Only the rich need apply (Part 1)

Yesterday was quite eventful as regards my search for a placement in Ghana. Dorota suggested the great idea that I should directly contact the Kumasi based organisations on Idealist.org(a global volunteer portal) and see what replies I'd get. At first, I didn't hold much hope for this avenue. Why?

Well, despite the fact that most local organisations claim they are non-profit, some have offices in Washington, London, etc. and require hugely inflated fees to cover one's administration, accommodation, feeding costs. Even if the HQ of the NGO is locally based, there seems to be an attitude - 'these white folks are rich so let's bleed them dry!'

Could you blame them? Absolutely not. After all, many struggle to run their projects on limited resources, so if somebody with a wallet full of cash from the US or Europe wants the experience of a lifetime then, so be it.

It kind of reminds me of the irony surrounding LiveAid and it's Make Poverty History successor during the Gleneagles G8 summit 2 years ago. Rich popstars flying in from all over, singing to combat mass poverty, but with little or no consultation involving grassroots pan-African social movements about change from below.
Time to be humble. I recently read on Larry James's blog (He works with the 'marginalised' in Dallas) that he carries business cards with an asterisk * directing people to the following warning - "Beware: this man doesn't know what he is doing!" So if you think what I'm saying here is utterly wrong, then feel free to attack.

My problem does not really lie with what seems to be the Poverty Industry's maxim: 'Only the rich need apply'. My problem lies with the fact that many organisations in Ghana and elsewhere just don't want a volunteer who won't cost them a cent. There are always strings attached.

It seems impossible to opt out of offers of having to pay $100 a week for 3 meals a day - this is Kumasi in Ghana, not Galway, Chicago or Warsaw. Food, even taking into consideration recent price increases, preparation time and effort, etc. comes nowhere near that cost in Ghana.

Dorota and I spend a maximum of $100 a week on food for both of us. That would include water, electricity charges. And I'm talking about living in Dublin, Ireland - one of the most expensive cities to live in throughout Europe.

So charging one $3-5,000 for 6 months feeding, accommodation, airport pickup and some other minor accessories seems totally inflated. I've asked around and former volunteers, even people from Ghana and the general region, tend to agree.

The best option I have seen to date is 6 months accommodation and food with a host family for $1,150. This seems to be quite a reasonable price. Am I tight? No! I just don't want to be used and don't see how been used benefits anybody. So I look forward to keeping in touch with the Special Need Children Center and see if we can work something out.


Only the rich need apply (Part 2)
I am not going to whine or name any organisations here. That would be unfair. Suffice to say I developed a healthy scepticism about how NGO's utilise money after hearing about Concern workers dining on lobster in 5 star hotels in Sri Lanka whilst post-tsunami victims picked up the pieces of their lives. Concern workers on the ground, like most NGO relief agenices, do amazing work. The problem lies with their high-living hierarchs.

After following the issues around Dorota's Masters thesis earlier this year (on the motivations of volunteers who go to the golbal south, both those who pay huge amounts of money and those who receive some sponsorship), as well as my own research for volunteer placements over the past few years, one certainly does see the highs and lows of the Poverty Industry.

It's no different here in Dublin. Huge amounts of money for homeless and immigrant services are wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy, branding, huge wages for the CEO and his/her playmates (who from experience rarely call into homeless shelters or hostels for asylum seekers). The have assimilated the stereotypical modern corporate structure - hook, line and sinker.

So where next for me? Well, I'm still hoping that my contacts with the African Centre here in Dublin will come up trumps. I'm also awaiting news from the Spiritans (Holy Ghost Fathers) in Ghana to see if they have any contacts. I'm trying to get in contact with a Ghanaian who I lived with when I was studying to be a priest in Kimmage. Dorota has contacted her organisation to see if they can facilitate our request to be accommodated in the same volunteer house. So singers crossed, or as they say in Polish: Trzymaj kcziuki (Hold your thumbs)!