THE DANGERS OF GOOD INTENTIONS

Respect for the ways that other peoples think is an important issue and vital to designing strategies of communication. For it to be effective, the language, symbols, and logic of a message must be aligned with the world vision, beliefs, attitudes, and practices of the population you are trying to communicate with, writes Leticia Artiles, a Cuban anthropologist and co-ordinator of the Latin American Network of Gender and Collective Health of the Latin American Association of Social Medicine. In this article, the author writes that approaches to communication of western organisations trying to reach non-western cultures are still based on the concepts, designs, and advancement of particular groups and fail to include the \'\'real\'\' thinking of the \'\'other\'\' that they are trying to affect. Programmes that do not consider context, location, and gender relations will always miss their target. In this \'\'global\'\' world where the market and consumption cuts across everything, where foundations and financial organisations put together the funding for intercultural projects to improve the conditions and quality of life of these groups, we should remember that \'\'the road to hell is paved with good intentions\'\'.