l gave an awful feeling

When men believe that they will be cured of AIDS if they have sex with a very young virgin there is a long way to go.

A couple of years ago I found a leaflet which fell out of the Radio Times. I can't remember the charity but it was providing a food supplement called Plumpynut. I thought - what a good idea I will send them some money.
Then I read through the leaflet again. The family shown consisted of a man in his 60s together with four wives and NINETEEN CHILDREN. He was "too frail to work" but as three of the children were under the age of 3 he can't be that ruddy frail! This, in a country with very limited resources. Each of those nineteen children may well go on to have nineteen children themselves. How can anyone support this? Sheer breathtaking idiocy. Yes, it is their "culture" but I refuse to support it with my money.
I give to a small charity in Bangladesh which provides sewing machines so that the women can earn money to support themselves and their children. I will not support stupidity no matter which religious banner hangs over it.

Am I very shallow to say that I do donate to DEC because it makes me feel a tiny bit better?
Of course I am but it is the only thing I CAN do.
As to decrying those who say charity begins at home!! I am presently in the fortunate position to be able to help one of my children and family who really need it as well as donating.
If it came to a choice my family would win every time.

I'm with you annsixty I do donate but nothing seems to change and like others have said parts of country are very rich but never seem to help their own it's very sad

Africa needs universal law and access to it and an end to misogyny, tribalism and superstition. It needs proper institutions and checks and balances in its constitution and law. It needs an end to corruption and its public wealth spread throughout the population in social and material infrastructure.

That said, Africa is a continent not a country so will progress as each nation develops according to its geography, climate and political and social aims. If the (mostly) men who run each nation put feeding their people ahead of other aims they would accomplish this in no time and would not need outside help.

The sad truth is that starving the enemy is often a cheap and desirable option to the unscrupulous. Therefore, those who seek to help can be blackmailed into handing over aid designed for starving people by threats to those unfortunates by rebels and governments alike.

Not that I am advocating not helping.

Misery is everywhere.
I am donating to a charity which funds a bakery in Syria (amongst other things), a British charity, other charities and appeals on an ad hoc basis but when I think of what I sent to the Haiti appeal six years ago and hear that some people still have not had homes rebuilt I despair.

Ps and if I want to donate to a horse and pony charity I will!!

I agree with Katiemay too, also Radicalnan to some extent.
The men who are causing such chaos by fighting are also the ones who are fathering more and more children, so aren't likely to accept family planning measures .

Good luck to those who are able to give to animal charities as well. My resources are limited therefore I prioritise. By the way katiemay do you realy think that victims of severe drought and terrorism have the luxury of choice?
I find it obscene that the Donkey Sanctuary charity is sitting on vast amounts of cash - far more than they need.

Well, I am lucky in that I still have DH otherwise my resources would be extremely limited.
And he does a lot of voluntary work for charity so donates much of his time (as do I), but even we get charity 'fatigue' when yet another lot of raffle tickets, free pens, mats etc drop through the letterbox inviting us to donate.

I don't know about donkey sanctuaries, although there is a horse rescue charity not too far from where I live. I also regularly donate to sponsor guide dog puppies. At church we donate food items to hungry people locally, as well as local homeless. Yes, I prioritise. I completely agree with MinniesMum. The man she mentions had wives who were very much younger. This is another strand in the argument - the 'cultural' marrying-off of very young females - can't even call them women. In our society that's called child abuse or paedophilia. Not in theirs.

My aunt lived with the results of polio for the remainder of her life, from age 21 to 79, consequently she supported a polo charity as did I. Polio is now preventable, but in some countries the charity workers who go round with the vaccine have been murdered because again, preventing polo is against their religion/culture/customs, delete as you will.

Sometimes it's not what we can give but what we can do. We can all give a little of our time to a cause we support.

radicalnan Those have been my thoughts for many years.
Margrete Interesting last sentence Re Somalia & Ireland.

I'm afraid I share radicalnan's view in many ways. I recommend that everyone reads a book called Dead Aid by a Nigerian lady Dambisa Moyo. It's an eye opener!

I know a young nurse who went with her doctor, along with other young doctors and nurses, to a sub-Sahara African nation to do health charitable work a few years ago.

She came back appalled that in villages, where charities dig new wells with proper depth and pumps, etc... the now healthier villagers then want more say in how their village is governed.

The 'chief's henchmen' then put human FECES in the wells to pollute them. Why? To get the villagers sick and too miserable to complain about the 'chief' and his flunkies' policies, and to keep children too sick for school and so they stay illiterate. and the fact So, money given to the village for schooling and other things goes in the chief's pocket.

Well poisoning is a very ancient warfare tactic.

A very telling sentence slipped into a news report this week saying there is food in the country but access to it is blocked by the faction in control so how can that be overcome ? No amount of money can change that.

Hannah I had heard of that. Thanks for posting. Yes, they become dependent and so do not create their own economies.

dambisamoyo.com/publications-articles-videos/books/dead-aid/

These huge charities worry me. Comic relief has rised billions, yet malaria nets are still needed surely that problem should of been sorted by now. Then they were investing money, in lord knows what. why surely it should be used for helping others. That's why I only give to local charities some charities just get to big for their boots

I read once that if you want to really help then to support charities where you know your money is being used wisely. I supported a charity in Ruanda which set up families of siblings and looked after them and saw that they went to school. The head of the orphaned family was usually a 16 or 17 year old boy or girl. These families were supported by this charity (Cherie Blair was on the board.)
After a year or two when I got emails I received an invitaion to a meeting in London on best parchment paper - like a wedding invitation.I didn't pay a monthly sum for such luxuries and as many years had passed I stopped.

Since then I support Medcines sans Frontiers and actually know of a doctor who works for them, her mother plays Bridge at the club and she - the doctor works for them 5-6 months in the year and in the rest of the time she works in various clinics supported fully by the German health service so that she doesn't suffer loss of earnings.
Without governement help there is little anyone can do especially in Africa, Aid and donations are taken by the armed forces there of which there seem to be plenty and they are fit and well fed.
The problem is just too big for us at home here in well fed Europe. The news makes terrible viewing and is hard to bear and our tears won't feed those babies.
I don't begrudge the doga and cats their money, Africa's problem is much bigger, it can't be improved by money given to cat's homes.

I too am suspicious of these larger, high profile charities, and I seem to remember a programme which reported that even though vast amounts of money had been donated to help in emergency situations, much of this money was just invested rather than spent where it was very badly needed.

Having said that, at least some money must filter through and the alternative is to do nothing and just stand by as people die.

I can't see what is wrong in giving to animal charities, so long as it isn't exclusively to animal charities.

The idea that famine is an effective way of curbing population is repellant to me.

About 10 miles from where I live is a very affluent village, I certainly couldn't afford to live there. So I was totally horrified to learn that the village playschool had received a £1000 grant from children in need, therefore I agree with other posters on here that you need to try and check out the charity before donating. The millions that are raised in this country alone don't seem to be achieving anything significant. We would all like to see an end to this suffering and heartbreak. Why are we funding trips to space when we can't look after our own planet

Charities grow their money through investments.

I must say I'm sick of the same bollocks being sprouted re charities.

Africa is a huge continent with many different cultures, so many different strategies may be needed and different levels of aid required.

I find Bill Gates' blog about famine in Africa very inspiring. He writes about the very many malnourished children as well as the children in the areas of famine. He is of course in a very advantageous position to help and he and his wife are doing amazing work there.

I wrote on another thread that in the night last night, I went to the kitchen after just seeing the image of a starving baby on the TV and felt moved to send money to 2 charities when faced with the choices I had for a simple snack. I'm sure we all do what we can.

Mauriherb, well said re space programs! I strongly agree with you. I Have thought exactly that for many years now. As a young child of 8 at Sunday school we were shown slides of children starving in Biafra, I am now in my sixties & nothing has changed , we are still seeing the severe plight of the starving despite what must be enormous amounts of money over the years, yet nothing has changed☹️

I agree with katiemay too !

Margrete I totally agree with
What human being will bring another human into the world to live in such poverty, only to watch its life end in what must be tremendous pain then go and create another to suffer the same, beggars belief.
How can you help those who won't help themselves and are living in a world where centuries old beliefs and customs still prevail
This has been going on for centuries Surely the message should have got through by now.