"Save the Children" is a not-for-profit organisation which advocates the better treatment of children, attempting to claim back a child's basic rights (i.e. right to survival, protection, development and participation). If you want to learn more about the "Save the Children" organisation, you can watch this short video.
During my talk with Keoyn, he told me about what they do and where they do it. The 'where' was pretty much every country on the globe (this was surprising, but ambitious, which I appreciated) and the 'what' ranged from a design called the Kanga Baby to providing education facilities in those countries without said facilities. I really admire the fact that someone is willing to donate their time to discuss these issues on the street, spreading the word. Keoyn's enthusiasm was quite inspiring and I wish we had more people in the world with his passion for change and justice.
However, I do have some issues with what they are advocating.
Firstly, the solutions they are suggesting are only temporary. Let me explain. The ultimate goal of these organisations is to eliminate poverty. This is done one step at a time through their programs. The solutions are only temporary as the goal can never be reached this way. While we live in a system which focuses solely on profit and acquiring money in order to acquire material possessions, poverty will always be present. Money is a class divider as there will always be those who have more than others. This spectrum results in the ones at the top being 'rich' and the one's at the bottom being 'poor'. If everyone has the same amount of money then it sort of defeats the purpose of it in the first place, doesn't it?
Using their methods in our current system, the only way to increase the quality of life of the incredibly poor, we'd have to either a) increase the living standards of everyone, so the incredibly poor are still poor, they're just better off or b) increase the living standards of the incredibly poor, reducing other groups to the status of 'incredibly poor'. Now it is plain to see that both of these methods are absolutely absurd. So one begins to question - these are great short term solutions being suggested, but how can we deal with the root cause?
The other issue I take is one of donations. Lets be serious, by comparison to government funding, donations mean nothing. They come out of the taxpayers pocket, are an incredibly small amount and are heavily taxed (i.e. as little as 20% of the money you donate actually goes to the cause). This is understandable, as these organisations have to pay for advertising in order to tell people about their cause so individuals can then donate (it's a vicious cycle, I know), but I think there are more effective ways to do this. Street people need to discuss the issues with members of the public, and if they show further interest, the street volunteers can direct them to information about how to volunteer their time and skills. No accepting donations and street talkers should not be paid by the hour (I find this apalling and hypocritical). There should then be another group which continuously lobbies their local MPs, discussing the issues and demanding more government spending be put into the infrastructure of the countries; suggesting programs and ways in which these could be implemented.
Keoyn's heart was in the right place, but I couldn't help but feel it was being insanely ineffective.
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Keoyn's heart was in the right place, but I couldn't help but feel it was being insanely ineffective.
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