Old Clothes for Charities

[bobleponge]

Same with famines ... Ethiopia was actually exporting grain during its 1984 famine

We have enough food on this planet to feed everyone, even without GM wonder crops , but not the political will to stop corruption. It's not our place, who is Britain to tell everyone else what to do?

(GM crops: will make money for Monsanto, they aren't doing it for charity)
It makes you feel powerless, and part of the corruption.

Tis true re Ethiopia, but there are pertaining factors to that particular case. Ethiopia has a massive national debt, and always sells its grain a year in advance to offset interest payments against this. In 1984 they were duty bound to export the grain grown, even though their country was in the grip of famine, in order to continue to benefit from being allowed a national debt the size of theirs.

The corruption is the problem. I read an article the other day, written by an eminent Sudanese academic, basically saying that while the African mentality of corruption and taking aid continues, the entire continent will continue to spiral downwards and will finally implode, returning the entire land mass to neolithic living standards. This gentleman lives in exile in the UK, which is the only way he could have this paper published and not fear for his life.

[bubblewrap]

Is his a case of the rich robbing the poor to make the rich richer?

[Two_Sheds]

The corruption is the problem. I read an article the other day, written by an eminent Sudanese academic, basically saying that while the African mentality of corruption and taking aid continues, the entire continent will continue to spiral downwards and will finally implode, returning the entire land mass to neolithic living standards.

Corruption, wars, genocide ... the West sends aid ... which goes to the corrupt leaders ...

Is the West exacerbating the situation in Africa? Should we stop giving aid altogether?
If I buy a goat for Xmas, who gets that goat? Is there a goat at all? How much of my money goes to the goat and how much to the employees of Oxfam?

[lynda66]

I've never put anything in a charity bag through the door, if i have anything such as electrical items or furniture, there is a company up the road that collects, re-covers furniture, rewires etc, then sells very cheaply at cost of repairs plus a small profit to cover the charity overheads, no-one actually gets paid, the people that do the work are learning a trade, and they do it to actually help people that can't afford stuff and do it because they want to make a difference to local people ......small stuff goes to the local animal sanctuary shop round the corner, (they collect it too) and clothes that are completely useless, i turn into dusters, filters for the fish pond, then put on the compost heap etc ........ i have never heard of most of these charities, and prefer to actually know where my stuff is going..... and going direct to help the charities i want it to..... i have no objections to people giving to charities abroad, if the help is getting to the people that need it ..... i though, prefer the old charity begins at home.

[Rhona]

One method of giving directly to a specific group of people that I discovered some years ago was via the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afganistan (RAWA). Little of what some charities were trying to get to these women was getting through, and RAWA organised a network of women all over the world culminating in almost "personal delivery" of precious parcels. The people at the sharp end were doing a dangerous job, but many parcels of soap, writing materials, clothes etc. got directly delivered into the hands of the women who needed them.

There's much info on the website (things are slightly different now) if you're interested. http://www.rawa.org

[Two_Sheds]

there is a company up the road that collects, re-covers furniture, rewires etc, then sells very cheaply ...no-one actually gets paid, the people that do the work are learning a trade, and they do it to actually help people that can't afford stuff and do it because they want to make a difference to local people

this is great stuff. We had a brilliant little furniture shop in Lowestoft that had a team of disabled adults, learning difficulties etc, making furniture to sell in the shop ... I bought some great trellis, birdboxes etc from them.

This is the sort of scheme that should be run for the long-term unemployed too ... get them out of the house, learning a skill, learning to deal with other people, the public, learn about selling, build up some contacts etc.

I daydream of setting up a workshop where we get volunteers to refashion old shirts, sheets etc and make them into quilts and cushions, to be sold to raise money for hospices etc.
It's all beyond my abilities though ... having a premises, organising volunteers, teaching the skills, accounting. Big can of worms!

[lynda66]

this is great stuff. We had a brilliant little furniture shop in Lowestoft that had a team of disabled adults, learning difficulties etc, making furniture to sell in the shop ... I bought some great trellis, birdboxes etc from them.

This is the sort of scheme that should be run for the long-term unemployed too ... get them out of the house, learning a skill, learning to deal with other people, the public, learn about selling, build up some contacts etc.

I daydream of setting up a workshop where we get volungteers to refashion old shirts, sheets etc and make them into quilts and cushions, to be sold to raise money for hospices etc.
It's all beyond my abilities though ... having a premises, organising volunteers, teaching the skills, accounting. Big can of worms!

it is a wonderful idea, the volunteers are from all walks of life, disabled, unemployed, even working but with spare time, and you're right it does give people a purpose ...... i do think it would be wonderful that long term unemployed who want to work, should be able to work somewhere like this it has to be so much better than sitting home all day wondering what to do with their lives ..... it would also be good if the government gave help for such schemes..... you could contact your local volunteer bureau, there may be some scheme like this available

[Hilary B]

There is a charity called 'Convoy Aid Rumania'. Unlike most of the charities in action there it is NOT purely a children's charity, but also helps old people. Some old folk in the villages there have no source of income other than a tiny plot of land which they are no longer able to work without machinery, and the local machinery is owned by people who take nearly all the produce in payment for the use of it. One of the charity's aims is to provide 'community' tractors, and to link up young folk who have no work with old folk who cannot work the land. They have to find the fuel for the tractor, and the produce is then shared between the worker and the landowner.
The charity also provides insulation for the shacks some old folk still live in. Gifts are taken by lorry direct to the villages where it is needed. I started giving occasional payments when I met 2 people who had actually been along with a delivery. The lorries are loaned by businesses, the drivers use their holiday entitlement to drive there, the ferry companies don't charge them. The only costs are fuel, and (unfortunately) bribes to the border guards at the far end. There have been times when lorries were only allowed into the country on payment of a substantial bribe to the border guards.....

[Hilary B]

The other thing that annoys me is when we get bags for clothes for 'help the aged', which, if you read the small print, the profits from selling anything collected are shared between the charity and a 'commercial partner'.
On the rare occasions I have clothes for recycling they go to a LOCAL charity shop, usually a Hospice.

[Two_Sheds]

you could contact your local volunteer bureau, there may be some scheme like this available

Huh. They are a joke, much like the Job Centre.
I gave my name to them a couple of years ago, and never got anything sensible back - in fact, nothing at all.
I got my volunteer work by going and knocking on doors, and asking directly.

[bobleponge]

Corruption, wars, genocide ... the West sends aid ... which goes to the corrupt leaders ...

Is the West exacerbating the situation in Africa? Should we stop giving aid altogether?

This was part of the premise of the Sudanese essay. The guy basically said that Africa has to stop being dependant on donor aid as the entire world knows that the majority of it never reaches the intended targets.

I agree and sympathise to a degree with the "charity starts at home" ethos, but from a historical standpoint, a lot of the troubles currently facing Africa were originally sown by European colonisation. My own feelings are that morally we must do something. Nobody could have failed to have been moved by the "feed the world" campaign pictures, or THAT Pullitzer prize winning photo where the photographer commited suicide shortly after taking it, but with the rampant corruption, (certainly here in Africa) and the inefficient use of charitable donations, the question must be asked, "what can we do?"

I do get on my soapbox on this issue as I have nothing but contempt for a lot of the senior charity management having seen them wasting donated money, and then seeing the absolute nothing that people here have.

There is a good charity for homeless people, started in France but now in the UK as well I believe. Emmaus. Its run for homeless people by homeless people. People with stuff to give away (like a freecycle in a shop) call Emmaus and a couple of their homeless workers go and take the stuff. They bring it to the shop, clean it etc and then sell it on. They are paid a salary, which allows them to rent a place, which, with a fixed address allows them to get onto the welfare system for extra benefits etc. It also instills a feeling of self worth rather than hopelessness that a lot of homeless people feel. Its a good system and I buy stuff from my local one often.

[lynda66]

i have found with the volunteer centre, if you call in they will give you contact details ..... but you do have to do the legwork yourself xx

[Flummery]

I daydream of setting up a workshop where we get volungteers to refashion old shirts, sheets etc and make them into quilts and cushions, to be sold to raise money for hospices etc.

I did this once. Scoured local charity shop for good shirts, made a quilt - gave it to be raffled by another charity. Double charitable whammy!

[Two_Sheds]

There is a good charity for homeless people, started in France but now in the UK as well I believe. Emmaus. Its run for homeless people by homeless people.

that's what I like, but there isn't one near me to donate to, so I shall continue FreeCycling instead
Donating items · Emmaus

[Two_Sheds]

i have found with the volunteer centre, if you call in they will give you contact details ..... but you do have to do the legwork yourself xx

I called in - I got contact details ... but the stuff on their list was all, and I mean ALL, charity shop work.

they hadn't listed any of the other things people could be doing, like hearing children read in schools; gardening for old people http://www.onesuffolk.co.uk/MowandGrow/Howtovolunteer/; picking litter off the beach Adopt-a-beach and Beachwatch.

I had to go out myself and find these contacts myself, when a Volunteer Bureau should already have these things on file. The staff just looked at me "gone out": no help, no initiative. Mind you, that's probably just the East Angular attitude, it might be better in other towns