Oxfam

Hi all, I'd like to give money to help with East Africa. are there any Oxfam regular givers out there who have an opinion on whether Oxfam is the right charity?

Thanks

Re: Oxfam

I personally would advise you not to donate to Oxfam but find a charity that is purely doing something to help those in need by providing wells and agricultural supplies or even livestock to help to help themselves.
If I could afford it that's what I'd do because I once read that a large percentage of donations gets swallowed up by bureaucracy by Oxfam but read this and decide for yourself: - http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&sou...boU0f43jMgLr4g
I should add the fact that my term "bureaucracy" includes corruption and down-right theft as it's well known that for every £100 million donated to Africa, TEN new African millionaires are created - a sad indictment on the human race.
stevmk2

Re: Oxfam

Thanks stevmk2,

My thoughts are as they are such a big charity, they will have the clout to make a difference?

Re: Oxfam

As I said, read the info on that link and decide for yourself David. Being Big doesn't necessarily mean being the Best.
In my opinion, donating to those that target helping the children with medical help, support, education and the means to sustain themselves in the future has to be the better way than continually pumping in just money alone. stevmk2

Re: Oxfam

I'm with stevmk2 here I would not give money to Oxfam as I think too much is swallowed up in admin costs. Going forward I think there is a need to educate these people and not let them have so many kids in the first place. Looking at the news there were many cases where there were 5 and 6 children in one family. I realise there has been a famine which was unexpected but I would hazard a guess that these families were never well off so should not have had so many children. Bring in compulsory sterilisation after two children and you will reduce the population and lessen the probem for the future. There are always problems in Africa and you won't sort them unless families are smaller in cases where couples are living on very low incomes.

Re: Oxfam

I tend to give to Oxfam because I was a volunteer shop assistant in one of their shops for a while after I retired. I was told then, that Oxfam helped people not only in emergencies but also helped them to help themselves in the long term. It is a very large charity so is bound to have overheads.

I'm afraid I much prefer education to compulsory - anything.

Re: Oxfam

I've just got to put this down.
A little while ago I decided to have a spot of lunch. A little unusual for me really because I don't bother much as a rule because, sitting at home with nothing to do, I don't work up an appetite.
We had a little salad in the fridge, mostly home-grown, and I had a pilchard to go with it.
I turned on the TV and the news was on.
It was about the African famines and drought as I turned on and they showed a little boy of maybe four or five, dressed only in an over-sized tee shirt. He had apparently just arrived after having walked on his own for many miles when his father died at the roadside of starvation.
He was given a tin or bowl of food. He stood there, little head bowed under the blazing sun, gazing down at the food then he walked away a little distance and squatted there, completely overcome by what he'd been given, before he began to carefully eat what was probably the first meal that he'd had in many days.
I was stunned; sitting in front of the TV with tears running down my face - I still am overcome with emotion now.

Needless to say I put my food back in the fridge - appetite completely gone.

When I start my job and starting earning some money again I want to do something -and I will.

Had I been there I would have scooped that child up and cared for him forever but I wasn't, so I'll do the next best thing. stevmk2

Re: Oxfam

Scenes like that tend to put everything else into perspective don't they Stevmk2.

Re: Oxfam

Yes Nuttygran, and I know that it's to get you to cough up too, but that little scene I found absolutely heart-breaking.
I've worked in North Africa for 20 months in 1980-81 on oil pipelines and seen real poverty.
I've helped locals dig ditches and culverts to better-irrigate their meagre fields when I wasn't working, along with other lads from our construction site and I've sat down and actually cried with those same locals when floods took not only their food and possessions but also their young and old from a village that I knew very well - but this tore into me. I felt so guilty yet helpless. stevmk2

Re: Oxfam

Only ten