![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpelkinmalawi.jpg\" "\\"cpelkinmalawi\\"")
<\/a>Are all charities charitable?<\/p><\/div>\n
Pelkey, a fourth-year electrical engineering student at the University of New Brunswick, wanted to help Malawi develop and gain experience that he could bring back to Canada.<\/p>\n
Pelkey worked for a company called Rent-To-Own.\u00a0 His job was to travel with two staff members that he would train.\u00a0 One of them learned how to use electrical equipment, and the other used a record-keeping program that Pelkey designed.\u00a0 He also met with Rent-To-Own\u2019s agents to figure out what type of skills they lacked.<\/p>\n
Pelkey said Malawi is very diverse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe capital city had a huge shopping mall that was nicer than anything we have in Atlantic Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was sort of juxtaposed with this rural village I was in where the house I was staying in didn\u2019t have electricity, the toilet was a hole in the ground and there was no running water.\u00a0 So every morning we\u2019d go and collect water in a wheelbarrow and bring it back to the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Pelkey, Cabanda, the town he stayed in, has an average annual income of around $200 or $300 a year. There is a lot of poverty, but everyone has food, water, a roof over their heads and clothes on their back. People rely on each other to survive. A brother might take care of their sibling\u2019s children if they aren\u2019t being fed enough, or another family would supply someone with food.\u00a0 He said their life isn\u2019t as bad as big charitable organizations make it out to be.<\/p>\n
When you go to the mall to do your Christmas shopping, you might be approached by people who show you pictures of diseased African children or sad-looking orphans and tell you that there are thousands of villages with people like this who need your help.\u00a0 These are the messages that Pelkey disagrees with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really humiliating, the way that they portray Africans, and it\u2019s not an accurate picture.\u00a0 It does happen in certain situations, but those situations are very few and very far between,\u201c he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t see them unless you really went looking for them.\u00a0 You know those pictures you see of kids with flies all over them and they can\u2019t even do anything about it?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see that once.\u00a0 I never saw someone that was so hungry that they were just bones.\u00a0 It\u2019s not accurate at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Sarah Lyons worked as a fundraiser for World Vision\u2019s child sponsorship program.\u00a0 World Vision is a Christian international aid organization that, according to its official website, wants to address poverty through the development of communities.\u00a0 Lyons, an arts student at UNB, said she researched which organizations are trustworthy before applying for a job.<\/p>\n
\u201c[World Vision is] not about giving anybody fish. It\u2019s about teaching everybody to fish, giving them all the equipment that they need to fish, and then teaching them how to maintenance that equipment and maybe produce it themselves,\u201d Lyons said. \u00a0\u201dIt\u2019s self sufficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyons used Money Sense Magazine\u2019s Charity 100 list to pick World Vision.\u00a0 The list grades 100 of Canada\u2019s charitable organizations on things like the percentage of spending going into programs, the compensation of the CEO or highest paid salary member, fundraising efficiency and governance\/transparency.\u00a0 World Vision has an overall grade of B+, roughly in the middle of the international aid rankings.<\/p>\n
Lyons admits some charitable organizations try to show the worst scenarios to get pity from people.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe some of them are depicting an accurate situation where there are people that they want to help, but a lot of them are just fudging it up to get your money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyons also warns that some organizations spend a lot of the funds collected on administration and employee salaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2008 my sister went over to Africa and she volunteered at a couple of different places . . . She ended up at a terrible organization where half of her money was pocketed \u2018for administration,\u2019\u201d Lyons says. \u00a0\u201dOn Christmas, the kids didn\u2019t get any toys, they didn\u2019t really have adequate food to eat, and then there was no power that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Tina Reissner sponsors a child through World Vision.\u00a0 She was approached at the Regent Mall this summer while shopping with her fianc\u00e9.\u00a0 She was impressed because the girl who approached her assured her the money she donates goes towards education, water and food for the children, and not just World Vision\u2019s administration.\u00a0 But Reissner\u2019s fianc\u00e9 was skeptical.<\/p>\n
When the woman showed them a picture, her fianc\u00e9\u00a0said, \u201cAm I going to go to a friend\u2019s house and see that same picture on his fridge?\u201d<\/p>\n
The World Vision worker said she\u2019s heard of organizations that do that, but hers doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said she was actually going to visit that village this Christmas, and she would check on [the child] for us,\u201d Reissner said.\u00a0\u201cShe kind of went into more detail, she started talking about how she sponsors six different children and she showed me one particular child that she sponsors, and she showed me pictures of the whole family.\u00a0 Then she started to cry, because she\u2019s so emotionally invested in what she does. Then of course I started to cry, then my fianc\u00e9 was like \u2018OK.\u00a0 Let\u2019s write the cheque now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Reissner pays forty dollars a month to sponsor 4-year-old Shukula.\u00a0 She gets pictures of him and writes him letters, and said to her family he feels like her children\u2019s younger brother.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Both Pelkey and Lyons agree that if someone wants to help third-world countries, they should do lots of research first.<\/p>\n
Lyons recommends Money Sense Magazine\u2019s Charity 100 list, or asking experienced volunteers for guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know somebody like me who\u2019s been over to Africa, and you know you want to help, and you want to give your money, it would really help if you knew that it was going somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pelkey said even buying fair trade products is an easy way to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to solve the problems overnight if one family starts buying fair trade products, but it is a good system.\u00a0 It\u2019s helping people where they need it, and helping in a way that\u2019s sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother way to help out is just to understand the realities of what is happening over there.\u00a0 Read up about it, get to know the situation a little better, so when you do decide to support an organization, you\u2019ll know which ones are maybe a little better or a little worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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