When you want to help but don't understand other cultures.

Yester

I've always had notions that I should go help out people that live in poorer countries than ours. I've been drawn to Goa in India for some reason. The Catholic church seem to be doing great work out there but I am not a religious man so I starting researching NGOs. This is the first one I clicked on.

http://goa.ngosindia.com/netaji-subhash-chandra-bose-mission-alto-porvorim/

Add: GPE-2/4, Govt Qtrs
Alto-Porvorim
Pin: 403521
Goa
Contact Person: Jeevendra Kumar
Purpose: Social and cultural welfare society.
Aim/Objective/Mission: To help the destitute, poor women and children, irrespective of caste and creed and to provide different types of education and training for self-support and self employment to earn their livelihood. To provide medical support to the downtroddden children and women. To provide monetary support to women if they opt for buisness to earn their livelihood. To arrange marriages of those girls whose parents are not cable of incurring such expenses due to lack of funds.
Website:

Tel:
Mobile: 91-99751 67704
Email: netajisubhashChandrabosegoa@gmail.com


I'm not sure If I have enough matchmaking skills to apply.

Your Face

I don't why but I have the Tonight Show Johnny Carson theme stuck in my head for the last few days.

Your Face

Its very catchy.

Donald Trump

My usually accurate telepathy and mind reading skills have failed to figure out what your fucking point is OP

kneemos

Yester wrote: »

I've always had notions that I should go help out people that live in poorer countries than ours. I've been drawn to Goa in India for some reason. The Catholic church seem to be doing great work out there but I am not a religious man so I starting researching NGOs. This is the first one I clicked on.

http://goa.ngosindia.com/netaji-subhash-chandra-bose-mission-alto-porvorim/

Add: GPE-2/4, Govt Qtrs
Alto-Porvorim
Pin: 403521
Goa
Contact Person: Jeevendra Kumar
Purpose: Social and cultural welfare society.
Aim/Objective/Mission: To help the destitute, poor women and children, irrespective of caste and creed and to provide different types of education and training for self-support and self employment to earn their livelihood. To provide medical support to the downtroddden children and women. To provide monetary support to women if they opt for buisness to earn their livelihood. To arrange marriages of those girls whose parents are not cable of incurring such expenses due to lack of funds.
Website:

Tel:
Mobile: 91-99751 67704
Email: netajisubhashChandrabosegoa@gmail.com


I'm not sure If I have enough matchmaking skills to apply.

Think they probably mean arrangements and expenses rather than a blind date type deal.

Jawgap

Have you tried VSO

http://www.vso.ie/

Yester

@kneemos I'm sure you're right but the phrase "arrange marriages" stuck out for me. It's probably just unfortunate phrasing.


@Jawgap Thanks for the link. If I ever have the balls to actually do something, that's a good resource.


@Donald Trump Presidents like you annoy the f**k out of me. if you spent less time arseing around on boards and twitter and concentrating more on your job then the world might be a better place.

uch

Go to Africa, my brother was there for 12 years and loved it, Irish people fit in very well in East Africa for some reason, there were 15 - 20 paddys where he was in Tanzania/Uganda/Rwanda, I've been there and the people are amazing even though they are shít poor

uch

Oh and my son was in Goa for a couple of months and said it's a kip full of crusty's

lazybones32

Are you looking for a long holiday there or really looking to help people?

Yester

I would imagine that if I went some place and saw actual poverty then there would be no going back. It's easy to ignore from a distance but if you saw people living in such cicumstances it would be hard to go back to your normal life.

Capt'n Midnight

Last thing you want to do is build houses or otherwise that's just a low skill job that the locals could do to feed their families, if only you weren't doing it for free.

Doing something high skill and transferring those skills to the locals so
they can take over is one of the better ways.

The best agencies are the ones with an exit strategy.

blinding

There is plenty of poverty and problems in your own country . Why not help these people .

Does it ask too many questions of ourselves when we do take on board the problems and poverty in our own country .

Wurly

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Last thing you want to do is build houses or otherwise that's just a low skill job that the locals could do to feed their families, if only you weren't doing it for free.

Doing something high skill and transferring those skills to the locals so
they can take over is one of the better ways.

The best agencies are the ones with an exit strategy.

Just to note.... in 2007, I built houses in Zambia. We worked with a large team of locals who instructed us and told us what they needed us to do. We were literally there to increase the head count so as to build as many homes as possible in the 2.5 weeks we were there. It wasn't a case of taking jobs from the locals. It was all hands on deck, all working together for the community.

In the village we were in, there weren't any paid jobs for the locals doing this stuff. The village was completely impoverished and had been ravaged by AIDS. 3/4's of the children were orphans and the village had pretty much been forgotten about.

FTA69

Wurly wrote: »

Just to note.... in 2007, I built houses in Zambia. We worked with a large team of locals who instructed us and told us what they needed us to do. We were literally there to increase the head count so as to build as many homes as possible in the 2.5 weeks we were there. It wasn't a case of taking jobs from the locals. It was all hands on deck, all working together for the community.

In the village we were in, there weren't any paid jobs for the locals doing this stuff. The village was completely impoverished and had been ravaged by AIDS. 3/4's of the children were orphans and the village had pretty much been forgotten about.

I'm just back from Zambia, I was in a similar village in the south of the country. There were a group of kids over from England on some experience trip type yoke, who were working five hours a day mixing cement and making concrete blocks to build a school. Meanwhile literally hundreds of local men were sitting around the various villages drinking chibuku beer or asleep in the shade. The notion that Europeans are needed to do labouring jobs in Africa is simply not true.

That having been said, without loads of these European young people paying thousands in fees and fundraising to have these 'experiences', there wouldn't be any money to even buy the cement in the first place and nothing would get done at all; nor would there be any seed capital to pay or train the first teachers etc so I get that it isn't cut and dried.

Wurly

FTA69 wrote: »

I'm just back from Zambia, I was in a similar village in the south of the country. There were a group of kids over from England on some experience trip type yoke, who were working five hours a day mixing cement and making concrete blocks to build a school. Meanwhile literally hundreds of local men were sitting around the various villages drinking chibuku beer or asleep in the shade. The notion that Europeans are needed to do labouring jobs in Africa is simply not true.

That having been said, without loads of these European young people paying thousands in fees and fundraising to have these 'experiences', there wouldn't be any money to even buy the cement in the first place and nothing would get done at all; nor would there be any seed capital to pay or train the first teachers etc so I get that it isn't cut and dried.

Yeah, quite clearly the issue is complex. And not being from Zambia, I can appreciate that I have limited knowledge on the cultural issues involved.

Yes, there was a place called a 'Sheebeen' where some of the men used to disappear to. Rumours of prostitution and drinking there etc. Drinking was not the done thing in the area I was in so all this stuff was done in secret.

But.... isn't that just like anywhere? People drink and do stuff to distract from their pain? Considering the problems that Zambia has (the AIDS epidemic - so heartbreaking), wouldn't this kind of thing happen anyway, even if people didn't come to help? They're drinking for a reason which is irrelevant to anything else really.

It seems obvious to me that help of a different nature is also required, not just the house building. But I digress.

Good on you for going, by the way. Beats sitting around giving out about other people who are actually trying to help.

FTA69

I mean I was only there on holiday, I wasn't 'helping' in the sense I was volunteering or anything. However one of the best things you can do is simply go there, spend money and patronise as much local business as you can.

I went to one of those shebeens and it was actually good craic, they also make a spirit called kachaso out of maize and it's rank, people go a bit loopy after drinking it. I'm surprised drinking was so secret where you were. They were bang on the booze (and grass) where I was and it was very open. They were also totally polygamous and men had several girlfriends in addition to wives so no wonder about the whole AIDS thing. It's a great country though, some of the soundest people I've come across.

Wurly

FTA69 wrote: »

I went to one of those shebeens and it was actually good craic, they also make a spirit called kachaso out of maize and it's rank, people go a bit loopy after drinking it. I'm surprised drinking was so secret where you were. They were bang on the booze (and grass) where I was and it was very open. They were also totally polygamous and men had several girlfriends in addition to wives so no wonder about the whole AIDS thing. It's a great country though, some of the soundest people I've come across.

For real?? Wow.

I think it had to do with the area I was in. Most in the village were children. There were five or 6 'mammies' for the whole village. So I think it was the women who demanded better from the men. Also, because we were there to help, they were even more strict on 'showing respect'. We didn't have a drink at all while we were there.

And yes, beautiful country with outstanding people. I still miss it dearly.;)

Capt'n Midnight

FTA69 wrote: »

I'm just back from Zambia, I was in a similar village in the south of the country. There were a group of kids over from England on some experience trip type yoke, who were working five hours a day mixing cement and making concrete blocks to build a school. Meanwhile literally hundreds of local men were sitting around the various villages drinking chibuku beer or asleep in the shade. The notion that Europeans are needed to do labouring jobs in Africa is simply not true.

At the other end of the scale I've seen brickmaking from local red earth bricks made into a kiln in an area where people were also making charcoal.

Carlos Orange

Wurly wrote: »

Yes, there was a place called a 'Sheebeen' where some of the men used to disappear to.

This seems like a kinda ironic thing to say on a thread about understanding other cultures considering where the word comes from.

wakka12

blinding wrote: »

There is plenty of poverty and problems in your own country . Why not help these people .

Does it ask too many questions of ourselves when we do take on board the problems and poverty in our own country .

The worst poverty in Ireland is not even comparable to the third world poverty