Water Charity Adverts

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Fittster said:

You'd think wateraid didn't have a website.

"Thirteen year old Pauline is from the village of Nala and is one of the many people in Tanzania who don't have access to safe water.
Her only water source is this muddy hole, as she explains:

"I come to this water hole twice a day to collect water for drinking and cooking at home and also cleaning and drinking at school. It is 2kms walk from school and about 3kms for me to walk home from here.
"Sometimes I get sick from this water as we can’t boil it because of lack of firewood. I get stomach aches all the time. I have never seen clean water from a tap before. This is the only type of water I know about." "

http://www.wateraid.org/uk/donate/change_lives_tod...

Solution - build the village and school next to the water hole. That's one of the two problems nailed.

[otolith]

Fittster said:

otolith said:

Fittster said:

otolith said:

Going off topic, because the water charity work is not predominantly about emergency relief, but I think there is a question of whether there are certain bits of the planet which will never be able to support human populations without periodic catastrophic famines. The question is, should we be helping people try to make a life there? Is there any other option for them?

According to the website the charity help people in the following countries:

Angola
Bangladesh
Burkina Faso
Ethiopia
Ghana
India
Kenya
Laos
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mozambique
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Swaziland
Tanzania
Timor-Leste
Uganda
Zambia

Which charity is that? I'm specifically talking about emergency famine relief, not clean water projects or poverty relief or long term investment in infrastructure.

http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what_we_do/where_we_wor...

Whose request for funds the OP is objecting to.

That's why I prefaced my comment with Going off topic, because the water charity work is not predominantly about emergency relief.

(I haven't seen the advert, we PVR everything and fast forward through them)

[Jasandjules]

Caulkhead said:

Ok, I know I'm going to sound all scrooge, but those ads are really starting to annoy me.

You are not alone.

I just say "all that CO2 money wasted and this could have been fixed"

Or, walk two miles to get to water? Move.

Sad that I now feel that way really.

[J a k e]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

You start by giving £2 a month, but they don't really want £2 a month. That just lets them know they've got a bite from a poor sucker. The £2 quickly becomes £5...£10+ a month.

^^^ So true.

I give a small amount each month to two UK charities and they have both phoned me several times trying to get me to double the amount. It's a bit annoying because the people who call are not actually charity workers, they are professional telesales arm-twisters and they're very good at making you feel bad for not giving more.

The Anthony Nolan Trust have been getting a tenner a month from me for the last several years, yet they still call me regularly asking for more help. I've tried telling them that they should be putting their fund raising efforts into finding extra new supporters rather than harassing folks who have already given them hundreds. The other charity I give to is Action For Blind and they're nearly as bad.

I slightly know somebody who is pretty high up in a large UK childrens' charity and, having heard how they waste their money on BS beanos 'conferences' and pay managers over-the-odds, I wouldn't give them a penny.

[Kermit power]

otolith said:

(I haven't seen the advert, we PVR everything and fast forward through them)

Going utterly off topic, I really don't understand why anyone would choose not to do that?

I have got to the point now where I view TV adverts as a theft of my life, 4 minutes at a time, so just never, ever watch them.

[Caulkhead]

Fittster said:

Caulkhead said:

Fittster said:

Whose request for funds the OP is objecting to.

I'm not objecting to their request for funds, I'm objecting to their adverts which state the people in them have no choice but to drink bug-infested water without explaining why they can't boil the water while they wait for their well to be built for them.

You'd think wateraid didn't have a website.

"Thirteen year old Pauline is from the village of Nala and is one of the many people in Tanzania who don't have access to safe water.
Her only water source is this muddy hole, as she explains:

"I come to this water hole twice a day to collect water for drinking and cooking at home and also cleaning and drinking at school. It is 2kms walk from school and about 3kms for me to walk home from here.
"Sometimes I get sick from this water as we can’t boil it because of lack of firewood. I get stomach aches all the time. I have never seen clean water from a tap before. This is the only type of water I know about." "

http://www.wateraid.org/uk/donate/change_lives_tod...

Yes, I can see what a desperate shortage of wood there is in this slideshow of pictures of Nala in Tanzania where Pauline is from:

http://www.chinci.com/travel/pax/p/152001/Nala/TZ/...

Obviously judging by the photo of Pauline on the Wateraid website, fences are more important than keeping your daughter alive.

[El Guapo]

Kermit power said:

I have got to the point now where I view TV adverts as a theft of my life, 4 minutes at a time, so just never, ever watch them.

[scenario8]

Kermit power said:

Going utterly off topic, I really don't understand why anyone would choose not to do that?

I have got to the point now where I view TV adverts as a theft of my life, 4 minutes at a time, so just never, ever watch them.

I use the time to boil my water for a cup of tea (Fairtrade, natch).

[rovermorris999]

The problems with Africa are corruption and failed economic models. Until they're fixed most aid money is money straight down the pan.

[scenario8]

rovermorris999 said:

The problems with Africa are corruption and failed economic models. Until they're fixed most aid money is money straight down the pan.

While suffering in most countries is muchly down to mismanagement, corruption and exploitation some clean safe water for peasants to drink is probably a more pressing need for the peasants at the point of their thirst.