Amrix

I was looking at a number of different websites which seem to promote responsible good charitable causes, some even seem to be quite well connected and linked, an example of this was www.1800genocide.com and www.genocideintervention.net.  After spending a good 10+ minutes at ways to help the cause, I was actually quite disappointed.  As a hot blooded young activist, I want to contribute in any way that is possible, but when I investigated further, it seemed that there were only a few options available to me,

1. write a letter to a politician
2. donate money

Now, it may be a pessimistic viewpoint, but I’m not sure how beneficial writing a letter to a politician is.  Surely these men and women are very busy people and for me to take a pre-made template and fill in the gaps, then if I was in their shoes, I would probably be inclined to ignore the letter and add it to my spam pile.  So that basically that leaves me with giving money.  Seems pretty straight forward, and these days it’s easier than ever to donate money online to good causes, Paypal being so universal that it is.  So, you would expect some kind of donation like £5 to £10 and maybe in return you will  get some kind of badge or thank you gift and news letter explaining what the charity is doing and where the money is being spent.  Have a look at these images, and can you imagine my reaction:

Yes, that’s right, my reaction was something like “Arrrrrrrgh”.  I am just horrified, not because of how much poverty and disease there is in the world, but because of the countless more examples of how charities seem to be trying to get more money.  When it actually comes to actively helping out, there seems to be very very little direction, if any at all.  Of course I’m not just going to hand over such a large sum of cash, and why should I?  I am not going to finance a paper trail of beaurocracy, a big fat pension for the CEO, luxury company cars and business class flights to seemingly pointless meetings and conferences.  What I want to see, with evidence to match, is action!  I want to see how the money has helped to change peoples lives, with testimonies, examples, pictures, videos, comments, articles and even more.  As a supporter, I want to engage with the charity and with the people that are being helped, so I will get as much out of it, as the people receiving the help and so my effort and money is used in the best way possible.

I think I will look closer to home, for some smaller charities that might be doing something positive in the local neighbourhood, they probably won’t have a website either (thank God), but I think the money will do a lot more good and be more appreciated too.