I know a place in WEST Africa that would love to have someone to help out ... a village of 2,000 people. But if you're going down the Eastern route then I don't think it will suit!

Best of luck

Kira

Charlotte,

Help in Africa is very often seriously counter productive. It takes initiative away from local, volunteers fill positions which should be filled by locals etc. On our trip we have seen so much of the wrong kind of help. We have spoken to so many locals who say that all the aid workers should be kicked out of their country and so on! Have there been any substantial improvement over the last 30 years despite all the aid? I am glad that you recognize you should stay away from the large scale charity orginizations.

We have also seen good project though. Those are what they call "the grass root projects". On a very basic level, initiated and controlled by locals, helping them out where they run out of possibilities, knowlegde, leveridge etc. The driving force should always come from the locals. While you are travelling through Africa you will come across such projects, as we did. Just keep your eyes and ears open. I do know about one small scale project set up by two Dutch, I don't know the details but this is their web link; Stichting Tim & Kim Village Unfortunately it is in Dutch only but if you drop them an email.... It is roughly about develloping tourisme, schools, activities in the area (a village in Ethiopia) to create work and infrastructure in order to break through the poverty cycle. Maybe this suits your ideas

Cheers,

Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Firstly, Kira, thanks for the response and kind words, but yes, I will be staying on the east coast, save for Namibia.

Secondly, Noel, I appreciate your sentiments exactly. This was my worry; to basically stick my nose where it wasnt wanted, and to upset a community's own way of coping. Thanks for the info on the "grass roots" projects and as you say, throughout my travels I will keep my eyes ears and nose to the ground! I shall try and get in contact with this dutch project closer to the time as well. Whatever I end up doing my choice to be involved will certainly depend on what degree the locals take part and drive the project.

Once again, many thanks

Cha

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Be scared that it may never begin.......

Look up "Peace Corps" volunteers in the countries you are passing through. They are volunteers who live in remote villages and speak the local languages.
They will be able to put you in touch with projects that might interest you and you might be able to help them on current projects your're working on.

In this day of the Internet, a lot of them keep blogs.

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edde
93 BMW K75s
www.motoedde.com

In my experience Peace Corps like to beat their own drum and are not interested in people just pitching up and making themselves available. They are also not very helpful in divulging information on potential projects outside their sphere of influence.

Agree 100% about supporting local initiatives and not massive multinational NGO's with massive overheads.

What skills do you have that you can hand over to others if they need it?

Blunders: A Swedish NGO in Kenya spent millions building a massive fish factory on the banks of lake Turkana to help the local nomadic herders to take up fishing. Once complete the income from selling the fish didn't cover the feul cost for sunning the engines to keep the freezers cold in the very warm climate. Then that section of the lake dried up and now it's just a massive big white shed in the middle of a desert. And the "fishermen" have gone back to their thousand year old nomadic herding. The NGO learnt the hard way and now they listen to the locals knowledge before implementing some very effective projects.

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I'm with Noel on this. Virtually every educated local I've met in Africa has expressed that they wished all the NGO's, the UN, and all other "do gooders" would leave their country ASAP. The sad truth is that many of these so-called "helpers" are more into it for their own benefit (job, building a flashy looking CV etc). Some of the worst I have met have by the way been people associated with the Peace Corp...

Most of the "help" Africa receives ends up making both the people and the nations even more dependent than they were from before. It basically creates nations of beggers, and beggers out of nations.

So pick any potential project very carefully,if you genuinely want to help them, and not just make yourself feel better by thinking you're helping them.

Erik

okay...cheers guys....I am clearly getting the picture.

My volunteering is not something I want to do because I seek to increase my karma points, I can assure you. If anything it is far more to do with learning about the cultures, the people, the way of life, and if at the same time I can offer something then all the better. I aimed to study African Studies at Uni but missed the boat, in fact travelling got in the wyay. I have a deep-rooted interest, curiosity and passion for Africa. It would be amazing to become, if at all possible, for a short while, part of a community.

We shall see where my travels take me.

Thanks for the input and I am sure I will stay far far far away from western organised project.

Cheers!

__________________
Don't be scared your life may end,
Be scared that it may never begin.......

For all the contributions here about NGOs and the like --- Thanks!

I mirror your sentiments, expressed here far more eloquently than I have managed in one or two other threads on occasions.
There is a clear and over-whelming theme which is gratifying in a funny sort of way; sometimes you think that you are alone in "seeing through" the hype etc associated with the "Aid Industry".

Charlotte,
Good luck with your aspirations: I have only very slight experience in the Dark Continent, but I reckon that if you travel around with your eyes & mind wide open you will find what you are looking for and recognise it when you do!


Dave

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Dave

CG;
Poverty is a complex predicament and the aid industry surrounding it has a cast of characters and organizations equally complex, and interesting. Eric D and Bossies are right on about this. Your wish to help in any manner is admirable as is your solicitation for info.


BUT wow Bossies and Erik D...you guys must be experts in alleviating poverty based on your judgements of Peace Corps...could you please please please share with us your solution before you accept the Nobel Prize

The Peace Corps is a highly respected agency but is not an NGO or a charity. It has been recommended for the Nobel Prize a number of times in recent years and if you do your research, you'd note that its one of the most respected aid organizations in the world. But just like with any character/organization in this field there are some bad apples that accompany the good ones.

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93 BMW K75s
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[QUOTE=MotoEdde;143311]CG;
BUT wow Bossies and Erik D...you guys must be experts in alleviating poverty based on your judgements of Peace Corps...could you please please please share with us your solution before you accept the Nobel Prize
QUOTE]

Well if you review what I said you will find it to be true regarding Peace Corps. Check their website.
They only accept you if you volunteer for more than 1 year.
They don't work with other NGO's
They don't readily provide information on potential opportunities
They have a "We will save you from yourself" attitude.
I was surprised how many volunteers are more excited about PC on their CV then the work they are actually going to do.

I am Namibian where PC have a ongoing mission supplying teachers. I worked in the north of Namibia for a number of years building schools and clinics and watched the PC come and go and befriended a number of them and still keep contact with them...

VSO who are also active in Namibia are not too disimilar to PC but they do interact more with local initiatives outside their sphere of influence.

These big charitable NGO's need to start thinking outside the box and develop projects that help locals help themselves. Teach teachers to teach, do not provide teachers for pupils.

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Hi all,

as with a lot of threads here, this one has become more and more interesting as it deviated further away from the original request... but at least it also shows that, not only for overlanders and travellers, it remains always a good topic to discuss over a - or, the new alternative indeed to the local pub, the bulletin board...

I find it most amazing that the strongest opinions seem to come from people who have, let's be honest, zero experience, other than just seeing it from a distance, on television, or reading an article of a fiasco (a very good one for that matter - perfect example of the huge mistakes that have been made and still are being made) that dates from years ago.

Let me first of all say that I am part of the 'evil' humanitarian business. I am the country director of one of those multi-national NGO's (I do quite like the use of the term 'multi-national' here - it immediately makes it sound the equivalent of Chiquita, BP, or alike), working in a country where most of you (and that included myself when I was overlanding in Africa - yes, I have traveled 7 months through Africa, so I have experienced that part as well) would hardly dare to travel through. We work mainly with refugees, and amongst other activities 'run' a refugee camp quite in the middle of the desert, providing amongst other services daily water for 27,000 refugees (300,000 liter water a day, every day - try to do that with grass-root work in a place where last year there was 4 days of rain, and where there is hardly or no wells - and despite hydrogeological surveys, not to be found either), primary and secondary health services, education, protection programs - and I won't bother you more with the other ones).

Arrogant to think that a lot of those people would be dead now if it weren't for the assistance we (or more in general the 'evil' humanitarian business) are providing them, either of plain and simple thurst or hunger, dyphteria, typhoid, cholera - or any other ones of your choice... Less true because it is arrogant? Don't think so... but maybe other people who have actually been in those refugee camps might have a better opinion about it...

Is it a business? Of course it is - how else would you run an organisation, humanitarian or not... Are our staff more or less motivated than volunteers just because they are paid? I doubt it... Do we have overhead that has no direct benefit for the beneficiaries? Again, of course - but have you thought about all the overhead that went into the apple that you bought this morning in the supermarket? Why would that overhead be less in providing a service to refugees, especially in a country where everything is hugely expensive, where 40% of my fleet has been carjacked in 2 months (yes, we are one of those white Landcruiser driving organisations - but to make it maybe less bad for you, not the shiny UN ones...), where I have curfew as of 6pm so I have at least to try and make life for staff working in those conditions for 12 or more months as bearable as possible, where power and water is non-existing so yes, I do need a generator to run things or water tanks to prevent my staff starting to get really smelly after a few days...

Am I (or my colleagues for that matter - I take myself the liberty to speak a bit on behalf of...) looking down on small grass-root organisations doing fantastic field-work? Not at all, on the contrary even - but let's also be realistic, and see the things they are not able to do, just because of scale... and as someone in the thread pointed out quite rightly, skilled people is also pretty essential - which again does not mean I consider them all as unskilled, on the contrary - but a bleeding heart sentiment is in this world just not sufficient anymore. I know very well that running an orphanage looks very useful and can be very rewarding - but people tend to forget (or just don't know) that very often orphanages are used by local people to put their kids there just because they think they will have a better future, or because the family structures have changed and the new father does not accept the kids, or a lot more other reasons you can think of.

I could give a lot more examples but that is not the point of this reply - I just wanted to point out that the situation is a bit more complicated than it might seem from a distance - or even when having seen it with your eyes when traveling or overlanding. Yes, the 'big' humanitarian world has made enormous mistakes, yes, the UN is a money-guzzling organisation which is often lead by political motives - but also yes, people in the field are most often driven, dedicated people...

Ok, got it of my chest You can all shoot now... oh, and in case you were wondering, I work and live in Chad - so please all of you feel free to come by and stay for a couple of days, have a few cold s, take the rest before continuing, and continue this discussion while enjoying the luxury humanitarian expat life I am leading...

cheers/jef

Look...if there is a perfect agency or a solution to alleviating poverty...somebody please proffer this one up...

AND question all you want, but getting nominated for the Nobel Peace prize over 7 times is not questionable...

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edde
93 BMW K75s
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