March 10,2009 Charity

The following started out as a letter that I just sent to a friend. I have added to it and deleted parts of it to protect their privacy. But the letter was a good basic outline for this essay that I had planned on writing anyway.

I'm not naming names on such a public place as Facebook or Bloogspot....but....I've had three requests for funds to help support young people in the last few days .....by an organization that is much better at fund raising activities than they are at feeding children. And where does the first 89% of the raised funds go to? Big fancy 4 WD SUVs with the name of their organization plastered on the side....one for each employee...they cost approx $100,000 each in Cambodia because they are shipped in from elsewhere...no dealer in Cambodia. Their employees live in fantastic accomodations...with all the 'western amenities" , not at all experiencing ANY of the local hardships.

They love to drive around and take pictures of kids in rags, living in dumps and with big swollen malnourished bellies. Great photo ops for fund raising brochures, TV ads, and glossy magazine spreads. As well as big fancy vehicles they also have big fancy cameras. We saw all of this first hand and we asked a lot of questions and did a lot of research while we were there.

And back home in the U S and Canada parents everywhere get to be proud of the efforts being put out by their own children to help starving children. And proud you should be! It IS wonderful that our kids are learning that others are not as well off as them and never have to go without a meal or a warm bed So, the NGOs are doing a great job of funding and at the same time making us and our children feel good. Yes, 11 % of the funds raised will go to their projects around the world....but only projects that make good photo ops for further fund raising.

I'm not saying don't participate, however , it does more to teach charity to your own child than anything else. Just be aware that 11 % of $5 milliion is only just $550,000. And only $55 of every $500 raised. Chances are that YOUR child already knows about good charities by participating in such things as charity walks for breast cancer research The organization I refer to above is not the only one driving nice fancy Lexus SUVs around S E Asia, so please do your research!

Do Tony and I give to charity? Of course we do. Each year we donate to the BC Cancer Foundation. In Cambodia we help support 45 orphans in an orphanage where no NGO is involved to skim off the top. And in December the two of us painted a school, donating our time and labour rather than money. We have also been involved in a few projects where we firmly keep in mind that to give a man a fish feeds him for a day, but to teach him to fish feeds him for his lifetime. If the charity NGOs in the third world believed in that, their projects would be very different than what they are at present...and hopefully, they would eventually put themselves out of business. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world?