Our orphans need food, clothes and lessons, not donated toys
IN 2005, I started a small UK-registered charity, Contesa, to support Aids orphans and disadvantaged children in Zambia, Southern Africa. We run feeding, education and training programmes from which more than 12,000 children have benefited. We currently have 2,000 children on our programmes. They come from poverty-stricken shanty compounds where a relative is struggling to look after them. Elderly grandparents have great difficulty caring for the many children left behind after their parents have died. I’m increasingly disappointed to see so much publicity at this time of year for people to send boxes of toys to comfort such children. These children don’t need toys, they need food, clothing and education. I was brought up in very similar conditions, and when you’ve spent months and years on site with these orphans and disadvantaged children, you’re only too aware that a child in poverty won’t play with a toy, but would love regular meals, new clothes to replace their tattered rags and the opportunity to go to school. Funds should be channelled through small and medium-sized charities such as ours which work directly with the children and spend 100 per cent of the funds donated on food and education programmes. For charities operating for the benefit of disadvantaged children in the UK, toys may be OK, given the social support network in this country — but not for starving orphans, street children and those with no support. Many fund-raising programmes run by TV stations are well-intentioned, but aren’t really helping the underlying issues affecting these children, including a lack of very basic items. You often read about huge charity funds being tied up in banks and savings accounts, and heavy spending on advertising and administration. Our charity has struggled to raise funds because the big charities normally get all the attention. In nine years of operation, however, we’ve received nearly £900,000 and the results we’ve achieved have been remarkable because we spend every penny effectively, and transparency means a lot to us. As many major bodies have noted, it’s the small and medium-size charities that are delivering more for each donated pound, and which are making such a difference in poor countries.
Mrs ESNAT AVON, Ringwood, Hants.