Aid Organizations
Linda Polman explains in her book why it is so difficult for outside organizations to actually help the countries the countries they visit. She tells us that it costs the United Nations a lot of resources to even enter the country. Many of the countries these organizations are trying to help are in complete turmoil and plagued by civil war. It is very dangerous for these people to travel through active war zones with resources in an attempt to help other people. Not only are they risking their lives by being caught in the crossfire but Linda says many of the people they're dealing with are warlords with no concern for a human life.
Humanitarian Aid workers dropping off supplies
Hostile leaders control the lands where these impoverished people live, and are always demanding payment for organizations like the UN to enter. Linda says "No access to war zones without payment, whatever form it may take". I believe this quote alone explains a lot of what these reporters have to put up with, warlords with demands. When they see people coming in to aid their people with resources they try to take as large of a value of supplies as they possibly can. This could put the lives of these aid givers in danger depending on how badly a warlord wants their resources.
I believe that Linda says that "aid organizations are businesses dressed up like Mother Teresa" because the aid they're trying to give often goes to the wrong side. Some warlords have demanded up to eighty percent of the aid supplies they have. This means that when these organizations ask people to donate, much of what is donated goes to helping the wrong side. Not only that but these "non-profit" organizations still have to pay their top officials. So they may say that their organization is helping people in need but once they pay their officials less than half their resources are thought to make it to where they need to go.
This Graph shoes the total number of aid workers injured/killed over the past decade.
There are many things that other people and organizations can do to help humanitarian aid successful. Journalists need to report what is actually going on with the money people donate to help these organizations and expose where there may be corruption. Governments could help by protecting the people giving the humanitarian aid giving them safe passage in the areas they need to go into.
No comments:
Post a Comment