Is it that the West won’t help or that they don’t want the help?

Is commercialization of charities ruining their morals and ethics?

One woman Christine..

from Kenya talks about how her charity fails to see the

benefits of Western involvement.

Jambo Jipya is a small charity based in Mombassa in Kenya. The charity is run by a local who started out helping her neighbours; three orphaned children whose parents had died of Aids and was in need of care and first aid supplies. This began to snowball and generated more people needing Christine’s help.

In 2001 Jambo Jipya was officially set up as a recognised non-profit charity. The orphanage and school now caters for over 150 families, providing children with education, parents with knowledge about disease and how to protect children’s psychological and physical health.

The Charity is a small regional project. All the money they receive is from donations and goes directly to the children. The majority of the staff, apart from the teachers are unpaid volunteers.

However the charity doesn’t receive any funds from organisations such as the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The founder is unsure of whether this would benefit the charity. She doesn’t want the charity to become another “Fad”. Christine wishes Jambo Jipya to stay a personal organisation that is not corrupted by the money thrown at charities for advertising.

She states, that the problem with a lot of charities is the money donated does not go directly to the children themselves. This is because it has to be spent on advertising, promotion, websites and shops. Jambo Jipya is not like that, all the money goes to benefit the children and no one profits from the donations. I would not wish the burden of commercialism on to my charity, and so am not involved with the Western organisations..

A student, Helen Savva, talks of how the money from such organisations would “Burden them with proof”. She goes on to suggest that they would constantly have to be in talks with the West, justifying their project. She believes that inevitably they would end up becoming a product of the money the West pumped in to the charity and not a product of the needs of local people.

Helen spent a month at Jambo Jipya in 2007, she saw the way that Christine and her team touch the lives of all they help. The personal relationships formed and the bonds created throughout the community. Helen believes that if Jambo Jipya were to be funded by a Western organisation it would risk loosing these beneficial aspects.

Helen has suggested that although these organisations are, at face value, positive, they bring with them burdens, constraints and demands, as Helen states “The charity would become a slave to the demands of the funders, the reason for Jambo Jipya would be lost–and for what money?”

Although these seem like strong words and surely any money a charity receives will be beneficial Jambo Jipya and Helen are not alone in their thoughts. An English woman, Lisa Walsh set up a women’s refuge in Zimbabwe after spending time with her aunts servants and realising the hardship felt by women in Africa. Although the refuge is small it provides women with a safe place to stay, were they’re psychological and physical health are taken care of.

This charity also wishes not to get involved with organisations from the West. Although they respect that they want to help, they do not want to pay the price for receiving money from the West.

Grace Evans, a friend of the Founder of this refuge stated that, the interference of the West would act as a deterrent for many of the women using this safe house. Lisa Walsh doesn’t wish to have involvement with Western organisations because she fails to see them as moral or ethical. Many of the people working for these organisations and the charities have vast salaries. Like Christine, Lisa believes all the money should be passed on to the people in need, not the people that help.

Although this may seem like a positive aspect it is still difficult to get money to these types of charities. Only recently have Jambo Jipya created a website, and although there is a link to make a donation, it is merely the details of a bank account, putting off donators as there is no security or guarantee the money will reach the charity.

Organisations such as the DFID or United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) are very beneficial in the fight against poverty. They provide charities with adequate money resources, promote the charity to raise awareness and allow the charities to expand, helping a larger number of people.

In Kenya, the DFID helped 1900 disabled children go to school by supporting VSO’s Special Needs Education Project. Another project in Ghana to help children stay in school or go back to school. Government grants backed by the DFID have made tuition, equipment and classrooms free.

Although these organisations do help, they also fuel the corruption seen in the governments of these countries. The governments can mis-use the money donated by the DFID or UNIDO. This adds to the problematic decision of whether to use the help offered by the West.

The consequences of accepting donations from the West are vast. Many feel their projects would benefit from no involvement with Western organisations. This unfortunately places small projects and charities such as Jambo Jipya in a catch 22. Without the help from organisations such as the DFID they will struggle to expand, however their help brings many consequences.