(no subject)

[cynso]

So many people want to help. We feel that we have so much, we want to give it to others who have much less. We want to volunteer our vacations, donate our clothes, donate medicines, maybe even donate money. It's wonderful. And yet, what we give is not enough. Sometimes it's hard to see the effects of what we're doing. People want concrete evidence. Working with an NGO in a developing country, we try to give our donors the satisfaction of that evidence. We don't mean to manipulate the situation, yet sometimes we have no choice. They want photos of sick children before and healthy children after. Sometimes it feels like we are taking advantage of these children for their photos and their publicity. Sometimes it feels like all we do is try to provide evidence. But what else can we do?

What we really need are funds to build an infrastructure where we don't have to rely on funds from the outside. Where we can buy the medications that we really need when we need them, not fall back on only the medications that we are given. We need long-term volunteers to run these organizations, life-long volunteers who can run these organizations without draining desperately needed funds from the budget. What we must work with are short-term volunteers, often for a week or less, who must be catered to by the already strained staff. They mean well and they often make lasting changes, but nevertheless, this is tiring work.

I wish there were an alternative.