Tunisia’s Solidarity is a Model for the Planet

By Delinda C. Hanley

Sidi Achour is a village untouched by time, with ramshackle homes clustered around a local shrine perched on a hill. Not far from the national capital, Tunis, and close to the town of Borj El Amri and an American military cemetery from World War II, the homes have rock walls held together by crumbling mortar and covered by roofs constructed with sticks, sheets of plastic and strips of tin. Residents draw water from a nearby well and have no electricity. Until recently there was only a foot track connecting the village to the main road.

The people of Sidi Achour are, nevertheless, warm, friendly and welcoming. The women are huggers and occasionally made the high trilling celebratory trill as Mohamed El Hedi Ben Abdallah, who works for the National Solidarity Fund, and a delegate from the local governor’s office trudged across the village with me, patiently waiting as I was pulled into various homes.

Each house had two windowless rooms, one where a family of 6 to 12 slept, and the other a tiny drafty kitchen equipped with a kerosene hotplate. Pens of goats inside each courtyard completed the rural picture. It’s the kind of place you want to photograph and experience, capturing the traditional rustic lifestyle. It’s not the kind of place, however, where you would actually like to live.

In 1992 President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali made a series of unannounced visits, much like the one I was making, to some rural areas the Tunisians refer to as the shadow lands. He met some of the 6 percent of Tunisians who have lived in poverty generation after generation with little hope of digging out. The contrast between the forgotten rural poor and the modern Tunisia he was leading toward prosperity and development was so shocking that he resolved to eliminate poverty altogether by the turn of the century.

But he also realized that because of limited resources his government could not afford to do this as rapidly as he wished. The president decided to turn to Tunisian citizens for help and so, in 1993, he launched the National Solidarity Fund. Each citizen is now tasked with helping his less fortunate neighbors, which is what this society has traditionally always done, but on a much smaller scale. Tunisian families are used to helping their neighbors when illness or misfortune strikes, but now they help strangers. The president woke the nation’s conscience and the result is now a model the Tunisians proudly set forth for the rest of the world.

The National Solidarity Fund receives donations from individuals, public and private enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and foreign institutions. Musical giants like the legendary Lebanese singer Fairouz, American superstar Michael Jackson, and other international and local artists hold shows with all proceeds going to the Solidarity Fund. Donations from Tunisian private citizens are deposited into account number 26-26 at any post office, or by direct transfer from bank accounts. A receipt is always provided and all such contributions are tax-deductible.

“Donations do not go toward salaries or overhead,” Mr. Abdallah said. “Employees are paid for by other ministries, and every donation goes directly to a project. The cup of tea you are drinking was not paid for by the fund.”

The National Solidarity Fund projects bring electricity, roads, potable water, education, health, housing and other amenities to poor villages like Sidi Achour. Half a mile away we toured the new village of Sidi Achour, a white and blue painted townhouse development still within sight of the original village shrine and fields. The village women did indeed have something to “trill” about, as within two weeks the entire village will move into new two- to four-bedroom homes with a simple but modern kitchen, bathroom and individual courtyards. Every house has electricity and hot and cold running water. Each family pays a symbolic purchase price of between $10 and $15 for their home. The house belongs to the family and can be inherited, but it cannot be sold. There is a shared playground, public lighting, community garden space and a large area divided into separate pens for livestock away from the houses. A tidy dirt road leads to the main road to town, so students and employees are no longer cut off from Tunisia’s shared future development.

After their basic human needs are taken care of, beneficiaries of the NSF are provided a secure source of income. Perhaps it will be a small loan to purchase more goats for villagers from Sidi Achour, or advice, fertilizer and seeds to plant more fields, or retraining villagers to give them a new career. The fund doesn’t provide a short-term fix by giving a family a new house and leaving. It gives the family members human dignity and a way to make their dreams for the future come true.

A poor man can say, “I am Tunisian too. I really belong to a nation which cares about every citizen.” Long-term living conditions are improved as previously disadvantaged people are encouraged to develop microprojects in the agriculture, cattle breeding, fisheries, carpet weaving, or other agricultural or craft sectors.

“We have set ourselves the goal of succeeding, before the end of the new presidential term, in ridding the country once and for all of its disadvantaged areas, incorporating them into the circuit of general economic and social life,” President Ben Ali declared in March 1993. By the next century, almost every Tunisian should have the basic rights of work, housing, health, education and culture. Each year delegates from many countries visit Tunisia’s projects and study the country’s efforts to reduce poverty. The World Health Organization awarded Ben Ali its gold medal to acknowledge his contributions to social goals of health.

Tunisia’s National Solidarity Fund requires that the beneficiaries live in an isolated region inhabited by at least 26 families who lack basic amenities such as running water, electricity, health care and educational facilities. Committees in each region decide who qualifies and help coordinate the implementation of their local projects. From 1992 to 1998 156,000 families have benefited from these projects. There are 928 projects planned for completion to meet the goals for the year 2000.

Each Dec. 8 is National Solidarity Day, when everyone who can contributes whatever they can. But additional opportunities for volunteerism abound throughout the year. “Other Solidarity projects include help given by businesses to the poor when their children go back to school,” Mr. Ben Abdullah says. “Last year a jeans manufacturer donated 1,000 pairs of jeans and another gave 1,000 book bags. During Ramadan scores of restaurants became ‘Solidarity restaurants,’ with volunteer waiters serving donated food. Solidarity delivered food to homes during the Eid. Donors give lambs to feed the needy. The president’s wife personally presents some of the gifts donated to Solidarity for sick children in the hospital. Funds may be used for special teacher training programs, adult literacy projects, building libraries, schools, public showers, and health centers. All of these programs help make a culture of solidarity with all the regions of the country.”

As we admired the compact, sun-filled homes, nearly ready for their excited occupants, and compared them to the scratched-together homes on the hill, Mr. Ben Abdullah noticed paint dripping sloppily onto tiles in a bathroom. He called a painter to task, saying, “We won’t pay you for work like this! Just because it’s for the poor doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be perfect. We’re paying for your best work!” He and the delegate refused to pose for photos in front of the new homes, saying, “These houses aren’t because of us. Every Tunisian made these houses.”