Foreign Nonprofit Organizations

Thursday, May 10, 2012

"It Profits Us to Strengthen Nonprofits"

"Government is a poor vehicle to address pressing social ills."

- Peter Drucker

So how does all of this impact you or me? Why should we care and how does the US connect with this at all? We already pay taxes that go to the government and a portion of these taxes are supposed to go to foreign aid. However, replacing governement incompetence with real charity could be the key to success. When an idividual donates their money to an NGO, they expect it to be used for what the NGO says it will be. This forces NGO's to use ethical business procedures because there would be law suits against them for false advertising or lying to the public. However, the government can raise money for a specific cause and then use the money in a completely different way without reprecution because there is nothing stopping them from doing that. Our economy is impacted by this because the real problems are not being dealt with in foreign countries except by NGOs. If Americans can help NGOs as much as they can, the government can stop taxing Americans so much under the disguise that they are using the money for charity.

http://wishtank.org/peter-drucker-the-man-who-hated-the-word-guru/

Related Link: http://www.druckersociety.at/index.php/peterdruckerhome/bibliography/32-primary-literature/67-major-articles-in-periodicals-

"PolitickerNJ.com." Replace Government Incompetence with Real Charity. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.politickernj.com/murraysabrin/44655/replace-government-incompetence-real-charity>.

Supporting Ideas That Support The Economy

NGO's also aim to support ideas that support the economy. This means that if a local has an idea for a business that will in one way or another benefit the economy but he does not have the financing for it, an NGO may provide financial support.

Example: In Ghana, fish is a very common food. However, there are very few places to get fish from, so the market price for fish can change a lot based on how much the seller wants to charge. In Asikuma, there is a very large fish farm called "The West African Fish Market" and it is run by a group of Norwegian men. There are no other fish farms near Asikuma, so the locals are forced to pay whatever the Norwegians feel like charging them, and often it is a very unreasonable price. (The West African Fish Market has an average annual net sales of $4 million.) So when a local entrepreneur came up with the idea to open his own fish farm and sell at a lower price than The West African Fish Market, Isaiah 1:17 bought into the idea and provided financial support for this idea.

When NGO's support thinkers like New Life (the man who came up with the fish farm idea), they help the economy by helping to keep prices low for the locals as well as create jobs to help with the operation of running the fish farm.

Below are pictures of The West African Fish Market.

http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=a39068cf70f283e59a16dcf07a6807f9

"Fish Farming Advised For Unemployed Graduates." The Fish Site. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/15980/fish-farming-advised-for-unemployed-graduates>.

Medical Clinic - Before and After

Another project that impacted Asikuma was the construction of a medical clinic within their village. The main focus when planning to build the medical clinic was to provide basic health serviced that most locals did not have access to and save lives. In Asikuma, women gave birth to their children on the dirt floors of their huts before the medical clinic. With all of the problems that the unsanitary dirt floor provided, women were at a very high risk of dying during childbirth. (Below: Maternal Mortality around the world.) Now that the medical clinic has been built, women have a sanitarty place to give birth where nurses are present in order to assist the new mothers. Children and adults can also go to this medical clinic for immunizations to help them stay safe from diseases like tyfoid fever and malaria.

The new medical clinic affects the economy by creating jobs for higher level education within the community. This means that students now have an even bigger incentive to become educated. The nurses and doctors that operate the medical clinic are very kind about teaching the children the ways of medicine. The hope is that the children of Asikuma will become more educated so that that they not only can help understand the medical world, but help alleviate the pressures of poverty by understanding how the economy works and how they can create a better way of life for their community.

http://www.childinfo.org/maternal_mortality.html

Related Link: http://www.childinfo.org/maternal_mortality.html

"Childinfo.org: Statistics by Area - Maternal Mortality - Overview." Childinfo.org: Statistics by Area - Maternal Mortality - Overview. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.childinfo.org/maternal_mortality.html>.

School Uniforms

"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow."

- Isaiah 1:17

Another very important piece of education in Ghana is school uniforms. Students cannot attend classes without school uniforms, which can be pricy, no matter how worn and used they are. The lack of financing causes many young and bright children to stay home instead of getting educated in school. An NGO closely related to Kingdom Care International saw this problem and addressed it, purchasing 20 uniforms for girls and 20 uniforms for boys, allowing 40 more children to attend school. Education is directly related to success of a country's economy.

Aghion, Philippe, Leah Boustan, Caroline Hoxby, and Jerome Vandenbussche. "The Casual Impact of Education on Economic Growth." Brookings.edu. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2009. Web. <http://www.brookings.edu/economics/bpea/~/media/Files/Programs/ES/BPEA/2009_spring_bpea_papers/2009_spring_bpea_aghion_etal.pdf>.

After The Library - A Sense of Accomplishment

Once the construction of the library was complete and volunteers had arranged all of the books, the library was opened. More children wanted to go to school to use the new books. Of the ten children I have been checking up on, 8 of them were now attending school on a regular basis, if not daily. Locals who assisted the Kingdom Cares International with the construction of the library now had a small amount of cash to spend in the local markets. Regardless of what this money was used for, the economy was stimulated in one way or another.

Another major improvement that came around the same time that the library opened was that the school created a new system in order to use their resources more effectively. Instead of having 90 kids in a classroom with only one teacher for the whole day, the children had been instructed to come in shifts - morning or afternoon. This made the teacher to student ratio a little bit more reasonable; 1:45.

Related Link: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/eiip/eiipid39.asp

"EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective / Indicator 39." EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective / Indicator 39. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/eiip/eiipid39.asp>.

During Construction of The Library - Pride in the Project

During construction of the library a shift in the atmosphere in Asikuma was very evident. People went from their everyday lives of just trying to survive the day to being excited to accomplish something for their community. The enthusiasm for building a new library could be seen everywhere you looked: from the church services in town to the children running from hut to hut with uncontainable emotion. The new library not only meant a finished product that would be beneficial to the entire community, but also meant the locals would have something to do rather than sit around and wonder what tomorrow held for them. People within the village community were given jobs to aid with the construction. The local brick maker made his entire annual salary three times in less than a week. Some people were hired by the NGO in order to help with the construction of the library, while others were used to help carry things from the brick maker's shop to the site of construction. The way the entire community was involved in one way or another in making the construction of the library possible created a sense of pride in the project.

http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=9a263f289a8a28459a16dcf07a6807f9

Related Link: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=178278

"Create Jobs in Africa, and All Else Will Follow." Ghana HomePage, Resource for News, Sports, Facts, Opinions, Business and Entertainment. Ghana Web. Web. 10 May 2012. <http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=178278>.

Before the Library

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

One of the main purposes to build a library in Asikuma was to provide hope to the young in the community of a future less bleak than the daily routine of the rural village. Before the construction of the library, for most, a day in Asikuma included sitting around with not much to do. That sounds like vacation to many Americans at first thought. However, knowing that the reason they are sitting around is because they do not have enough calories in their bodies to do any physical activity, nor enough money or resources to obtain more food. Ladies sometimes work selling food and miscellaneous items on the side of the road to the occassional traveler coming through the village. School attendance throughout the community were very low, only the wealthy could send their children to school. Most other children were required to stay home and help care for younger siblings or assist in selling on the side of the road. Teachers were running out of resources to teach with as well as space to teach. There was a teacher to student ratio of 1:90. In numbers that does not seem like very much, but look at this graph to help put it into perspective.