Donating to Charity... A Fail?

There are many many charities, and many of them claim to do quite a bit of good, but many of them are doing it the wrong way. Most of them look at a country and say "What do we think they need?" and then they ask for money. Once they have enough money, they buy whatever they decided on, and they send it on over. You'd think this would work, but having done absolutely no research on the area.. they failed. One example of such a failure is in Camp Shahraqi Mawijirin in Afghanistan.

A hundred or so paces away from the last hut of crumbling mud brick, a colorful, shiny playground rises out of the barren earth, like a twisted joke played on the 145 families dumped in this forlorn wasteland.

Because who needs a playground, asks Fateh Mohammad, his mouth contorted into a warped smile, when there is no food? Who needs a playground when the houses are falling apart?

Who needs these two red and blue metal slides, four swings, two soccer goals, and a seesaw, Fateh Mohammad demands as the smile fades from this man's sun-browned face completely, when the children are dying?

Anna Badkhen's "A Journey Through Northern Afghanistan, Day 5" at Foreign Policy

Now, this isn't to say that donating to charity is a bad idea. It can be helpful in many cases. One place where the money went in the right direction is the Uncultured Project. Shawn went to Barguna, Bangledesh through the charity Save the Children. He spent his time there building them a sand water filter, bringing them drinkable water. You can watch the video here.

Next time you plan on donating to a charity, do your research. Make sure you're not giving money to give starving children a playground instead of food, a clinic but not water, or job without a house. It could mean the difference between a wasted $5 and $5 that bought a month's supply of food for a family.