Another Scandal in Brazil

     

Source: http://www.thelogofactory.com/logo_blog/wp-content/uploads/2005/09/red-cross-islamic-crescent-red-diamond.png

       

              One of the biggest multi-national Non-Government organization in the world is the Red Cross. When we think Red cross, we think disaster relief.  But they do more than that. 

               In addition to disaster relief, the Red Cross is tries to educate the community, and help people who live in the slums. The Brazilian Red Cross has helped provide clean water to people who don’t have access to it. They educate the community about drugs. The provide first aid courses to the homeless.  They even have courses that deal with police brutality.  This is all according to their website (https://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/where-we-work/americas/brazilian-red-cross/).

               What the Brazilian red cross does, and what they are supposed to do are two separate things. The last time the news showed the Red cross doing something good was in 2011. For the past year, all of the news about the red cross has been about a corruption scandal. (http://www.trust.org/item/20140728192008-s2yc1)

               An audit in 2014 found that about $10 million dollars (local currency) has been illegally diverted from the Red Cross between 2010 and 2012. Most of the people who have been involved in the scandal have been caught in July 2014 (http://curitibainenglish.com.br/government/improvements/corruption-officials-caught/).

               We have a responsibility to make sure NGO’s keep their promises. NGO’s are a bureaucracy. Just to operate these cost money. There is the matter of paying the executives who run the NGO. I’m sure they make more than their share of money.  Then there are the overhead costs. Running these organizations cost a lot of money. When you donate to them not all your money is going to the cause, but a lot of that money is going to the organization.

               NGO’s are regulated, but the regulations are not necessarily complete. Besides, they vary from country to country, or even city to city. With a lack of regulation, these types of scandals can easily happen.

               Don’t get me wrong, I do think the Red Cross is a good organization, but when we donate, we need to do our homework. After all, it is these NGO’s who are the ones providing the help to thsose in need when it is otherwise not available.

The Controversy with Humanitarian Aid

In the book, The Crisis Caravan, Linda Polman brings concerns about humanitarian aid to light for people to become aware of the things that humanitarian organizations commit. The principle concerns the author raises in her book creates the reader to really question if the tactics that aid organizations use truly helps globally or if the aid is more of a hindrance to the communities that they travel into. Linda mentions that when “humanitarian aid community travels to war-torn, crisis ridden countries feels no embarrassment about looking like an international jet set on holiday” (50). The appearance of these organizations reflects more about the amount of money in their pocket instead of the compassion to help the hurting people. In addition, what’s problematic for the organizations is that places they travel too require them to pay in order to enter the area. These organizations agree to the people that want the money to collect a proportion of the worth of the aid supplies that NGOs bring in to help victims in the area. The controversial part is that when aid organizations travel to a country or region to help victims, they in turn support the very group, warlords, governments, guerrilla groups, etc., that has made people in that area into victims that need the aid from the organizations that come in. This topic wouldn’t be as controversial if aid organizations would be more open to this fact that they have to pay in order to enter many areas but since there are “no rules, no limits, and no requirement to have any understanding of the local balance of power, or to coordinate with other parties involved…” (97) these aid organizations choose not to tell any details to fellow organizations. This causes a lack of accountability to other aid organizations and to the world. In reality, groups that abuse people and create problems escape punishment and many aid organizations keep entering the region to help through various forms of aid only creates a cycle that cultivates the need for each other.

Humanitarian Work in Haiti

In the book, Linda Polman indicates that “Aid organizations are businesses dressed like Mother Teresa.” She mentions this fact because she believes that NGOs appears to be an organization that tries to accomplish good for society but underneath the charity appearance lays an organization that’s purpose is to make money just like a business. I believe this metaphor reveals hard truth of aid organizations but partially exaggerated at the same time. All aid organizations are businesses because their main objective is to earn money, majority, through donations and then choose in what ways that they will spend the money. In addition, politics largely gets involved with these organizations just like in businesses and hinders opportunities for success. Majority of aid organizations do abuse making money through the Mother Teresa appearance; doing well for the people and community around. There are a small portion of aid organizations that truly does good for the people by spending the money donated to them for the purpose to help victims through the correct way.

Just like the saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child”, it takes a community to make sure humanitarian aid goes to the right people.  Sectors that especially have a large role to contribute to make sure humanitarian aid is successful are journalists, the public, and governments. The public and governments should take a deeper look before giving money to organizations. These two sectors can contribute accountability during the early stages of keeping aid organizations responsible. The public and governments should give based on that these aid organizations are successful in getting aid to the people that needs them and after giving, they should demand the purpose and reasoning behind traveling to the places the aid organization choose to visit.Journalists have the responsibility to treat aid organizations like businesses. This sector has a large responsibility to keep aid organizations accountability after money is given and when these organizations are doing humanitarian work around the world. When interviewing the organizations, the journalists should ask the hard questions about money donations such as what is done with the money and how much money goes for profit. Making sure humanitarian aid goes to the correct places will be difficult and takes many people to make this possible but it’s still possible.