About
Hello and thank you for caring enough to visit this website; your time is valuable but you're surely reading this because you care enough to set aside your other tasks for a moment. There are some serious issues to address when thinking about whether or not to get involved with a charity and I want to take a moment to talk frankly about some of them here.
We, in developed nations, have all seen the African children on the T.V. commercials with their pot bellies, skinny limbs and flies on their faces. We have picked up the phone and pledged our own money; we've watched celebrities make fun of themselves to raise funds and sometimes even adopt them; we've been accosted in the street and given the hard-sell; we've had envelopes through our door and invitations to gala dinners. And all that clever marketing has quite literally paid off: we in wealthy countries have donated over 2 trillion US Dollars to poor countries in the past 60 years, 1 trillion of which has gone straight to Africa1.
So how can some African countries possibly be in a worse position than 60 years ago -how can all this money not have solved the problems? And is it true that in many cases aid has actually hindered rather than helped? Has the story of the world's poor been mis-sold and exploited? Has far too much money stayed in the hands of a few with relatively little reaching the most needy people on the ground? Well these are hotly debated arguments indeed but they are vital ones for us to look at before making the decision about whether to get involved with a charity. We must question what the last 60 years has taught us about the Aid Industry, whether the approaches taken by Governments and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) have been the right ones, and whether we need to re-evaluate how exactly we plan to help the two thirds of the world's population who are still living in poverty. Whilst looking at these issues we also need to consider the role of business and global trade, we need to be careful about how we portray impoverished communities, and we need to be very clear about our personal involvement being for the benefit of others rather than for our own egos.
In Sacred Childhoods' reports you will see that we are dealing with these complex spiderwebs of cause and effect and heavy ethical dilemas on a daily basis; trying to work out what kinds of projects would truly help individual children and the communities that they are a part of without contributing to a vicious cycle by fostering aid-dependency.
Over time we have come to create projects focused on four different themes: Aid, Trade, Lend and Teach. Often the projects on the ground actually incorporate two or three of these elements in response to the complex needs of the communities. What seems to be crucial is an ability for our small NGO to be flexible and able to respond quickly to their changing needs and also to work to a set of policies designed to guard against corruption and the misuse of funds. Sometimes our Teach programs will be going well when there is suddenly a fire which burns down the building and surrounding houses, as happened recently. So our team needs to switch to and Aid program in order to get crisis funding through to the families and then to re-build the school. For a time we will need to provide some families with food and water, but very soon we will have the make the difficult decision to stop so that they don't become dependant. As soon as possible we will then return to the Teach program; one which will help the children to break free from the poverty trap long term.
The difference here is that we are not preoccupied with aid (in the sense of food packages and other supplies which will soon run out) as a primary means of solving extreme poverty. We realise that Indonesia, where our projects are currently focused, is in the throws of its own industrial revolution. And as international trade schemes and businesses expand throughout Indonesia development will quicken and poverty will in turn reduce. For the next few decades as this process takes place we will continue to help in the small but significant ways that we can, putting an 'aid bandage' on when necessary but promoting education, training and enterprise as much as possible.
What we wont do is guilt-rid you out of your money. Life is tough, really tough, for many of the children that we support. We wont shy away from presenting some images which try to show you just how hard life can be for them but we also wont depict only that half of the story. These children, despite their poverty, still smile as soon as the camera points towards them, they still play at every given opportunity, and they can still be seen giggling, chasing and tickling their way through their childhoods - as much as life will allow them to at least.
Children are among the most vulnerable in society and in Indonesia they sometimes suffer not only due to the effects of poverty but in some cases from organised abuse and exploitation. At Sacred Childhoods we see it as imperative to protect children who are in danger and to fight organised crime against children head on. Many NGOs prefer to stick to the 'pink and fluffy' projects, the ones with the 'look good and feel good' factor but this is creating a big 'hole in the net' where children are falling through almost un-noticed. Trafficking is a huge problem world wide (including in Indonesia) and a difficult and sometimes dangerous one to face but at Sacred Childhoods we see it as vital to play our part in helping to combat it. So our team are also undertaking the extremely difficult task of rescuing children who have been subjected to horrific abuse and providing safe housing and therapeutic support. Whilst poverty in most of the world is decreasing over time organised abuse of children is on the increase -there are now more human slaves than ever before in history. So I must ask you to join us in trying to help.
You alone are certainly incapable of changing the world but We, the collective we I mean, can make it into a much better place -our team at Sacred Childhoods are proving this to be the case every day. Change is happening at an amazing rate; as one human race we are co-operating, networking and moving towards a sustainable existence faster than ever before and technology is allowing us to get to know each other regardless of distance, ethnicity, or language. I hope that this website shows you how much we are a part of a Global Community and just how possible is to support the world's children.
With love,
Natalia Perry
Founder and Director of Sacred Childhoods
1 Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid 2010
