To think if teenage girls from a private school can afford plane tickets ...

[Morgansports]

.... To visit the orphanage in Africa that they have been fundraising for, then the orphanage would be better served by just receiving the money they spent on their tickets. Seriously, what actual use to the orphanage is a group of hair-flicking, ugg boot wearing blondes???

And the bit that made me laugh is that other parents at the school were asked to help fundraise for the girls' trip.

AIBU?

morebeta huge amounts of stuff get through to developing countries via the diaspora and also tourists.

I wouldn't dream of going on holiday to Cuba without a case laden with stuff I can leave behind.

word its not clear cut i dont think (well obviously not, or it would be solved! ) but in short;

Aid payment is pilfered by the governments, so they do not have to rely on taxes; therefore they do not care about increasing employment so that people can provide for themselves

in the mean time, the peoples are not receiving the aid and so arent benefiting anyway

or; the aid is being received but is then buffering the need for cahnge

its short term vs long term yes; but considering short term can actually damage prospects for long term

What about our homeless and our poor?

Yes, they deserve to be helped, but it is up to an individual who they decide to help and how. If that person/charity/village doesn't want to be helped then they can say so, but no one has a right to decide who someone else helps with their spare time and money.

The attitude of 'charity begins at home' in this case really annoys me. The UK poor are no more worthy of help than the poor of any other country. And if anything, those in other countries need it far far more than anyone in this country ever could.

And interesting that there is an assumption that I am of Western origin.

I dont have an objection to teenagers going out to third world countries, mucking in (whether much use or not) and having their eyes opened to what deprivation and hardship really mean.

However, I think they should pay their own fares and expenses not 'fund raise' for them.

Have any of you been to a third world orphanage? It's an experience that does really change your life and no, I'm not babbling on a soap box. After spending time with children who have been through hell, you will always want to do something, something to make their lives even a little better.
It will stay with you.
These oh shock-horror, private school girls, will one day be in positions to help the ones who are as unfortunate as the orphanage children they visit. Having seen the desperation and need for help with their own eyes, chances are, they will try to help.

What a classist wanky thread. You should have been flammed for your comments OP. At least these girls are actually trying to make a difference in however small a way. You just sound like a mean spirited old harridan.

Would MY experience be of more or less value to you Joan depending upon my nationality/culture/race? Seeing as you dismiss the recounted experiences of people in some African nations as being less than objective?

Actually I think it is important to know what goes on in your own country.

We all vote, pay taxes etc and collectively can influence how the disadvantaged of our country are treated. So we should care.

I didn't say that some are more deserving than others - that's the exact attitude I disagree with.

What a nasty post KellyElly

The trip is more for the benefit of the girls than it is for the orphanage. Its not a bad thing for children in Europe to see the realities of life in another culture. My DSs have gain a lot from visiting DH's family in North Africa every year.

However, I agree with those that suggest foreign aid is a double edged sword. I prefer those charities that target assistance to allow local people to work their way out of poverty rather than dumping food on them for a while.
I read about this charity in the Telegraph the other day which seems like another good one
www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/lifestyle/farm-africa/9617010/british-charity-african-farming.html

BTW DH's home country in North Africa ranks 112 out of 183 on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index and I wouldn't argue with that and neither would he or his family that live there.

We're either jeeeeelous or harridans if we dare to disagree. (Plenty of mums here with voluntouring offspring you see).

Yes, it is important to know what goes on in your own country, but it is possible to know about what goes on in your own country at the same time as known about what goes on in others.

You didn't say that some are more deserving than others, but I read it as you were implying that by asking 'what about the poor and homeless in this country?' I'm sorry if that's not what you meant, it's hard to always know another posters intention from words on a screen, but the people in need in this country aren't really relevant to a discussion about people going to help the poor in other countries.

"And interesting that there is an assumption that I am of Western origin."

Er, there is?

I think you need to stop projecting your attitudes onto others. It doesn't seem very accurate.

wordfactory
Ditto - we take loads of painkillers, soap, children's clothes and medicines etc to DH's family.

These things are available in his country but they are really expensive. 4 bars of soap cost the same there as they do in the UK even though average wages are probably only 1/10 of the UK and unemployment is much higher (despite the abundance natural resources )

The assumption your posts made was that I do not know of which I speak and that i project my ethnocentric (western) views onto the lived experiences of those i refer to. I am saying....What If they are also my experiences? Would you dismiss them too like you dismissed the entire idea of oral history as being nothing other then misinterpretative?

I can see your point of view but who knows, one of these girls might be able to really impact the lives of many such poor children in the future? The visit might be the catalyst for something great and life changing in the 3rd world.

MoreBeta.
When I said there was corruption in Africa mignonette told me that was stereotyping and an outdated view.

I am interested to hear what mignonette will have to say on your post about corruption Chazs.

Ethnocentric? Since when did you have to be white to spend your time at SOAS, recording people in Thailand, or be a daughter of a surgeon? There's a lot you can read into that, and from your politics in this thread, but your ethnic background, no.

So, am I hearing this right then? Mignonette's father (presumably a white, western, middle-class man) works in Africa for a charity, but when anybody else does the same, it's colonialism?

The emotional implications of children in orphanages bring visited and cuddled by an endless stream of western teenagers concerns me. As someone said up thread many if these children have been through hell and have no idea how normal relationships and connections are formed. Of course they will love to be cuddled, all children do but how would you feel of strangers came to your child's school, gave them a few hugs and disappeared?

Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index
cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/

New Zealand is no. 1 - lowest perception of corruption

Interestingly
Spain is 31
Botswana is 32 (which fits in with what I have heard from people who live there)

So whilst there are high levels of corruption in parts of Africa (inc DH's country) not all of Africa has corruption problems.

I had the misfortune of visiting a Romanian orphanage.

Trust me, I would have given anyhting for those children to have been cuddled by anyone.

There's no suggestion that all of Africa has problems with corruption.