Doing something for the poorest...

[Caro]

When I was back in Europe, I've sort of always wanted to somehow contribute to helping the poorest, i.e. giving money to a big charity, but I also was very concerned by the fact I had no guarantee the money will indeed be used in a good way and will not end up in the wrong pockets and feed corruption.
So this is has always prevented me from really giving as much as I would have liked to.

As part of my work here in Cameroon, I got involved in a project (part of my company's social / sustainable development activities) to raise money for a local charity that supports orphans and widow(er)s who have lost their relative to Aids and have been left with no resource (and are most of the time HIV+).
I have met the president of the association, seen their small place in one of the poor areas of Douala, met and discussed with the widows and kids. They have accepted me on their 'coordination board' which means that I will be able to help them to use the money for their various projects.

To give a bit more info about that charity, the activities they do cover for their members are:
- councelling to newly HIV-infected members
- pays for 2-yearly blood analysis to monitor evolution of HIV
- pays for some (very) basic treatment when required
- distribution of little 'packages' to all orphans containing food, school stuff, sometimes clothes and other essentials (soap etc) - 2 / year / kid. When they have enough money, they also distribute packages in several villages.
- prevention and education about HIV/Aids (speeches in churches, participation in various events etc), done by the infected members
- training for the (girls) teenage orphans to become professional tailors/dressmakers.
- running of a small tailor/ sewing workshop (provides employment to newly trained girls and brings money to the charity)

People that discover their positive status at the hospital are oriented towards a list of charities, this one is on the list. People choose to become members and pay a (very) small annual fee, there are arrangements available for those who cannot pay.

The charity is financed by the State (very little - about 1,000 pounds / year) and by some of those big European (mostly French) charites like Solidarite Sida etc, on a project by project basis (approx 10,000 euros / years).
It counts 121 adult members and 243 orphans (having lost one or both parents).

So, this year as part of the World Aids Day (tomorrow) I am raising money for them (with other people from my company). My company will double the amount that has been raised.

Of course, I am still in no position to guarantee that the money will not end up in the wrong pockets, but what I can guarantee is that I will do my utmost that it doesn't happen. And I am certainly more confident to give my money that way than from Europe.

Anyway, I thought, that if I was still in Europe and I had a friend who was here in Cameroon doing what I do, I may be more confident to give money through them. Hence I am offering this possibility for those who would wish to contribute.

If you are interested, please PM me and we'll take it from there.

I do think and hope I am doing the right thing here and that I (or we) will be able to make a difference to some people's life.

[Sparkles]

This sounds like such a worthy cause, Caro - well done for getting involved.

Might I suggest you set up an online 'sponsorship' form, similar to the one CJ had for his freefall earlier in the year - that way people could easily donate money to you over the net and also you could add a link to the charity you speak of (if they have an official website)?

Good luck

[Caro]

Might I suggest you set up an online 'sponsorship' form, similar to the one CJ had for his freefall earlier in the year - that way people could easily donate money to you over the net and also you could add a link to the charity you speak of (if they have an official website)?

Thanks for the suggestion Sparkles - I have looked at the 'just giving' website and unfortunately to set up a page you need to nominate a charity that is registered in the UK - which it is not.
If anybody knows of any other way to set this is up please let me know. At the same time I want to do this quickly because I will probably not be able to guarantee that my company will double the money after next week. So the easiest solution seem to be through my bank account (which of course involves a great degree of trust so I totally understand that people may not want to do that - but I wanted to provide the opportunity anyhow).

The charity is AFSUPES (it hasnt got a webpage but if you do a quick search on the web you will see that it is registered in France and Cameroon, and some info about some projects funded by WHO and others such as SUNAIDS, CDC Tiers Monde etc - most of it in french sorry), which stands for Association des Freres et Soeurs Unis pour l'espoir et la solidarite.
I even found a picture of the sewing shop (which I have seen and it is authentic), attached to this post.

[azande]

You could also open a paypal account specifically for collecting the money for this...

[Caro]

You could also open a paypal account specifically for collecting the money for this...

thanks for the suggestion Azande

I've looked into this and if I understand well I would need the charity to open an account, not me? (if it's my account then I can still be malicious and use the money for whatever I want?)
It looks like the 'paypal network' doesn't extend to Cameroon though (from the info on their website). Also people here are not as computer litterate as we are, the charity barely has an e-mail address... I doubt they'll be willing/able to go into this. Remember, it's just a small charity from a small district of Douala...

looks like the most practical solution so far is just e-transfer to my account and then me withdrawing the money from here.

[azande]

Nothing is stopping you in opening the account in your name, at the end of the day there would be no substantial difference between transferring the money to your private bank account or to your paypal account but it might be cleaner to keep them separate and you would not send your bank details to lots of people.

[Caro]

Nothing is stopping you in opening the account in your name, at the end of the day there would be no substantial difference between transferring the money to your private bank account or to your paypal account but it might be cleaner to keep them separate and you would not send your bank details to lots of people.

ok I think I'll do just that (although I am not entirely sure how paypal works but hey I should be able to figure it out ) - and don't worry, I haven't sent my bank details to lots of people yet

[LMC]

It might be worth talking to Charities Aid Foundation? They work internationally (all the "w"s cafonline.org) so might be able to set something up for you, or tell you how you can make it work from UK -> France (if one of the donor trusts will agree to receive funds on your behalf)/Cameroon without paying too much in fees.

[Caro]

It might be worth talking to Charities Aid Foundation? They work internationally (all the "w"s cafonline.org) so might be able to set something up for you, or tell you how you can make it work from UK -> France (if one of the donor trusts will agree to receive funds on your behalf)/Cameroon without paying too much in fees.

thanks LMC for the link - definately looks like something very interesting for people like me who want to have some guarantee that what they give is used effectively.

However I am not sure I want to go into to much admin work for this, this charity already gets support from some international and French charities and I don't feel that an additional 'link' to UK is paramount.
Plus, as I said, there's a time constraint to ensure that my company will double the donations, so for the people interested, the faster we can do this, the better.

It's going to sound weird may be but I don't exactly intend to raise loads and loads for them (at least through the forum - although it would be nice if it happens), I almost posted this thread in a selfish way, thinking from my own point of view before I went to Africa and having wished many times that I could give money and know it will be used properly. So I guess I just wanted to do that in case other people on this forum felt like me before - if that makes any sense?

[LMC]

Sorry, not being clear there Caro: the only UK link I was thinking of was potential donors. I'm fairly sure CAF has a French branch, which could maybe link with one of the French charities already working with the project. UK donors could then transfer fund to CAF France, which should almost certainly have facilities to accept international donations. CAF France could then transfer to Solid-wotsits (sorry, can't scroll and type at the same time and don't want to lose my train of thought) which is donating to your Cameroon project already and could transfer donor funds at the same time as their own funds.

Earlier this year, the charity I work for accepted funds from a family who had raised nearly £2K at a special birthday party, where the birthday lady had asked for donations to go to a specific area in Africa (yes, I'm being deliberately vague here). We have a locally registered partner in that area which then built a water well for a village using those funds and reported back to us. Fabulous - all we did was act as the "middle man" if you like - make the contacts and cover the overheads from our own funding.

So another alternative is to see whether you can make contact with the British Embassy there, or the French/Cameroon Embassy in London, or the Cameroon Embassy in Paris and find out which international NGOs (e.g. Water Aid, Action Aid, VSO) have projects in that country and link with an existing network which might be prepared to accept funds on a "restricted" basis - i.e. for the Douala organisation's projects only.