Why do charities pick on Africa?

It is a huge continent, made up of 54 countries and a majority are not war-torn, drought-struck or suffering starvation. International charities, however, consistently use Africa and its people as props for fundraising. They don’t pull anyone from Asia to depict a mother with a tearful, fly-swaddled infant, nor do they use South American residents, nor any of the lands in between. However, it seems that it is acceptable to depict Africans as sorrowful, needy and unable to help themselves.

The Zambians I remember working with were often resourceful, hard-working and had a huge amount of self-respect. To remind myself of this, I felt a need to return and discover whether my memory was flawed or were charities misrepresenting so many nations.

I did discover need, especially concerning the legacy of AIDS. However, I also discovered proud, hard-working people using innovative ways to help each other. People such as Victoria, a nurse, who cared for relatives with AIDS. Others in the community asked Victoria for advice of caring for their relatives. The result, Victoria started a charity that teaches people how to bathe, provide good nutrition, ensure the sick take all their medicines and how to deal with common problems that crop up. Another woman noticed that orphaned teens often had no one to guide them into long-term careers and were easily drawn into criminal gangs. She set up a school and taught girls sewing and tailoring skills, while arranging for boys to learn mechanics from local garages. She also started a local micro-lending programme aimed at grandmothers caring for orphaned children. By buying a large sack of sugar, charcoal or some other bulky substance, they can break the sack down to small packages to sell at the market and earn enough to pay back the loan, buy a new sack of goods and have money left over for food and clothing for the children. These projects were not only humbling, but they operated with no international charity worker in sight.

People helping people, the way we should all be.

A young woman learning tailoring skills.

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