Comic Relief - Who gets the money?

[bobthebandit]

I saw that Comic Relief raised �57 million.
However, how much of this will go to genuine good causes, and how much of it will go into the pockets of corrupt African Government ministers and officials?

[Buenchico]

A great deal of the money doesn't even go anywhere near Africa:
http://assets.comicrelief.com/cr09/docs/uk_gra nts.pdf

Chris

[Auntiemoll]

Now I know that the scenes where children were dying from malaria were very upsetting but I cannot help but think that if I lived in one of these countries that have such high infant mortality rates from malaria, I would move heaven and earth to beg buy or steal a mosquito net to protect my child/children from the mosquito bites that do the damage..
Also where are the governments of these countries, not supplying parents with nets?
Having said that Britain came up trumps again with all that money donated, do any other countries have similiar projects?

[SurreyGuy]

whilst I sympathise with the plight of the "needy" people in other parts of the world, I'm a great believer in "charity begins at home"!

As Auntiemoll says, why don't the governemtns of these contries help their own people? When you look at the oppulence in which the leaders of those countries live, it's obviious that they country DOES have wealth, albeit mis-directed wealth!

Having said that, our own country has wealth yet there are people living below the poverty line, so one could ask "does our own governement do enough for its own people"?

[natalie_1982]

Auntimoll and SurreyGuy, surely that is the whole reason that these countries are living in poverty? Because their governments choose not to help them, in some cases the governments choose to rape and murder their people, so why would they want to supply them with mosquito nets or help them financially?

I wholeheartedly agree that there are people in the UK that also need help, but, personally, I have never seen a British person starving to death because they cannot afford to eat or do not have the option of going to a nightshelter or a soup kitchen, or being entitled to JSA or social security.

Also, it's all very well moving heaven and earth to get a mosquito net but heaven and earth doesn't pay for it - cash does. If you don't work where would you get the money for a net when it costs a quarter of the average wage? If you have to feed an entire family on what equates to �20 per month, food takes priority over a mosquito net I would think. Also, moreoften than not the mosquito nets simply are not available - they don't tend to have big warehouses storing thing like that that you could steal one, they're simply not available. It would be the equivalent of a mosquito net costing �400 and you having to choose which member of your family uses it, whilst some go hungry because you chose to pay for the net rather than feed them.

I don't know about other countries, but in my experience Denmark do a huge amount of charity work for African countries / charities.

[squarebear]

People have been throwing money at Africa since the Live Aid days of the mid-eighties and nothing has changed.

Money doesn't seem to be the answer.

[Auntiemoll]

Squarebear perhaps my elderly Aunt of 87 years might have an answer....She lives in rural Wales, and once a year she visits the local chemist and purchases a 3 pack of condoms which she then puts into the Christain Aid envelope for collection" that's what they need she says," (Bless her she thinks the envelopes go directly to Africa) She is a spinster and I always have a laugh thinking what the staff in the chemist who know her well must be thinking....

[Everhelpful]

For once I agree with squarebear.

[bobthebandit]

Thank you for your previous responses.
I hope i am not being too cynical, but I do wonder if some of the clips shown on Comic Relief were genuine or staged by the locals to get money from us.
I didnt watch all of Comic Relief but one clip showed a child had died that day and they filmed the mother. She didnt look particularly distraught or upset, which raised my suspicions.