with the children, consists of very controlling people at the top, and a very “laissez-faire” person at the bottom (the woman who cooks for them), then this creates a situation where the children have both some extreme limitations in their lives, but also have a degree of “extreme freedom.” Additionally, the fact that some of the children do sneak out shows this structural issue in action, since the children are probably largely motivated to sneak out by the fact that they have such limited freedom, and are able to sneak out because of the lack of complete control that the organization actually has over them.
Other than what I’ve mentioned, we know relatively little about how the organization is run, and have almost no contact with the people who run the organization. Our interactions with the heads of the organization actually also reflect this aspect of extreme control and lack of oversight in that they were very concerned about who we were before we became involved, and listed a lot of rules, but don't check in with us at all in terms of what we do with the children every week. We essentially met the people who run the organization and then were given a pretty free reign. In response to this situation, I do think it would be a good idea to update the XM leadership regularly on what we are doing with the children, and what our plans and goals are. In this way we can document our volunteer work for them while also proving our commitment and how seriously we take our work. This may ultimate increase their trust in us, and help persuade them to let us to do more with the children, such as going on a field trip or having a picnic outside on our last day. Ultimately, I hope to make a more active effort to learn more about the organizational structure and how things are run at Xa Mẹ, and to continue to pay attention to the ways in which we can most effectively control and structure our time and interactions at the orphanage.