I asked members of a facebook travellers group with several thousand members that I am in if they would donate to an appeal for help for the Afghans suffering from the recent earhquakes there and was shocked by two responses.
quote "Damn ... liberate that country first .... to install again democracy international troops are needed there. That regime is not legitimate."
My reply: "so do you suggest we sit around and let people die as a result of a natural disaster until we see the sort of politics there that we want and send in troops which will inevitably bring more death and suffering? And I don't know where you live but here in the UK we don't exactly have the sort of democracy many of us want? "
quote: "will the afghani people receive our help or does it go straight to the Taliban"
my reply: "this always similar to my question but i ask how much that we give is absorbed by the charity salaries and expenses before it even gets there. But in circumatsnaces like these I see i have only two options - either try to help or don't help. For sure if we don't give anyting then nothing will get through. So I make a donation and hope that some gets through.
A few weeks ago I asked people to donate towards feeding and housing some desparate people in Kashmir - the money is going direct to a guy called Pradeep Singh who is in this group lives there amongst 70 families in desparate need. I actually asked in this group, on my own friends lists here and by email, some businesses such a restaurants and coffeeshops etc - quite a few thousand people. The result was just TWO donations totalling about 25 dollars! Most disappointing.
So what are the reasons for people not giving even in circumstances like that? Is it really mistrust of him?
I can of course understand that people that cannot afford donations, simply cannot give, but here we all are siting in our comfortable homes going on line, and really does it help anyone to ask whether the Taliban or some charity or individual would be the only benefactor, apart from putting more doubt into our minds.
In 1972 I was sick in India, received free hospital treatment in India, Kabul and Tehran, with people with very little helping me along my journey. They had so little but in comparison gave so much.
When I ran out of money in Kashmir in 1985, I got help from locals so I did not have to sleep and beg on the street. I know I was not the only one helped by locals with little themselves, so I want to try to give something back - I feel for them - and better still want to ask others to do the same. It does make me wonder about facebook groups."
https://donatenow.wfp.org/afghanistan-hunger-crisis/~my-donation
https://gogetfunding.com/help-for-7-indian-families-to-build-a-house/
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