"charity trips"?!?

bjork · 18-02-2015 12:28AM

Taking jobs from local people and felling good about it!
What's not to like?

Zippie84 · 18-02-2015 12:31AM

qwerty1991 wrote: »

*just before people say it, I am all for donating to charity and people volunteering, just not some of what is mentioned below*

I have just seen a facebook status by a fashion blogger that I follow and it has made my blood boil. To quote her before she edited her post:

"I don't mean this to sound in any way bitchy but my mum and a few friends made a realistic point that if everyone of my followers on this page have a euro, we would 100% come up with the money for the fund. But Im kind of taking a back that nobody wants to help or donate when it's going to be benefiting so many little children in a boarding school! I'm going to be teaching English and maths aswel as helping within the community. I can't do it if I don't raise the money. Please help "

Setting aside all the grammatical and spelling mistakes for someone going over to teach English, I find this sort of emotional blackmailing for some of these trips infuriating. She has subsequently stated that going over has always been a dream of hers and she doesn't work so she is just relying solely on people donating for her to go over in June. She has no mention of fundraising events, just that she underlying on others donating.

I am all for people volunteering, donating money to charity and also backing people going abroad to volunteer but I have donated so many times to peers going on these trips, many of which I think it is very cheeky to ask other people to fund under the guise of charity.

For example last year a friend aggresively went around my small town looking for funding for a trip to South Africa which involved 2 weeks going to a school to help teach and 1 week all expenses paid Safari and holiday around the coast. She paid for none and got others to donate all.

Maybe I am just super harsh but I think these sort of charity trips are once in a lifetime experiences that people should save for and pay for themselves. I find it unbelievable that it is expected that others donate money so that someone can go abroad for 3 weeks or so, stay in a nice hotel or hostel and "teach" in a school for a few hours a day With the last week or so a holiday.

The fact that some people like the girl mentioned above just expect others solely to pay for her to go on one of these trips to me is just so selfish. I am all for legitimate volunteering but most of these sort of trips are over priced scams and take away from legitimate volunteering efforts.

I don't like people guilt tripping others into charity donations in any form, as some people have their chosen charities, and can't donate to everything, and of course for some people even a minimal amount is a big deal to them to donate, if funds are tight.

bb1234567 · 18-02-2015 12:37AM

Flyer28 wrote: »

Ah here.....how did you become so cynical?

Do you really think african people need 18 year old irish boys and girls to come over and teach them english and build houses for them? without as much as a days experience in teaching or building between most of them?

the_syco · 18-02-2015 02:28AM

Littlekittylou wrote: »

The three of them saved up whilst working.

Those who pay their own fare usually have the skills to help.

Those that get someone else to pay their fare are usually helpless.

=-=

Personally, I volunteer at a dogs shelter. I get to walk some of the dogs, and this is something I enjoy doing (dogs are awesome), but also help out with other tasks.

I find most people who volunteer do so as the reward is the deed itself.

The ones who volunteer to get money by fraud and deception are the ones that I despise.

mahamageehad · 18-02-2015 04:31AM

Big +1 for this. I got abuse from an acquaintance one night as she was doing a sponsored quiz in the pub I was in so she could go to Indonesia to teach English for 3 weeks. Her "volunteering" was for 2 hours a day for the 3 weeks and she stayed travelling around the area for 2 more weeks after that. I'd say she was about as useful as a chocolate teapot while she was there. She didn't pay a cent to it and got a great holiday out of it. But I was the one being mean by not helping children by donating...?

When questioned on if she was donating she told people that they could donate money, she was donating her time so she didn't need to donate money too! :eek::eek::eek:

the dark phantom · 18-02-2015 04:54AM

I'm in the process of trying to get a fundraiser together myself, You see I want to help prostitutes in Hamburg to get away from a life of hedonism problem is I'd need donations from like minded religious types like myself.
I'd say I'd need a fair few bob so I could spent a few weeks having a 1 to 1 chat with most of the girls. I'll show them the light.
And after doing my good deeds there I'd really need to fulfill my mission by travelling on to Koln and Prague. Any charitable types please pm me your bank details, We can't save the working girls of Europe without cash and lots of it...

Spook_ie · 18-02-2015 07:35AM

I don't think much of the ones that are basicly a free holiday but I would ( and have ) contributed to sponsored skydives and the like

TheBeardedLady · 18-02-2015 07:41AM

It's a bit much alright. I went on a trip this Summer (not particularly exotic) and got sponsored for doing so in the process, but I saw none of the money - it went directly into an account for the family involved. I was a wee bit paranoid while I was trying to raise funds that people would think it was all for me or I'd get my share of it and I felt I had to make that very clear repeatedly whenever I asked. I wouldn't have dreamt of doing it any other way.

Your one in the OP has some neck.

qwerty1991 · 18-02-2015 09:25AM

Im in my early 20s so I know a lot of people my age who have gone or are going on these trips. I just don't see how unskilled students going to for example South Africa for 3 weeks is going to help. After flights, insurance, vaccinations, accommodation are paid for, I think these people would be better off just donating that money to a charitable cause.

If a builder for example, goes somewhere for 3 months to help construct homes, I would all be for donating towards his building materials but the causes I am always asked to donate towards (and I know it's not all cases) are glorified holidays for unskilled students or people just out of college who go to help build houses or teach English for a few hours a day with travelling after.

I think if the 3 grand or so people need to raise would be much better spent on a 700 Euro holiday, with the other 2,300 or so being actually donated directly to the charitable cause.

As one poster pointed out above, these trips have become sort of the done thing with people in their 20s, akin to a j1. You just have to spend part of your summer volunteering! The amount of photos taken and travelling done in these far flung places is fine, I just hate being pressured to donate mdone towards this And being made feel that the person going is going to save all the children by teaching English 3 hours a day for 3 weeks!

skittles8710 · 18-02-2015 09:36AM

Was looking up fundraisers for ICS yesterday and came across these, was very surprised they'd include travel expenses in the fundraising target. Don't think that's right

http://www.cancer.ie/get-involved/fundraise/challenge-yourself/trek#sthash.XZSYuqBz.dpbs

padd b1975 · 18-02-2015 09:58AM

I would need to be a very rich man to even consider contributing to some cheeky moocher's bucket list.

I would be a great believer in the concept of charity beginning at home, some thing as basic as visiting an elderly neighbour and making sure they're ok or volunteering with a homeless charity would be much more impressive than some "push button merchant " trying to convince me that he's really going to spend a month laying bricks in 40 degree heat.

cloud493 · 18-02-2015 10:10AM

Part of the reason I donate only to Dublin based charities. I'm not paying for someones holiday.

hairycakes · 18-02-2015 10:49AM

I volunteer locally. I went on the volunteering website and picked something that I was interested in and suited me. There are so many charities at home looking for just one hour a week which would be a huge help to them. Sometimes there are positions for people with Failte Isteach (I think it's the name) to work with new migrants in conversational English classes. People who might be in more immediate need of help with their English. No need to swan off to a foreign country and the euros from her fb friends could be sent directly to a charity. This is not to take away from the people who go abroad and do sterling work, just to those who are looking for funding for a holiday.

Daisies · 18-02-2015 11:03AM

lynski wrote: »

Many of these trips to volunteer in schools or children's homes are at best counterproductive. Orphaned children need to form relationships and they can't do that with a stream of 'volunteer' students changing every few months. They need trained, experienced professionals, preferably local. Locals will help the local economy by spending their wages locally, no extra stress on the environment, the community and the children. And no obnoxious 'changed my life' posts after two wks.

This a million times over. I have HUGE issues with people going volunteering with children for anything less than 3 months. It takes at least a month for the kids to feel comfortable with you.

If anyone asked me for sponsorship I would ask them how much of it is actually going to the organisation as opposed to covering their costs. I've seen firsthand the s***storm that happens when self entitled kids go over to Africa thinking they are going to change the world. Money would be better spent training locals to do the tasks.

That said, I have an amazing friend who is,covering her own costs completely, over in Sierra Leone working in a hospital in the Ebola centre for 5 months. She is a trained nurse with a masters in tropical diseases. Some people are just amazing.

lazeedaisy · 18-02-2015 11:33AM

I have stopped donating to charity, after years of supporting a very well known charity, I found out the CEO is paid very well out of the proceeds, and she gets to decide f a case is worth paying the money for. So, she gets to decide where the group put the money. If particular hospital equipment is needed, she randomly chooses or if she as a personal interest in the subject gladly gives funds. She is not qualified in any medical way, but makes every request for funds personal.

So, if you are donating to a charity, insist in writing the money is used for specifics, otherwise it goes for admin costs and into a big pot which doctors ave to beg for.

If you do donate, just make sure your donation is useful.

syklops · 18-02-2015 11:52AM

mike_ie wrote: »

Couple of people in my area are pretty much career 'volunteers' at this stage - off to walk a section of the Great Wall of China for charity, or visiting schools in Africa (plus safari tour) for charity, or off to hike in Nepal for charity, going door to door every year demanding a donation from everyone in the area.

Funnily enough, there's never a 'volunteer in the slums of Calcutta for a month' variation of this theme....

Funnily enough the same people never do "Im going to walk from here to Limerick and back for charity". Some people do of course, but, its never the same people.

kylith · 18-02-2015 11:58AM

Daisies wrote: »

This a million times over. I have HUGE issues with people going volunteering with children for anything less than 3 months. It takes at least a month for the kids to feel comfortable with you.

If anyone asked me for sponsorship I would ask them how much of it is actually going to the organisation as opposed to covering their costs. I've seen firsthand the s***storm that happens when self entitled kids go over to Africa thinking they are going to change the world. Money would be better spent training locals to do the tasks.

That said, I have an amazing friend who is,covering her own costs completely, over in Sierra Leone working in a hospital in the Ebola centre for 5 months. She is a trained nurse with a masters in tropical diseases. Some people are just amazing.

I think that the bit in bold is the important thing. These kids go over to Africa or India to build schools, or whatever, and that's all very noble and good. But what are the African or Indian builders doing while this charity ships in students to provide building labour? They're not receiving a wage they can put into the local economy and use to feed their families, I'll tell you that much.

worded · 18-02-2015 11:59AM

-=al=- wrote: »

I feel like she owes me a euro for reading that.

But that's just my realistic point :pac:

If just a few hundred people on boards paid into a fund we could have someone read threads to you, even perhaps type the replies you dictate.

Do you live anywhere exotic by any chance ?

melon_collie · 18-02-2015 12:03PM

In the famous words of Homer J Simpson:

'if you can find it in your heart to forgive me . . . please donate 1 dollar to 'sorry dude', 742 Evergreen Terrace'

worded · 18-02-2015 12:05PM

Gap year
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU

Galadriel · 18-02-2015 12:06PM

mojesius wrote: »

It depends on the set up. My friend climbed Kilimanjaro for a charity close to her heart. She paid for all the expenses so 100% of the donations actually went to the charity. Grand.

But I know someone else who went to central america to do house building for a month and got sponsored a lot of money to do so, about 2 weeks into it, there's loads of pictures of her on Facebook in the Caribbean, chillaxing on the beach. That's fraud!!

I did the Rickshaw Rally a few years ago and we raised money for an Irish charity and a local charity. We paid all our own expenses (I could not imagine asking people to pay for my flights and hotels??), people donated money directly to the charities themselves so we didn't actually handle the money.

I really hate seeing these 'oh pay for my flights, hotel etc. it's for charity you know'

evolving_doors · 18-02-2015 12:09PM

Dunno! 3 odd grand for a holiday with a bit of english conversation classes thrown in!! Those kids must be sick of learning english at this stage.

Id say 3k would be about a years wages for a proper subject teacher from the area. If we were a third world nation how would we feel about a constant stream of 20 somethings coming over every 3 weeks to talk to our kids in chinese or somesuch language?

Probably good for tourist industry though!

I dont really get the sponsored enjoyment thing either . If you want to do a parachute jump then just do one, why does someone need to link in poverty guilt with it.

Hey btw I'm going on the lash this weekend.. anyone want to sponsor an orphanage in vietnam?

worded · 18-02-2015 12:13PM

Raising cancer awareness?

We are all aware of cancer, what about curing it?

I heard 10+ years ago the top marketing people at a lot of these charities are on target related bonuses on very large salaries.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gNz-P5WMQ8w

"charity trips"?!?

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