Motion: “NGOs: The new colonists of the Third World?”
By Verónica Díaz Suárez.
Fraud, business networks, fake adoptions, bank accounts in tax havens, sexual abuse, kidnapping children….and all in the name of charity. Every single charge listed above has been levelled at four NGOs in recent months: Anesvad, Intervida, Zoe’s Arc and Global Infantil.
Groups of people whose supposed altruism had protected them up to now have ended up in prison, while others await trial after lengthy investigations. These cases have potentially damaged the overall image of NGOs (non-government organizations), and not just at home. Many developing countries see themselves as subject to a new form of colonization, which imposes traditional western models under a paternalistic guise.
These are the recent cases:
ANESVAD: the president of this NGO was accused of misappropriation of funds and initially jailed. At present he is out on bail.
INTERVIDA: the state prosecutor’s office has accused the NGO of scamming Latin American companies to the tune of almost €200 million through a complex network of agencies, businesses and associations, all of which were supposedly dedicated to adopting and supporting children in remote areas.
ZOE’S ARC: an aircraft chartered b y this French NGO tried to evacuate 103 supposed war orphans to France from the Sudanese region of Darfur. But it turned out that the children were not form Darfur and weren’t orphans. The NGO staff even went so far as to disguise them to give the impression they were injured or wounded.
GLOBAL INFANTIL: this Catalan NGO has been accused by former staff and children at its Addis Abababased School of abusing and mistreating Ethiopian children, with harsh physical punishments.
All of these cases make me wonder if there are any NGOs that really work for helping children and people in the third world or if they are only interested in collecting money for their own benefits. This feeling creates a sensation of distrust when I watch TV programmes collecting money, and I asking myself: is it sure that the our money goes to people who really need it? Could we trust the NGOs?
I am pretty sure that a NGO as Vicente Ferrer Foundation helps Indian women and children quite good because they teach them how to manage the resources that generous people give them, they receive not only money, Vicente Ferrer says that money isn’t the solution for their problems, they need the necessary resources for learning how to survive in this complex world. This is a good example that the money is used in a good way but what about the others NGOs?
I’ll be waiting for your opinion about this controversial topic.
Comments»
When I read about these horrible abuses for the first time I couldn’t belive my eyes.It is extremely selfish and disappointing.I just feel trying to make money with resources which have been given by generous peple is a crime…a terrible and wicked crime.
I’m very interested in NGOs,as I’d love to take part in these kind of projects in a few years’ time.From my point of view,most of them are not a fraud and they work hard in order to make our world better.But the fact is that selfishness is always behind the corner,and some bosses and volunteers haven’t obviously have moral mentality.
Another point to consider is how to develop poor countries.They actually don’t need money and they have enough resources (gold mine,great lands,rich tourism,oil,diamonds…)What they really need is technics.They need to learn how to develop and it’s us who have to teach them,always keeping in mind that we’re not better,even more powerful.Events like America’s discovery are just disgusting,when I think about teaching I don’t mean distroying another county’s tradition and culture…
My first thought some time ago about NGOs was that those people who leave their comfortable lives to help poor people were great. And I still think that.
But I know there are too many people trying to help and too much money to be controlled. And we all know that money can make a honest person change. I don´t understand how human brain works, but what I really know is that there are people (too many) that look the way to get money easily and they don´t mind if that money is to build schools, hospitals or whatever.
The problem is when news like that appear on tv. We easily consider that all people working for a NGO is a thief! There are still many people working really hard to help poor people, so we must trust them and forget the ones who try to make those beautiful projects as private business
After reading this motion, I´m really afraid for people in need. All this concerns are doing that everybody loses their confidence in ONGs, I´m sure that the help to these ONGs and Charitys in general has decreased after that.
How Blick says, money can make appear our worst feelings and behaviour. It´s absolutely pathetic that someone can play with the survival of thousands of men, women and children. But, we shouldn´t put the blame in the whole organization, I´m sure that there are fair people inside.
I hope these facts don´t happen again.
I know that there are quite a lot of NGO’s which are still working in favour of poor people, but when you read newspapers and you look at this kind of news, you start to distrust to them. What can you do to avoid that sort of behaviours?
I don’t know but feeling that your money is not going to be used to improve their lives is quite frustrating.
For example, what do you think about the problems in the oldest Birmania, where the dictatorship doesn’t want to allow the NGO’s to help the affected people? They are using the resources in order to make money without thinking in the population. If governments are doing things like that, why are not going to do the same the NGO’s?
What we have to consider when we are going to help anybody is the main reason which inspires us to do that. It’s a term of money, of success, of advertising or is simply human solidarity. Many NGO’s were born with the idea of helping other people by increasing their way of life, dealing with their illness or fighting for the human rights.
Unfortunately, years pass and ideals change, so what we finally find on some NGO’s is a growing interest on monetary benefits. It’s a pity, not for themselves who committed the crime, but for the other legal NGO’s which really try to fight poverty, and which are losing day by day the confidence of people due to these undesirable people, as Black argued.
To finish this comment, I only have to say that I agree with Águeda because as the Chinese proverb says “Don’t give them a fish, teach them how to fish”. I think it’s a brilliant summary of the work that NGO’s should do.