"A German woman who is organising a fund-raising for a children’s home in Nairobi is frustrated about the lack of support from Kenyans. A friend of hers says the would-be benefactor has not found any Kenyan living in Germany, who is willing to volunteer his or her services for a few hours. Some have even asked to be paid a little something but the German finds this rather callous…" (source: The Cutting Edge, by Watchman, Daily Nation, Kenyan Newspaper)
Similar to Afromusing’s challenge earlier this week, in which she asks all keyboard/pyama/blogging activists out there if they could imagine donating US$ 5 for a tree planting project, I would like to ask the esteemed readers of my blog if they could imagine donating some of their income for social projects like a children’s home.
In fact, I was just chatting with Irena about this issue and she told me about the agony of organizing a fundraising evening in the US that just generated US$ 10 for a good project whereas ppl were spending 50 bucks each on food & entertainment during that evening.
Sorry, but that’s just so sick.
Hence, the provoking allegation that I would like to make and on which I would like YOU to comment on is that there are a lot people out there – no matter what nationality – that don’t give a damn about others. And it’s not only that they don’t care, it’s also that they seem to think that OTHERS might be responsible for the fate of street/abandoned children, the environment, politics / etc..
Charity begins at home? For them it ends at home.
And what’s with all those over-funded non profit organizations that have some money to share? What kind of overhead expenses are generated by local NGOs? Where are the jobless volunteers that would jump on the boat to work as trustworthy representatives?
So many questions…
And yet I am afraid that all this once again ends up in the same way it often happens: people are just talking all day long and nothing happens the moment REAL ACTION is required. It’s so easy to rant about these issues, but it’s hard to deal with bureaucraZy and other obstacles that prevent e.g. NGOs from working efficiently. While there are some officials that understand that most NGOs are doing a good job and need to be supported, others are just using the system for another rip-off. And the people? They leave it to the government a.k.a. corrupted civil service networks. Again, this attitude of surrendering responsibility to others which just drives me nuts!
Wangari Maathai, I think, wasn’t only awarded the nobel peace prize for planting trees, raising awareness for environmental issues or because the nobel committee wanted to send a signal. I think she got that prize mainly because she kept on fighting and never gave up.
I wish some of her spirit could have an effect on the Blue Band/PS2/mobile phone Generation worldwide – the kids of this next generation who prefer being entertained by the media and trade in any quest to have a postive change on this world for an easy, hassle-free lifestyle that doesn’t include taking care of others. And it is us – me, you, everyone – we need to teach them and live good values.
Yani, I take it that those who have access to the internet and take their time to read blogs might think in a similar way and do not need any further briefing on this matter. However, since there are still so many ignorants out there, let’s make a start and generate some awareness. It might not change much, but we need to start somewhere at least.
n.b.: the interesting observation is that charity seems to be much more common with the poor.
