Charities: Do They Reach Those in Need?

I see everyday in the media the ‘celebrities’ and other individuals proudly acknowledging their efforts in helping eradicating poverty in the ‘third world countries’ and I applaud them for that. When I hear the amount of money they donate and give out to charities, I go bananas. I ask myself where does all the money go?

If you give your donations to big organizations then most of the money goes to processing the donations and by the time they reach those in need, more than half of it is gone. That is why others opt for NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organisations).


There are some very disturbing stories about NGO’s in some countries including mine. One time I was told by someone who had afriend who was employed to manage an NGO. The NGO manager opened his own office supplies shop and he was supplying the NGO with stationery and all the office supplies at skyrocketed prices. He also demanded all the people he was assign to help under the NGO, be it a school or just individuals that they must always buy all the stationery/office supplies from him so as to continue ‘helping’ them and he ended up making (stealing)  a lot of money.

Then there are those who push it too far by making ‘targeting the donors’ their business. They make shoddy schools and orphanages specifically to rip off donors. When they know that donors are coming down they bring children who are actually not even in need from very far to fill up the school and create a staged destitute scenario to win the hearts of the donors.

As a charity giver, it is difficult to control everything and with such stories you can be frustrated and may decide not to help anymore but the images of those in need will haunt you because they are really out there. As long as you see the books of accounts are okay, you hope that your money goes to fulfill the purpose it was intended to. Donors should from time to time give the donor recipients unannounced visit to surprise them and see what really goes on.

Those left in charge in NGO’s must be warned in advance and should know that people work hard to acquire what they have irrespective of where they are coming from. If they are caught engaged in corrupt activities they must face consequences.