Charity, Does It Work?

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Ever since Live Aid took place in 1985, there has been a constant stream of money going into places in the 3rd world. Now I know that some of it has gone to good use in setting up schools and training Doctors, much more besides. But there’s a problem, and it doesn’t seem to be talked about much although there are many who have reached this conclusion before:

It’s not working. A lot of the money is being used to pay for the staff who run the charity in the first place. The price of emergency food such as rice is at an all time high which means the charity pays more for it. But these aren’t the real problems.

In 1985 there was a crisis, it was all over the TV and in the newspapers. The first time we had seen children dying in our living rooms. Then Live Aid came on, rock for charity. It was great, loads of cash was raised to help these very needy people. So the aid stations stayed and small communities began to spring up around them. Every day trucks would come and dole out food to them. The ones that survived got better and stronger, they felt safe.

Now when humans feel safe we breed. So that leads me to a point, the children of the 1985 Live Aid have known nothing else apart from a truck comes and gives us food. So now they are dependant on the Aid. There is no other way they can survive. The area they live in can’t support the population, there are no jobs. There is no where they can grow food. What do we do?

Have another Live Aid? Do we keep putting money out there? Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to help out when we in the Western world can help. But are we helping? Or are we making the population of this 3rd world country dependant on us?

There must be another way, in the last 24 years since Live Aid nothing much has changed out there. There is still starving millions but they aren’t on the telly any more, it’s not news worthy.

Is there something you can do?