A while ago I found about this...

[Deleted]

Google for " Colege for international co-operation and development /CICD" and you will find the link.

And now it's becoming a life goal for me.
So many people say ''oh it's so sad there'' and yadayadayada, but so few really make the effort to make a difference for the people in the poor countries.

Even though some people would most likely come up with the argument ''well yeah, but you lose 2 years or so from your life and you learn nothing'' - some already told me that.Yeah but, how many lives do you help? And really, do you learn nothing there? I think you learn to be human.

Maybe I'm over-exponating, but yeah.


Anyway, share your thoughts, let it flow!

http://www.cicd-volunteerinafrica.org/

[elgato]

http://www.cicd-volunteerinafrica.org/ I believe this is the link.

[Deleted]

True, I simply can't post links yet

[Deleted]

Google for " Colege for international co-operation and development /CICD" and you will find the link.

And now it's becoming a life goal for me.
So many people say ''oh it's so sad there'' and yadayadayada, but so few really make the effort to make a difference for the people in the poor countries.

Even though some people would most likely come up with the argument ''well yeah, but you lose 2 years or so from your life and you learn nothing'' - some already told me that.Yeah but, how many lives do you help? And really, do you learn nothing there? I think you learn to be human.

Maybe I'm over-exponating, but yeah.


Anyway, share your thoughts, let it flow!

http://www.cicd-volunteerinafrica.org/

i believe it is not the normal human who needs to care for the low wealthy ones. i find it not more then fair that the ppl who have the wealth take care of them. with that i mean the rich..

an example, bill gates is known for filantrophy, he is believed to own roughly 60billion dollars, of which he gave 10 billion to 3th world countries. its a gigantic number, probably more then any human in history even gave away.

looking in context its only 1/6th of his currency, its absolutely nothing. if a normal person with a family makes 70k a year and donates something its numbers are vastly underwhelming in context to the wealthy. the world has a set economy, the rich do not need to pay more for goods then a normal family does and thuss has most of his money doing nothing useful.

i say all the bill gates and carlos slims (which is even more wealthy then gates right now) of the world give away a substantial portion of their money for targets that are reasonable so something gets actually done.

i must clarify a few things, there are actions going on in holland right now called serious request and while the intent is good it is absolutely disgusting that they prey on Human guilt if they dont follow the mass. they project feelings like JOIN US, DONT LET THE POOR AFRICANS DIE. IF YOU DONT DONATE YOU ARE A TERRIBLE HUMAN. YOU ARE EGOISTIC, YOU HAVE FOOD AND POOR AFRICANS DO NOT. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?! feeling like this, they try to talk that into you so you donate. this is disgusting. they raised 7milion euro last year and yes you can do some useful things with that money, however its absolutely nothing in context to the ppl that own the biggest percentage of the money going on this planet.

my question: WHY beg normal ppl who live a normal life in a western country for money?? it is unhuman to ask that of normal ppl.

go ask the rich ppl, with more money they should automaticly have more responsibility.

the situation in holland is truly this: why beg for a few drips of water from ppl who do not have more then a cup of water and ignore the ocean next to your door? yes the ppl that own the ocean will donate more then a few cups of water to say that they donated more then normal ppl. however the amount they donated didnt hurt them in the least. its only fair if they donated 90% of the ocean for the good of mankind. even more. if they kept the other 10% they would still be MUCH MUCH MUCH richer then any average kind of human will ever be.

[Archangel Tyrael]

The problem is not donating or not donating to 3rd world countries.

It's what happens with the donations once they get there.

[Siri]

Well, personally I donate money to Amnesty International and MSF (Doctors without Borders).
I know quite a few people who actually went to other countries (India and a few places in Africa) to help out there.
Everyone should just help in a way that they are comfortable with.

[Goatfish]

The only way to donate to one of those countries and not have the money go to lining someone else pockets is to go to that country yourself and manage it personally. It's astounding just how many support groups and charitable foundations pocket of the money they are given. A church in my area recently raised $8 million for a $2 million project, the extra 6m just disappeared off the map and now the pastor is driving a brand new hummer among other displays of wealth. It is the number 1 reason why even if I were rich, and not the poor schmuck I am, I would not give MONEY to charity. Now as for supplying a homeless soup kitchen with canned goods, and other such actions, I would gladly do.

It's the equivalent of giving money to a crack addict for Christmas so they can buy socks, or just giving them socks. One of those things achieves your goals. The other one just buys more crack.

[Siri]

Yes, let's compare an organization such as Doctors Without Borders to your local church, there's nothing wrong there.

[Archangel Tyrael]

I don't donate money because i cannot be sure that money will be used the way it's supposed to. Just like food/supplies sent to Afrika end up in militia's hands.

[Goatfish]

Yes, let's compare an organization such as Doctors Without Borders to your local church, there's nothing wrong there.

The point being, if you donate cash to someone, unless you personally watch their spending records (which 99% of people will not do). You will probably have some of that money going to line pockets. Now if you donate a can of soup, or cotton gauze, or band-aids, or syringes, or an MRI machine... any physical object that is not cash. You can be almost 100% positive that that item is going to be used for eating, dressing wounds, giving shots, etc. I don't get how you can't see that. A church is an organization that is supposed to help people as well. They are supposed to do charitable things. At the same time I can think of at least 3 different churches I personally know of who have lined their own pockets off donations.

Donate $1 a day to a child in Africa. If I remember right there are easily a handful of programs around right now that do that. Also if I remember right it wasn't long ago that one of them was shut down since it was helping fund a military group in Africa. I have nothing against helping people. If someone was stranded and needed a spot to stay for the night I would probably give them a couch and a bowl of soup, or at the least the dinner and use of the phone. What I would not do is give them $50 to go to a hotel. Helping people is good, getting conned out of your money is not good. There are thousands of ways to support people without just handing over your wallet and telling them to go to town.

[Deleted]

Charity is EVIL!

I really mean it.

We, humans, are destroying this world because we are too nice.

There are too much of us on this world, making it impossible for everyone to live a normal life.

There have to be rich and extremely poor people, else we would all be poor.

You may do as you please but while doing so realise youre aiding the destruction of our world.

Off-topic: Merry Christmas

---------- Post added 2011-12-27 at 09:01 PM ----------

i believe it is not the normal human who needs to care for the low wealthy ones. i find it not more then fair that the ppl who have the wealth take care of them. with that i mean the rich..

an example, bill gates is known for filantrophy, he is believed to own roughly 60billion dollars, of which he gave 10 billion to 3th world countries. its a gigantic number, probably more then any human in history even gave away.

looking in context its only 1/6th of his currency, its absolutely nothing. if a normal person with a family makes 70k a year and donates something its numbers are vastly underwhelming in context to the wealthy. the world has a set economy, the rich do not need to pay more for goods then a normal family does and thuss has most of his money doing nothing useful.

i say all the bill gates and carlos slims (which is even more wealthy then gates right now) of the world give away a substantial portion of their money for targets that are reasonable so something gets actually done.

i must clarify a few things, there are actions going on in holland right now called serious request and while the intent is good it is absolutely disgusting that they prey on Human guilt if they dont follow the mass. they project feelings like JOIN US, DONT LET THE POOR AFRICANS DIE. IF YOU DONT DONATE YOU ARE A TERRIBLE HUMAN. YOU ARE EGOISTIC, YOU HAVE FOOD AND POOR AFRICANS DO NOT. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?! feeling like this, they try to talk that into you so you donate. this is disgusting. they raised 7milion euro last year and yes you can do some useful things with that money, however its absolutely nothing in context to the ppl that own the biggest percentage of the money going on this planet.

my question: WHY beg normal ppl who live a normal life in a western country for money?? it is unhuman to ask that of normal ppl.

go ask the rich ppl, with more money they should automaticly have more responsibility.

the situation in holland is truly this: why beg for a few drips of water from ppl who do not have more then a cup of water and ignore the ocean next to your door? yes the ppl that own the ocean will donate more then a few cups of water to say that they donated more then normal ppl. however the amount they donated didnt hurt them in the least. its only fair if they donated 90% of the ocean for the good of mankind. even more. if they kept the other 10% they would still be MUCH MUCH MUCH richer then any average kind of human will ever be.

Take as much water from the ocean for the thirsty as you please, but as long as the ocean doesnt give because it wishes to give, the water in your hands ,the water you stole shall burn the mouths of those who thirst and those who need.

[Gheld]

Rich and poor are all relative terms for which people are too fixated on numerical equity. For example I refuse to give money to local charities for "the poor." because the local poor, well... I grew up in the 1980s in a middle class household. Getting a new toy was a rare event. I wore a lot of second hand clothing, we didn't have cable until later in the 90s because it was too expensive, we drove around in a rusted out old beater from the 1960s. I had to learn to love Kraft Dinner, because it was on the menu very often and my own bedroom? Hah! We lived in a dilapidated old 4 room house. As the 90s rolled around we moved into a bigger house, but only by my Dads home renovation skills (completely finishing the partly finished basement on his own) did I eventually get my own bedroom. Clothing became cheaper due to the evil "made in china" movement so it wasn't until I was a teenager that I would start to get some of my very own new clothing. Toys became cheaper too, so it was no longer as rare.

The bottom line is though that now in the 21st century plenty of the local "poor" eat better than I did, wear nicer clothes, and have far fancier toys than I ever had being a middle class child in the 80s. Even further back it was worse.

When my mothers family immigrated to Canada they lived in conditions that nobody in the western world could even imagine nowadays and yet had absolutely nobody to help them because that was relatively normal, that was working class.

Standard of living wise, the whole notion that "the poor are getting poorer" is absolute rubbish.

However I'm all for helping people in the third world, nobody in the 1st world is "too poor" to help considering the poor in North America have it better than I ever had as a spoiled rotten child in the 80s. I like to do research though because as some have eluded to, a lot of charities have their charitable givings intercepted by malevolent warlords that just use the food to feed their armies.

The best thing to do I think is to help out when there are natural disasters because usually the aid in that case is accompanied by military personnel from NATO and UN countries who go there to also do a lot of legwork and heavy lifting.

I'd also recommend animal charities. We often forget our furry brothers and sisters because they can't ask for help.

[Manabuns]

You may want to check this out.

http://www.awdf.org/

or

http://www.gnwp.org/members/wipnet

There are a few other foundations out there as well.

I'm all for helping out other countries, but they need to be helped their way. I'm not sure about the organization that you posted. Do they force western white culture on people that don't fit that category? Do they empower the people to do it themselves? It's hard to tell by the website.

[Goatfish]

Rich and poor are all relative terms for which people are too fixated on numerical equity. For example I refuse to give money to local charities for "the poor." because the local poor, well... I grew up in the 1980s in a middle class household. Getting a new toy was a rare event. I wore a lot of second hand clothing, we didn't have cable until later in the 90s because it was too expensive, we drove around in a rusted out old beater from the 1960s. I had to learn to love Kraft Dinner, because it was on the menu very often and my own bedroom? Hah! We lived in a dilapidated old 4 room house. As the 90s rolled around we moved into a bigger house, but only by my Dads home renovation skills (completely finishing the partly finished basement on his own) did I eventually get my own bedroom. Clothing became cheaper due to the evil "made in china" movement so it wasn't until I was a teenager that I would start to get some of my very own new clothing. Toys became cheaper too, so it was no longer as rare.

The bottom line is though that now in the 21st century plenty of the local "poor" eat better than I did, wear nicer clothes, and have far fancier toys than I ever had being a middle class child in the 80s. Even further back it was worse.

When my mothers family immigrated to Canada they lived in conditions that nobody in the western world could even imagine nowadays and yet had absolutely nobody to help them because that was relatively normal, that was working class.

Standard of living wise, the whole notion that "the poor are getting poorer" is absolute rubbish.

However I'm all for helping people in the third world, nobody in the 1st world is "too poor" to help considering the poor in North America have it better than I ever had as a spoiled rotten child in the 80s. I like to do research though because as some have eluded to, a lot of charities have their charitable givings intercepted by malevolent warlords that just use the food to feed their armies.

The best thing to do I think is to help out when there are natural disasters because usually the aid in that case is accompanied by military personnel from NATO and UN countries who go there to also do a lot of legwork and heavy lifting.

I'd also recommend animal charities. We often forget our furry brothers and sisters because they can't ask for help.

I wanted to comment on this because I grew up about the same way, in a poor household. Though as for the 'poor' in the 21'st century being better than the middle class 30 years ago just isn't completely true. My own case, yes I have internet and I eat fairly well since I know how to cook and shop around for cheap ingredients. Though the only reason I can even afford those 2 things is because I inherited a paid off house from a dead relative. I graduated high school and went to living in a poor mexican household in Phoenix for about 6 months where the water was unclean when it did work, and the room I lived in was shared by 3 other people. I literally slept in the closet. My meals consisted of basically tortillas, ramen, beans, rice, peanut butter and jelly, and whatever other foods happened to be on clearance. When people talk about the 'poor' now a days, that situation is the one they should be thinking of. I have been very close the bottom of the barrel before, and trust me, it is far worse than the middle class 30 years ago. There are record numbers of the homeless in the US now. I consider myself lucky to have had that room, even if I had to share it with 3 others. I still had enough money saved to buy my own food, as cheap as it was, there are some people who can barely say that. Never once in that time did I try for food stamps or welfare either. I was raised in a poor household where we worked for what we are given, and it is still what I believe, even though I am in a slightly better situation. I'm still considered 'poor' now because I make about 6-7 grand a year, but I can make it work with an extremely tight budget.

Anyway, before I ramble off more... 'The poor getting poorer' is true in many senses of the word. How much of today's disposable products are worth a dime compared to things built 30-60 years ago? Some of the technology is better yes, but the quality, usefulness, upkeep, and durability are generally much worse. You can use a rake 1000 times to get leaves off your yard at only the cost of a rake. But how much extra does it cost for that leafblower? Or the other reason even, what people make is rising slower than the cost of goods, and people are paying even extra to line the pockets of big business. 80 years ago you payed the farmer for the eggs. Now you pay the farmer, the truck driver, the store, the state, and the FDA. Unless you are lucky as I am and know a farmer who raises chickens and is willing to sell from farm, you don't have a choice in the matter one bit. Then continuing on the subject of food, while it is easier to get some foods, the quality of those foods is seriously questionable to me as a chef (chef by family tradition, not by trade). If you really think that those $1 fast food hamburgers and cheap frozen processed foods are edible and worth eating, go right ahead, they seem to do good business. I would rather take my chances with dog food than eat McDonalds.

So yes, standard of living has gone up even for the poor. Though the poor are getting shafted through price hikes and low raises, causing even more people to become poor and the poor to indeed become poorer. The quality of goods has gone down, so where a rake 30 years ago made of solid wood and metal would cost you $5 and last 30 years, now costs $10, is made of plastic and plywood, and you will be lucky to make it last 3 years. So again in that case, the poor become poorer.

As a final note though... please please please please for the love of all the is holy... do not give money to PETA. I volunteer at an animal shelter when they need help. I can not even begin to describe my absolute seething hatred for the fanatical group known as PETA. If you have any love for animals and feel like donating, either volunteer, adopt an animal, or give to the shelter. The first 2 are far far more useful than giving money 90% of the time... and again, the people who run and work with PETA deserve my size 12 scum covered work boot where the sun doesn't shine.

[Manabuns]

As a final note though... please please please please for the love of all the is holy... do not give money to PETA. I volunteer at an animal shelter when they need help. I can not even begin to describe my absolute seething hatred for the fanatical group known as PETA. If you have any love for animals and feel like donating, either volunteer, adopt an animal, or give to the shelter. The first 2 are far far more useful than giving money 90% of the time... and again, the people who run and work with PETA deserve my size 12 scum covered work boot where the sun doesn't shine.

I'm glad someone else feels the same way i do! I hate PETA with a passion.