Waste, Graft and Corruption

I have read various accusations and counter-accusations regarding the efforts of Band Aid to raise money to alleviate the Ethiopian drought, and how that money was diverted (or not) to buy arms.

I read that NGOs and other organisations are going around the Third World sinking boreholes in villages to give them easy access to clean water, but make little or no provision for maintaining the boreholes or the pumps needed to extract the water, rendering their work a total waste of time and money - donation money.

And it makes me mad to see the money of good people, given in the hope that they are making a real difference to less fortunate than themselves, tipped down a bottomless pit - or pocket. I applaud the donors, but I curse those people who misuse the money, either through lack of research or pure greed. It's all the same to me.

But we, the charitable organisations should be a little more careful with this money. It is not ours to waste, any more than the taxes collected by governments become the money of those governments to squander on nice houses, big cars and other "necessary" expenses to keep them in a high lifestyle at the expense of the people who employ them, the population of the country they serve.

It is not just the big charities who are guilty. I was asked to work for an NGO registered in Kenya and I accepted, until I found out that the main activity of this NGO was to convince British charities to provide them with computers, supposedly for schools. Needless to say, the computers never saw the inside of a school, but were instead sold on the open market and the money pocketed by the head of the NGO.

I quickly disassociated myself from the NGO in question.

We, that is KCIS, have been asked on occasion to check out supposed local organisations making claims from charitable foundations. Our enquiries have usually found that the claimants are making false statements in order to obtain funds.

We know of a charity in the UK, which is totally above-board, but whose local officials are fiddling the books and pocketing large amounts of money sent to them to build and refurbish schools. Instead, the officials have very nice houses.

What can be done about this intolerable situation? I don't have an answer.

Our organisation doesn't receive much money, just a few pounds here and a few dollars there. We have a director who is both a trustee of the charity in the UK and a director of the NGO in Kenya. The staff in Kenya are dedicated. We do not have a problem with money being siphoned off.

We see wastage at all levels and dream of what we could achieve with a fraction of the money, compounds full of 4x4 vehicles that are never used, charity workers in Nairobi driving around in high-end cars to and from the offices ... anyone in any capital of any developing country will see it.

We  can only dream of what we could achieve with a fraction of this wasted money.

Raising a Profile ... and Funds

I have just seen on Twitter that one of the people I follow promoted a fund to rehouse a couple of Vietnamese families, and within a few hours, quite a lot of money was raised.

Which got me thinking ...

What is the most pressing need at KCIS?

There are many, but I suppose that we need to build the planned dormitories so that we can offer a secure and adult-supervised home environment for a few of the Twiga Children who live alone with no adult.

Although these children are coping, more or less with help from us and other members of the community, they are not children - they are not leading the lives of children, even Kenyan children. they have no time to play or relax. Life is one relentless grind of cooking, washing, cleaning, growing food, as well as the more traditional child activities of school, homework and study.

When we build our home, these adult activities will be taken over by the resident staff (one paid "matron" and several volunteers).

In the diagram, the part in red exists already. It is made from traditional materials, which we intend to continue in building the two dormitories, to keep the cost down - we only need to buy cement, poles, steel sheet, windows and doors.

I am trying to get an estimate for quantities and costing for the materials and furniture, then I will have to start a big promotion. (if you want to pre-empt the promotion, [click here])

We have PayPal and MPesa accounts, so we can receive donations from anywhere.

All we need now is people to donate - a few bob each will soon add up to enough to build our home, won't it?

My Little World Has Gone Mad!

When I am not in Kenya, I am an IT consultant serving clients in a smallish village in North Hampshire, fixing things, taking viruses off, upgrading and swapping data from old PCs to new ones.

But, just recently, I have had to take up another occupation, that of twiddling thumbs. There was no work. Everything was dead. So I decided to go out to Kenya for a month, leaving on 11th November.

But since last week, my work diary has been full! I can't say that I have earned a fortune, I never have and doubt that I ever will, and I wouldn't want to, but this last few days has brought in the money.

I had been wondering where the money was going to come from for this trip. Well, it has arrived!

Today, I trotted down to the post office and ordered my Kenyan shillings. On Monday I will bank a few cheques and draw the money. My anti-malaria tablets have been ordered. All I need to do is pack!

Now I am really looking forward to this trip - I can actually afford it, as long as I am careful.

Juggling Money

Although I am based for 9 to 10 months of the year in the UK (more's the pity), I still have "living expenses" in Kenya, not least of which is the rent for a little house on the coast, where I stay when in the area, and where my significant other half and her children live.

The rent is not excessive, but it means sending money from the UK to Kenya every month. I have found myself recently watching the UK pound against the Kenyan shilling on a daily basis to get a good rate. When I took on the rent at the beginning of the year, the rate was about 130 bob to the pound. Now I am lucky to get 115. So my rent has gone up £10 a month

It is quite something when the Kenyan economy is doing better than that of the UK!