In a coastal village setting, some two hours away from the main industrial centre in East Sepik, 75 percent of the women have taken up employment at the fish cannery. A quarter of those women have children. After three months they soon discovered that they have been away from home for too long and the husbands were getting fed up of the child caring responsibility. This responsibility eventually rested with the elder children in the family who must miss out on school.

While parents see this kind of work as opportunity to earn some money and are happy to give up their child raising, gardening, fishing and hunting time, they are unconsciously moving away from the important role of building society. There is no time to teach values as the parents are always away working. Economic development must take precedence. As it seems in today's economic world the only way to move people from their poverty level is through economic development. While the definition of poverty is so broad so is the definition of wealthy or rich. But development thinking has narrowed poverty down to economics.

To make this work many millions of kina in development aid is earmarked annually for Papua New Guinea to help alleviate the country's "poverty" problems. Projects in good governance, women, health and sanitation, economic development and many more are going down to the people of Papua New Guinea with the aim to cause change. Many development projects aim for greater participation, community empowerment, gender equity and many more at all levels. Many Papua New Guinean families are thankful for these initiatives and are happy to make time to help, learn from or be part of these initiatives.

As mentioned earlier development aid makes it possible for projects at various levels to take place and for different groups of people to participate. At the national level, fishing, mining, agriculture, forestry and many other projects happen. These projects are large scale and require workers who must live away from their families. Most of these workers are men. However, through gender equity more women are also living away from their families. Looking back in history the men would travel far and live on their masters property and work for him. Today men and women are travelling far and if they are lucky will live in company provided accommodation. But more women are also moving closer to work and must find some kind of accommodation to live.

In a male dominated area she is not entitled to a house. The house is offered to the 'head of the family' who is the man. Even in well respected institutions the woman still plays second fiddle when it comes to housing and other entitlements that come with the job. She therefore must live with wantoks or find a cheap place for herself. Development at the national level is therefore not interested in human development however, it is interested in the labour that can be extracted from these people. In return these people walk away with some income that they can share with their family and this institutions walk away with huge profits.

At the lowest level projects are designed to include all members of the community so that change is realised. People must move from the lowest poverty level to the next step up. Those men and women who were not able to take employment in urban centres can stay at home as work will come right there in the village. While many take a small amount of allowance the rest are expected to volunteer their time. In essence time and work are correlated. In economic terms if much of the time is taken up volunteering to do work for the total community what time does this person get to do his or her work at home? What time is available for the production of food for the family. What time is left for community learning and values teachings?

The definition for 'volunteer' has therefore shifted from volunteering to help one's own community to volunteering to getting the project done. The most significant change in these development projects are that women are taking a keen interest on the development of their respective communities. So at that level a woman's profile is raised from being a 'housewife' or meri nating to now a development actor. She is a village birth attendant, a village court magistrate, a trainer and so on. Her day is taken up worrying about getting the job done, filling in papers and travelling to her client groups and making sure they receive her services. Her children however, are left behind.

What has become of the family unit then? It has been abused. This very basic institution is the key to society's development, yet development aid has helped to pull it apart. The church teaches that the family is the basic unit of society that must be nurtured as strong families make strong societies. Melanesians understand this concept very well as they have designed laws regulating how families live and conduct themselves.

Gender equity in this case is a back flip for women. As they step forward to realise their potentials they are also stepping down from their traditional roles which have helped to uphold their society. They are now stepping into a completely new world. They must learn things over again and make the commitment to stay on these new responsibilities to the end. So development aid has also helped to move women from a circle and placed her in another. Can there be a link between these two?

In the traditional setting, women's role is child bearer and nurturer. They take care of their husbands and their husbands' clan. They work the garden and they mould their children in family, clan and village values. That is full time responsibility already however, no credit has been given to this position which has helped to carry society over time. Shaping a person's thinking, behaviour and attitude to take responsibility in society is the single most important thing in a woman's role however, she is now being shifted from there to do things the way the project wants it done. This is where she steps down from her highest position in society as thinker, believer, doer (teacher, nurse, gardener, etc) to now taking orders and racing with time.

Men's role in traditional societies is protector, hunter or fisherman, teacher, and adds to the growth process of their children and society the masculine elements. He however, has taken work with a company and must live away from the family. He also has stepped down from his position in the village to taking up a position in a development project. In the village he prepares the children, particularly the male children to be strong, to fight when they have to fight, to control when they face the greatest challenges and many more skills.

The house building responsibility is not just to put up a shelter for the family but it embraces, spirituality, architectural skills, knowledge of building materials, awareness of how a family like their house, a display of the village art, a place that will bring people together and many more. Likewise, the hunting and fishing skills, gardening skills and many other skills all embrace various other elements in life. The children miss these very important elements when the father is away most of the time. In the current modern societies, both men and women have taken additional responsibilities. She is now a nurse or teacher in a formal sense and setting. While she sets off to take care of her new responsibilities the husband picks up the child nurturing and moulding responsibilities if he is in the village. Unlike the woman, he is impatient and so he passes this responsibility to the elder child.

Development projects in this sense, has not added value to the Melanesian way of life. In fact it is disintegrating families as the two key persons in a family unit are pulled in two different direction, the children are left to fend for themselves. They miss out on the very important teachings they will receive and so the traditional organic culture fades away and a whole new culture evolves. This points to the many levels of split that are taking place in PNG families. While development aid is intended for the better it has gone down, right into the family unit and caused a negative effect.

Parents are moving in two different directions to be part of these development initiatives. Where the husband must live away from the family his income must be split between himself and his family back home. The wife's time must be split between her clients, her children and her other domestic responsibilities. Development aid therefore is not helping people but creating more problems for the groups it is working with. If Papua New Guinea is to see some real development then emphasis should be placed on all aspects of development - not just economic development. And these processes must be carefully thought out so that very minimum harm is caused. What development aid is addressing is economic development but creating more social, spiritual and environmental problems.