Niger Crisis

[Tabby]

Hello guys, I've sent an e-mail around about the Niger Crisis, so I hope if it's alright to post this here, it's a slighty altered copy. Please take alittle time to read it.

This is loooooong so prepare yourself! Please don't just skim read, this is very important. I only wish I had, but I have built up the courage to post this, and send the e-mail. I'm sorry if any of this offends anyone, truly.

This is probably going to sound really mushy and slushy, but please listen.

Right now there is a HUGE CRISIS in Niger due to Famine, and poverty! Their crops failed last year due to drought and locusts. The lives of 800 000 children under five are threatened, and thats just the children. Millions are without food, and are forced to eat grass, leaves, anything they can, even rats. It's not just Niger, but Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso. 2 500 000 people are on the brink of starvation!

I'm sure some of you will have heard about it on the news, and maybe you just sat there and watched it, and then moved on, I have to admit I did at first. I didn't think there was anything I could do. But... someone has come up with an idea.

I'm not going to ask you to spend lots of money, but I'm going to ask you to consider five things, just five, which you could live without buying, like sweets, chocolate, clothes, Cd's, anything! I'm not demanding you give them up, but for a few days, I'm asking you to please not spend money on those things, even if it's just one day, then save that money, and donate it to the appeal.

This of course isn't just happening in Niger, but all over the world, so if it's not Niger, then something else that would mean something to someone.

Only £10 would get Re-hydration salts for over 500 kids! Just £10! I could buy a top for that, and that same £10 could save 500 lives! It's not just something elsewhere, I'm turning extremist here I'm afraid. It's not just about feeling sorry for them, but about helping, no matter how much you can give, large or small, EVERY LITTLE HELPS!

This isn't some half hearted plea, and I sound like the advert, but this is real life, happening right now, as I'm typing this. This famine is Temporary! It doesn't have to be like this! You're probably thinking, why is she doing this?

This is me trying to persuade you to give. You can donate money to the following:

The Post Office
The Bank
www.dec.org.uk
www.doctorswithoutborders.com.
www.oxfam.org.uk/

There are many more if you look. If you can not donate money, please, just say a little prayer, or light a candle, anyway you feel you can send a message to whoever, or whatever you believe in for help.

Donating makes you feel brilliant! But whatever, even £1 can help! Be careful when donating money however, and make sure you know where that money is going! Always Check carefully!

Please, donations, prayers, giving whatever you can up, whatever, just give these people, a little thought.

I hope you will forgive me for resorting to posting this with this sad information, but I felt it had to be done. It just really eats me up so badly that there may not be a tomorrow for them, you know? No one deserves this, and it can be helped, so I though I'd give it my best shot. Lets show them we care!

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, or if it gets deleted. I don't mean to sound pushy or demanding, honest. I just really believe in doing this, and am really nervous and worried about the reaction, but I think it's for the better.

Thanks for reading!

[Kneetroll]

You're very welcome to post this here, Tabby - and welcome back! (Long time no see, eh?)

I myself have donated to this charity (I put a tenner in), but I must admit I've always been skeptical, but with good reason:

Let's use the Tsunami disaster as an example. Millions and millions of peoples pounds/dollars/euros from all over the world was donated, with more going into it every day and almost a year later nobody has spent a penny on those poor people. It makes you wonder if they're just using it to give the Rich a good holiday or a new Golf Club somewhere.

Also, billions every year gets sent to Etheopia, Niger, Africa, India (to name a few) and yet the only benefit these people ever seem to get is a few old clothes, half a dozen wells and some medicine.

Sorry if I sound like a sourpuss, but it seems awfully odd to me that these people are doing so badly considering the donations they receive. If £10 could save 500 lives, then what could ten billion do?

[DreamDangerously]

you're right, a lot of aid does get skimmed off to be spent on things it shouldn't do, thats why the Burma campaign, for example, don't use donations in that way. Also in reality, if you think of the size of an overpopulated country, even if you compared it to England and there was a huge disaster here, how much could a few million actually achieve.

However I do still donate, but personally I donate direct to charities that I know will use the money properly and who can account for their spending, such as Oxfam.

[Tabby]

Yea, I was really worried about where the money goes, cause it's no use to us or them if it goes somewhere it shouldn't, but, all my money goes to DEC through the post office or bank. They are a brilliant organisation.

And I guess, they're still in poverty cause they really do need a lot of help, like across the road from me, beyond the overly large chemical factory which keeps turning my cat pink,green and blue, which I am angry about and I will complain about, they are making a £2 million saxon house! It won't even be a village. Just a single house.

But every little helps, I said a prayer and did a killer sponsored walk around the Haworth moors, so I was worried too that after all that work me and my friends did, it'd go to the wrong place.

I think their govt should help more, they seem to be in denial about the whole famine, which isn't helping matters.

[Kneetroll]

The government aren't in denial about it, I don't think. I reckon they're 100% fully coherant of the situation, but are too damn ignorant to do anything about it. The more money they actually send to charities, the less money they get. Sickening, yes, but as they say, the rich get richer...