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Des Says Thank You
 

This is a message not about me, but for anyone and everyone who contributes to foreign aid. It gives people in extreme poverty the smallest opportunity to live without fear of tomorrow for themselves, their family, their community or their country.

This is an email I received recently:

Hi d'Arcy,

I am feeling alright these days; all the pains have gone, I can breathe normally, I can walk, I can work … thanks to you brother! I am always able to wake up to the rising sun, I am always able to see my son smiling at me because of you … you reconstructed my life, added joy to it, and made it enjoyable for my family.

Once again thank you for going out of your way to reach for me when I am in need.

Huge love,

Des

I am in a position of privilege where I can directly contribute to the quality of life of another. But this is only one example amongst of all the people and organisations who facilitate access and opportunities to the worlds bravest but most needy.

If you have ever given to Plan, WaterAid, Malaria No More, Opportunity International or other similarly effective organisations then Des’ message is to you.

Don’t worry about organisations’ admin costs or advertising because without it you would never reach anyone! Take pride when your government commits $2 million to education programs in Indonesia or $50 million to polio eradication, it is done in your name to give the same chance as I have been able to do for Des.

The background to this message is that I have not given a cent to Des to date. Des was a work colleague of mine in Ethiopia and a year ago he contracted a heart condition and was within days of dying. In what he thought were his final remaining days he managed to send a message to myself and a follow volunteer through facebook. I then organised a few people who knew Des to contribute information, examination and money to see a fast and affordable recovery for him. The results speak straight from the heart and email!

My role was no different to the many effective aid agencies except that it wasn’t the sole job that I dedicated myself to. While I was able to offer a few hours of my time do this not everyone can offer their professional skills and time and not get paid and survive – no matter how compassionate their heart is.

I think one of the main messages from Des’ email for me is YOU make a huge difference when you give to effective aid agencies which support people like Des in the thousands on a daily basis.

It is such a beautiful world for all of us to share with our brothers like Des and many others. Don’t be afraid to give. Give, and give hard and take Des’ message with you as that’s what the worlds most disadvantaged would be saying to you if they had access to international communication like Des is fortunate to have.

 
Posted by d'Arcy Lunn (Australian Activation Officer) in Aid for column Success Stories on Dec 30th 2011, 13:46
Comments: 5 | Post a Comment

Comments

31/12/11 10:45am - Posted By Sam Roberts - Reply to this comment
Touching as this is, I'm not sure this is the sort of message that this project should be promoting. I think that our focus should be on the real global political and economic causes of poverty, not on sustaining a system of aid dependency, however "effective" the aid agencies may be at delivering these.
02/01/12 3:53am - Posted By d'Arcy Lunn - Reply to this comment
Sam I totally agree with your comment and I did a lot of thinking about the sustainability of what I was doing and the dependencies it would create.

I believe the GPP deals with the macro picture of aid and development very effectively as you suggested and this is it's bread and butter but in this case with Des it was a human call out of last hope when I answered his plight - he was literally going to die and I was in a position to be able to do something, unsustainable or not.

Sometimes the GPP (and the developed world) just needs to be humanitarian, empathetic and answer the desperate calls of our developing sisters and brothers - with of couse a good deal of education and advocacy for the bigger topics and issues so those calls are less frequent and eventually non existent in our path to see the end of extreme poverty.
04/01/12 11:07am - Posted By Sam Roberts - Reply to this comment
Yes, it is obviously difficult to turn a blind eye when the effects of poverty confront you at such a personal level. As someone currently working in Cambodia I can see the effect of aid handouts on communities here. The expectation is often that for their lives to improve they must reach out to donors to fund projects without considering what they can do for themselves. It is the opposite of empowering and is sad to see. Worryingly, at the same time, appeals for funding in the developed world rely on images of pleading, starving people to raise money for these exact same donors. This report nicely summarises the effect of these types of appeal on perceptions of poverty, leading to a mindset where people believe that giving money to aid agencies will solve the problems: http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC1830.pdf
08/01/12 12:19pm - Posted By d'Arcy - Reply to this comment
Great points again Sam and excellent link - thank you.
06/03/12 6:19pm - Posted By Nimkhan - Flag as inappropriate - Reply to this comment
Great post. Notes taken, and to be taken into practice. I'm consulting over it.
"If you have ever given to Plan, WaterAid, Malaria No More, Opportunity International or other similarly effective organisations then Des? message is to you."
This messages pretty solid, so I thank you again.<a href=" http://preferred-seating.com/html/Auditorium1.htm">Theater Seats</a>

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