Cracked.com has a post titled 6 Socially Conscious Actions That Only Look Like They Help. One of the listed actions is "volunteering overseas." The site is meant to stir the pot a bit and push buttons, but they do a pretty good job with it and I have reproduced what they wrote with pictures and captions included. Yes, it is a simple look at the issue and I have said many times that I am not wholly in opposition to overseas volunteering and do not think it to be all bad. With that said, the present state of international volunteering, especially short term voluntourism, is not doing the job well.
Note: All that is below is an exact reproduction of the Cracked.com post. I thought that putting it in a block-quote was adequate, but I want to be explicit in that I am not claiming this to be my work and have reproduced it here in its entirety since I believe it should be read as such.
Note: All that is below is an exact reproduction of the Cracked.com post. I thought that putting it in a block-quote was adequate, but I want to be explicit in that I am not claiming this to be my work and have reproduced it here in its entirety since I believe it should be read as such.
HT Linda RaftreeThe IdeaSo, lately your yearly vacations to the International Cheese Rolling Festival have left you feeling unfulfilled. Don't despair: There's always voluntourism, a growing movement that allows you to travel the world while helping the needy. A recent survey found that two-thirds of American high school students have considered this type of volunteer vacation.
This isn't a new trend among rich white people, either.Traditional organizations mostly look for volunteers with relevant skills: doctors, nurses, dentists, qualified teachers and people fluent in foreign languages. Still, they also welcome unskilled travelers who can do stuff like clerical work and cleaning while the professionals offer the help that's desperately needed.
How We Half-Ass ItAcquiring a professional skill can take years of effort, and typing up vaccination reports doesn't exactly make for great travel photos to send back home. So instead, the boom in voluntourism is focused on prepackaged tours offering unskilled volunteers a wide range of exciting activities: weeklong stays looking after children in AIDS orphanages, short trips to Africa to build houses and stints teaching English in isolated parts of South America.
"These people need my liberal arts degree and ability to swing a hammer haphazardly."So what? It's better than your standard vacation, where the only person you "help" is your own fat ass up onto a waterslide, right? Wrong: In most cases, this practice actually hurts the people it's trying to help.Let's say you work in construction. One day, your neighborhood suddenly floods with energetic, iPod-toting young people who joyfully start doing the same job you're doing, but for free. Imagine the American immigration debate, only the immigrants have no skills, and they aren't just working for less money, but for free -- their only compensation being a series of photos about how caring they are posted to their Facebook pages when they get back home.So the result is wonkily made houses sprouting up everywhere, built by people who don't know drywall from the holes they're putting in those walls, pushing local workers out of much-needed jobs and screwing up economies that are already screwed up enough to warrant charity work.
"Ooh! Rita! Get a picture of me pouring my CamelBak into this little girl's water jug."Long-term effects aren't much better if you're into helping children, either. Voluntourists jump at the chance to make a lasting difference in the lives of cute underprivileged youths. But the thing is, they really want pictures of those malnourished children swarming about their knees in gratitude -- that's the picture that gets you laid back home at the pub. But the most lasting good is done to the community by training other local teachers to teach English, and nobody wants to sleep with the guy who brings home pictures of himself surrounded by competent adults looking at books together. So local teachers go untrained, and confused students end up getting a new and completely inexperienced English teacher every month or so.
"Hey I think our teacher might be a dumbass."Foreigners who volunteer for short periods in orphanages can do even more harm. The steady flow of Western media attention on AIDS orphanages means they get tons of funding that could otherwise have been devoted to keeping those children with their surviving extended family instead. One study of Cambodian orphanages revealed that only 25 percent of "orphans" there had actually lost both parents. In the worst cases, this leads to children being placed in orphanages by both of their alive but desperately poor parents, because they can only get someone to help their kids if they completely abandon them to rich people who take pictures alongside them, like a substantially more tragic version of that guy in the Donald Duck costume at Disneyland.
On the plus side, you and your girlfriend get to spend a fun week playing with cute kids and taking blurry cellphone pictures of temples. Surely that's worth some premature orphan-ing.
38 comments:
Bizarrely, I was brought up in the village where they do the cheese-rolling and once was employed to catch the people at the bottom. How random is that?
Only a few hours after reading this post, I came across the following note from a group that facilitates volunteer experiences:
"EVERYONE should volunteer abroad. You'll never see life the same way and you'll meet people who you will never forget. Give yourself a gift."
I can't decide whether this makes me more supportive of this organization, or less supportive. On one hand, it is being up front about the fact that the underlying motivation for many of these types of volunteer experiences is often to benefit the volunteer just as much (if not more than) the community they visit. On the other hand, this also seems to imply that the people who are encountered on these trips are just a means to an end. And that end (the personal growth of the volunteer) probably doesn't benefit those people, at least in the long run. (The group does stress sustainability in their overall approach, but I'm not sure the above message really jives with that.)
What do other people think?
This is perhaps well meaning, yet seriously inane garbage.
Every 8 seconds a child dies in the world from dirty water. I doubt those we've helped with wells, water filters and hygene education would like this pap much, and nor do I.
www.peacewater.org
c/0 those of going going to Rwanda in May
How about giving the $800+ per airline ticket to the worthy organization and as you mention in your post pay the natural inhabitants to work on their own infrastructure, education, etc?
Thanks everyone for the comments. I always appreciate them.
@A.B. - There is no question that the lack of access to clean water is a huge problem which needs to be addressed. However, I challenge you to think about what impact you will actually have in your May trip verses using the $2,000 (a rough estimation), that each person had to raise to participate, to provide a living wage to people in the Rwandan village(s) you will be visiting to do the labor. At best, such trips provide a first-hand opportunity to witness poverty and better understand how challenging life is without access to clean water. At worst, this experience takes away jobs which could be done by people living in Rwanda.
Two notes:
1) I am assuming the group you are with are unskilled. If that is not the case, and you are able to bring skills such as engineering or plumbing which could otherwise not be sourced in country than please disregard the above.
2) International experiences are important and I have said before that I would be a hypocrite to simply say that all are inherently bad or wrong. There is value in learning through going to Rwanda which is important. To that extent, I fully support opportunities which allow for the opportunity to have dialog and education. However, unskilled volunteering work is something that I believe to be wrong.
Thank you for your comments and I wish you and your fellow travelers all the best in your trip. Feel free to email me to continue this conversation as I would love to hear your thoughts upon returning.
@Kathryn - I absolutely think that volunteering experiences have a greater impact on the volunteer than on the people served. That is why, as I said above, I am in support of immersion programs that are solely about learning and not about doing.
@ Lisa, one of the reasons I am involved with peacewater is the fact that I can personally see where the money is being spent.
Just giving people money doesn't accomplish anything. You have to teach them to fish. When they know we will return, there is accountability. We build relationships and help them create their own local economy.
You misunderstand; we don't go there to do the work so much as we teach them how. We plant the seeds of ideas, supply materials and come back periodically to assure the wells are working and that the children are no longer sick from dirty water.
In some of the villages, the parents are spending half of their income on doctors bills to treat their kids who get sick because of dirty water.
In just Rwanda, 200000 people have directly benefitted from this project; Wells in 116 Communities
Clean Water Purifiers or Filters installed in:
3 Hospitals, 23 Clinics, 2 Orphanages, & 27 Pastor's Homes
296 Health & Evangelism trainers
30 Churches equipped to host community trainings.
We are not unskilled. We not only provide education of health issues, but we are providing water testing kits so that even those with no training can detect coliform bacteria in their water.
Also, my focus has been on ' pick and shovel ' type projects that do not require large sums of money or ongoing technical assistance.
http://abraingutters.blogspot.com/2011/02/earthworks-in-rain-water-harvesting.html
Why do I do it?
Easy; it's an investment. Not only might I buy peace of mind by helping others, but if just one child turns his back on the jihadist and lives a life of peace, we win. Selfless acts of service feel great!
You should try it.
A.B. -
If I understand what you are saying, you would not even support Peace Water financially if you were not able to go and actually see the project being implemented?
I do not think that Jess was advocating for handouts. Speaking for myself, the money can be used to make investments and create jobs. Technical skills can be taught by those with experience.
Quick trips are very nice, but do not make a lasting impact if there is little or no follow through. You have offered some very nice data here, but I question how it is gathered and how close to a water source does a person have to be in order to be counted in those numbers. Making wild claims seems to be the norm of the water NGO game.
A good example of this has been the long used $20 will give water to a person for 20 years from Charity:Water. Recently, they actually looked at that number, calculated the long term costs, and have moved away from the claim. I do not know anything about Peace Water, but that is why I am interested in knowing more about how they operate and collect data.
Finally, I do not mean to imply that you have no skills. I want to know if the skills that you do have are unique to Rwanda. Are you providing education that cannot be sourced in country? If so, then great. If not, I would argue that you are taking a job opportunity from a person who can do it cheaper and better than you (being local has numerous advantages over foreigners).
I commend your support for water projects, but request that you think about the impact of your trip on the people you are serving not yourself. Yes, it feels great to help, but it also can prevent meaningful development from taking place. Good intentions are a wonderful thing, but are just not enough.
@ A.B.
Imagine if you took the money that you and your entire group spent on travel (airfare, lodging, visas, vaccines, insurance) and instead used it to hire Rwandans to set up the wells (as opposed to volunteers setting up wells).
There is no denying that water is a serious and pressing issue! And its awesome that you're helping out. But your money could go further by creating jobs in the water sector for Rwandans. The point is, volunteers often take away jobs that locals could do - which is harmful.
Myself? I am known as the local expert in raingutters and rain water harvesting. So, a member of the church that facilitates peacewater heard I was interested and wrote a check for $3,750.00 to pay for me to go. The tech teams go over, figure out what is needed where. I will be traveling with only three other people and we will help devise a plan for larger groups to do later.
Can you seriously suggest that the money would be better spent just trying to hire Rwandans? How does that work? Where is the accountability?
My business was devastated by the 2008 crash. Should I take that three grand and make a house payment? Maybe. I am no religious nut, or Biblical crusader, but the fact is there is no apparatus for people who want to help other people as noble and prepared as Saddleback Church. Helping people is an awesome tonic for the spirit when you can do no more to help yourself.
Judge for yourself;
http://peacewater.org/home2.aspx
or http://peacewater.org/Waterbank.aspx
There was a lot more I had written, but it was lost.
Part of what I said was, no, I personally will not give money unless i personally can see where it is going; I distrust people, they are greedy and dishonest.
A.B. -
I am sorry you have such a high level of distrust. I do honestly wish I could convince you that your concerns are misplaced, but I think that we will have to agree to disagree on this issue.
It does sound like (an looks through your site) that you do offer unique skills that can provide necessary training. If that is the case, I have no reservations as you will be skill building. However, I do believe that development will be achieved through the growth of countries which will result in no longer needing outsiders coming in to do projects and trainings. I again want to stress that I am not advocating for handouts, but for investments that will create jobs and businesses.
I believe that the best solutions will come from an approach of empowerment. One way to do this is to create jobs, not take them. So, yes, I do think money will be better spent hiring Rwandans. This could work by Water for Peace continuing the projects which you support and using the money that has been donated to invest in more wells and local staff who can provide the necessary community training and ongoing support. Rather than have a group fly in every few months or years, employees can be based in country who will do more frequent and rigorous checks. This will require more monitoring evaluation and will give donors like you the ability to better track the progress of wells.
If you want an example of a water organization who does this well, I suggest you check out http://www.waterforpeople.org/ who use GPS technology to track their pumps. They also require local investments in projects and aim to work with communities and country governments to assure that wells can be maintained without their assistance. Another example is Charity:Water who sends you pictures and videos from well sites and separates out the flows of money (one for projects and one for overhead). Both allow you to make donations that are far higher since you will not have to travel to assure that projects are being done without corruption.
The aid industry is imperfect, I am the first to say that, but not every organisation is corrupt or wastes your money. How you spend your money is your own choice, without a doubt, but you would be more effective, dollar for dollar, by making donations rather than flying to projects. It might feel better to go and see the well tapped, but it is an investment in yourself as much as it is in the people drinking the water.
Did you plagiarize this entire article?
Anon - I have credited Cracked.com and do not take credit for the post at all. In fact it is all under a block quote, but I will add a note being more explicit.
Sorry, comments are not gone, but I am switching to Disqus as a better wan to manage comments. Sorry for the current error, but I am importing previous ones.
Thank you for your patience, your comments and reading.
Tom
Anon - I have credited Cracked.com and do not take credit for the post at all. In fact it is all under a block quote, but I will add a note being more explicit.
A.B. -
I am sorry you have such a high level of distrust. I do honestly wish I could convince you that your concerns are misplaced, but I think that we will have to agree to disagree on this issue.
It does sound like (an looks through your site) that you do offer unique skills that can provide necessary training. If that is the case, I have no reservations as you will be skill building. However, I do believe that development will be achieved through the growth of countries which will result in no longer needing outsiders coming in to do projects and trainings. I again want to stress that I am not advocating for handouts, but for investments that will create jobs and businesses.
I believe that the best solutions will come from an approach of empowerment. One way to do this is to create jobs, not take them. So, yes, I do think money will be better spent hiring Rwandans. This could work by Water for Peace continuing the projects which you support and using the money that has been donated to invest in more wells and local staff who can provide the necessary community training and ongoing support. Rather than have a group fly in every few months or years, employees can be based in country who will do more frequent and rigorous checks. This will require more monitoring evaluation and will give donors like you the ability to better track the progress of wells.
If you want an example of a water organization who does this well, I suggest you check out http://www.waterforpeople.org/ who use GPS technology to track their pumps. They also require local investments in projects and aim to work with communities and country governments to assure that wells can be maintained without their assistance. Another example is Charity:Water who sends you pictures and videos from well sites and separates out the flows of money (one for projects and one for overhead). Both allow you to make donations that are far higher since you will not have to travel to assure that projects are being done without corruption.
The aid industry is imperfect, I am the first to say that, but not every organisation is corrupt or wastes your money. How you spend your money is your own choice, without a doubt, but you would be more effective, dollar for dollar, by making donations rather than flying to projects. It might feel better to go and see the well tapped, but it is an investment in yourself as much as it is in the people drinking the water.
@ A.B.
Imagine if you took the money that you and your entire group spent on travel (airfare, lodging, visas, vaccines, insurance) and instead used it to hire Rwandans to set up the wells (as opposed to volunteers setting up wells).
There is no denying that water is a serious and pressing issue! And its awesome that you're helping out. But your money could go further by creating jobs in the water sector for Rwandans. The point is, volunteers often take away jobs that locals could do - which is harmful.
How about giving the $800+ per airline ticket to the worthy organization and as you mention in your post pay the natural inhabitants to work on their own infrastructure, education, etc?
Bizarrely, I was brought up in the village where they do the cheese-rolling and once was employed to catch the people at the bottom. How random is that?
Okay. Good, I hate to lose ten minutes of my life.
A question, before I get back to driving;
Of all the content available on the web to blog about, why would you choose a cynical story like this?
What facts have you that demonstrate that the ngo's are wasting time and doing things badly?
I see one paragraph at the top of original content, and the rest is a copy/paste from a rather unremarkable story that seems only designed to kick mud in the face of those like myself who volunteer time and money expecting nothing in return.
Man, and I thought I was negative...
Thanks for the comment Albert. The reproduction was because, as I said in my intro paragraph, that the post was interesting and had some worthwhile points and is also weak in places. I should again stress that I am not personally opposed to volunteering entirely. The choice to post this was made because it came from a place I did not expect. Furthermore, I support the idea that people need to think carefully about the impact of their actions. There are many ways to do good, but there are also ways to do harm disguised by good intentions.
I appreciate your comments, Albert, and I do really wish you the best.
Thanks Tom.
I appreciate you.
Cracked.com is meant to be funny. Humor involves intelligence. Sometimes those trying to be funny fail and also demonstrate ignorance.
Or put it this way; what if somebody was of a mind to volunteer and they happen to stumble across your blog, or the original story by cracked? They might turn away and do nothing. I bet the author of the story is an atheist, has never done anything charitable and probably doesn't even understand why he is an atheist. It is trendy to be Godless and uninformed.
I would encourage you to follow my story on the Rwanda trip, perhaps when it is said and done I will have a different opinion. I will be posting progress on my blog, and checking back here to see what else people have to say,
Thanks!
You do make a good point. It is my hope that visitors to this space will explore around and use it (as I have) as a way to learn more.
I have to respectfully disagree with your comment about atheism. I am raised Catholic, but identify much more as an atheist as anything else. Personally, I have volunteered in different capacities my entire life with secular and religious organizations. I do it because I believe it to be right. It is possible that the writer has 'never done anything charitable,' but I have done so in many ways. So, while it may come from a perspective of not participating, I do not think faith has anything to do with the Cracked.com post. At the very lease, I hope that I can be an example of one atheist who has participated in many capacities throughout my short life.
Thank you again and I look forward to reading your reflections from your trip.
Hello Mr. Barlow,
I take offense at your assumptions about atheists. On what data and statistics are you actually basing those assumptions? I am an atheist that is extremely well informed. And yes, I know exactly why I'm an atheist, I'd throw the accusation back at you and ask if you understand why you're religious - aside from the permission it gives you to look down on those who are not.
I have spent all of my adult life in the nonprofit world and have done my part to make this a better world. All without the promise of a reward in the after life. And on top of that, I've sacrificed quite a bit to educate people like yourself about the unintended consequences of good intentions. Not surprisingly, these unintended consequences often come from assuming that you're right without any proof, research, or knowledge to back it up.
The fact that you provided 400 sandals to Haiti shows how little you actually understand about aid and development work. And guess what, going on this trip is absolutely no guarantee that the money will not be wasted, in fact having to work with volunteers often wastes the time, money and resources of the organization.
This trip is far more for your own benefit than for the project's benefit. You may have good intentions, but you don't have the knowledge or information that is also needed to make wise decisions. But I doubt you're open to learn more about this, especially from an atheist.
So let me just leave you with this thought - The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
This is an interesting debate and my comment is not aimed specifically at Albert Barlow. One of the big problems with volunteering/voluntourism is that it seems almost immune to critique, information, education and organisational learning. Organisation X has a questionable approach? Maybe, but I still want to go to see for myself. Doing Y in country Z does not seem to be a great idea? Maybe, but I still want to go to see for myself. As understandable as this approach is (my experience will be different, I have done my research, I am already well-travelled and immune to culture shocks etc.), it just keeps fuelling a very flawed part of the 'development industry'. Maybe in a couple of years time rather than talking about that CV-able experience in country Z, a candidate can make extra points in interviews when s/he explains 'I looked into the possibility of volunteering overseas, but I had doubts and spoke to a couple of people so I ended up spending the summer [insert local activity]'
Although Saddleback is looking to me as the " expert " on rain water harvesting they are bringing in people from Mars hill church in Michigan, who have been doing similar work, so that they may educate us on where to purchase supplies in Rwanda. We will also pool tools. I am in contact with other indusrty people in Colorado who have also been there.
I have no interest in doing anything anymore for anybody here in America. I served food at the homeless shelter in Ontario, ca and I saw the same faces time after time and no effort to improve themselves. I did other wastes of time.
In this country where government workers have become the biggest crooks I turn my back until the revolution starts here. This culture, with its reality programming garbage and thieving police and fire fighters, sucks. The politicians suck and the people themselves aren't so great.
I hear what you are saying but it is not the case with peacewater.org
I am sorry you have taken offense but...in my opinion; The only thing dumber than an atheist, is a religious fanatic. Both prove their stupidity by claiming to know what happens after we die.
i recently got booted from bible study because...I don't believe in that. I will not bow to any organization or think what I am told. I was going because it was important to my wife, who doesn't understand my perspective at all.
I explained my faith issues to the folks at peacewater, who really couldn't give a rip.
I spent many years thinking I was an atheist, but then I realized that it was the bible itself I had issues with, the bible and God are only loosely related. Hows that for controversy?I had a NDE ( almost got killed rock climbing El Capitan ) and lived in a haunted apartment. Those things caused me to not be so sure.
I compliment your service, but pity you for being so sure there is no God. You don't know. I don't know. God is unknowable. Yet, you still must choose to do acts of service and kindness, or acts of evil.
What secular organizations are doing charity work in Rwanda? In Haiti? Perhaps they exist, but I don't they have half the resources and impact we do.
I know with 100% certainty that every dollar collected by peacewater goes to the people who are in need, not for bloated salaries and five star hotels, like some other so called charities.
btw, regarding our efforts in Haiti;
When the team was in Haiti one of the things we did was the sandals. The disaster camps are filled with sick, naked and starving people. The children literally have no clothes. They want to be held. They are desperate. The other thing we did was supply a 5000 gallon per day water filter, because the people are so weakened from chronic liquid bowel movements, that a simple cold or water bourne parasite will kill them. We have spoken to people in the morning who are dead by nightfall. It is unreal, and most have no concept of the level of poverty and suffering.
the filter also supplied clean water to the other eager beavers send in to pick through the rubble after the Earthquake, who were not associated with peacewater.org, whose own charity apparatus failed to provide enough water or filters to handle the load.
So what if the sandals were sold on the black market? perhaps the money was used to buy food that is in serious shortage. We also repaired a pump, that thieves had stolen the copper wire from, only to have the wire stolen again and the well pump disabled, again. We'll fix it. we will try and hire guards to protect it and teach them that there is more long term gain by having clean water, than there is in stealing copper wire.
Far more frustrating than those things is to hear affluent and educated people mock the efforts of those like me, who are not Christ crusaders, who do it for peace of mind, the pay off of having done something rather than nothing.being the only reward.
If you are personally involved in something that helps those not as lucky ( or blessed ) as we are, then I toast you, and salute you. If you are not, please don't bash that which you know nothing about.
This is the first time I've come across your blog and I have to say that I completely agree with all of your points. I've made the same argument myself a few times. People who go on these service trips don't realize that they could do a lot more good by staying at home and sending the money.
I once went on a "mission trip" with a high-school girlfriend's church group. We drove to a rough part of Charleston, SC and played with the neighborhood kids to, hopefully, keep them out of trouble. That was only half of the time. The other half of our time there was spent shopping or at the beach. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but I had no delusions about the difference we were making there. It was a vacation under the guise of a mission trip.
Again, thank you for articulating what I've felt for years! (Or at least pointing to cracked.com to articulate it)
Thanks for the comment, Chris and welcome to my blog. This is an issue which I do often tackle, so feel free to browse around and see some previous posts on the subject. If you are not already familiar, do check out @saundra_s who blogs at goodintents.org.
Looking forward to future comments and discussions with you.
Tom
With all due respect, sending the money to whom?
And can you really compare a high school trip to a beach to going to a foreign country?
And to Tom Murphy. I just read some other sections of your blog, and you have my respect.
In rural Uganda, where I served in the Peace Corps, the steady stream of voluntourists were the bane of my community's development projects. Kids on their gap year would visit for a few short weeks and blindly throw money at any problem they perceived. This created a culture of dependency upon outsiders that inevitably led to corruption. The very population that the charity was intended to help was hurt the most. Foreign aid is complicated enough when it's formulated by experienced policymakers. Naive voluntourists only compound existing problems. I've written more about my experience here:
http://mediaforsocialchange.org/2010/08/16/theyve-eaten-the-money/
Thanks for the comment, Jean-Pierre. I enjoyed reading your post and thank you for sharing it here.
Thank you, Albert. While we certainly disagree on quite a few points I do appreciate your respect. Please know it is returned.
Wow! Really a Great Job Boss.
Web - http://live-torrent.blogspot.com/
e-mail - search.torrent.search@gmail.com
such an interesting topic. Volunteers mean well and i'm sure they do a lot of good even if they do get more from the experience than the people they are intending on helping...and lets face it, these people would go home with new understanding and i'm sure some of them go on to do other great things in the world of development which they possibly wouldn't have done had they not volunteered in the first place. Of course the bigger picture is always looming and is very confusing. Yes it takes away employment opportunites from locals, but these organisations get their funding from not only the public but the volunteers (who pay more than just for an air ticket for the experience)..if volunteers weren't paying that extra for the opportunity would these organisations actually hire locals? would they even exist? Should there be tighter constraints on what help ngo's can offer...ie perhaps things that will create employment and lead to self sufficientcy should be encouraged while organisations that seem to be help only the here and now and not set communities up for the future should be scaled back. Volunteers looking after orphans, however well meaning, is just a band aid solution, the orphans keep coming, many of them not really orphans but their parents can't afford them. Maybe those ngo's that offer the opportunity to look after orphans should somehow encourage parents to keep their children by helping them in the home, with food etc. and set up community incentives. How much money donated goes to the crooked politicians? What do the communities really need to help them become self sufficient and are the correct people being consulted? are the locals included in decisions enough? Are ngo's picking the causes that will tug at the heart strings and encourage more volunteerism and dollars instead of attacking the heart of the problem? By all means help is needed for orphans, but if it is known a child is not an orphan turn them away from the orphanage and have a foundation to help these kids remain at home with their family? Of course all of these are just thoughts, that's why i want to learn more about development, there are needs that are not being met but somehow everything needs to be coordinated in a way that the bigger issues are dealt with while the bandaid issues can be phased out but how does that happen, who knows?
Traditional organizations need support that does not necessarily require the same skills that dentists, doctors, or the likes can provide. Just like in dental implants charleston sc clinic, there is a team that performs dental aide alone.
it's so nice to know that there are still people who volunteered themselves to help others. we can't easily find people like that nowadays.
ayumi
www.brfe.net
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