What are we doing here?

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"Do you know what happens to the money you give to charity?"

WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? explores why the charity given to Africa over the last five decades has been largely ineffective and often harmful. The film tells the story of Brandon, Nicholas, Daniel and Tim Klein who travel across Africa in an attempt to understand one of the great problems of our time; the failure to end poverty.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Africa
• Charity
• NGO
• Child
• sponsorship
• Documentary
• Independant
• film
• Bono
• Jolie
• Sachs
• UN
• CARE
• Worldvision
• Save
• nonprofit
• poverty
• alleviation
• starvation
• hunger
• aid
• development
• developing
• africa
• ethiopia
• somalia
• sudan
• malnutrition
• food
• hungry
• relief
• malawi
• drought
• famine
• children
• solutions
• documentary

[eurotrash239]

any solutions being suggested?

i definitely want to see this, just hope it doesn't turn into an excuse to give up on Africa and do nothing.

[gibwak]

this is great. my dad is from uganda and i studied abroad there in college, and my class was bewildered. we didn't (and maybe still dont) know how to make a difference. ive since gone into public health, and hope that people can learn the complex realities of global poverty (esp in africa) from great work like this.

[ergon2008]

"Food aid doesn’t address the root causes of hunger: it’s a band-aid for emergencies that require immediate attention. Despite all of its faults, emergency food aid is still extremely important for addressing immediate hunger needs, but must be accompanied by programs and policies that protect small farmer and pastoralist livelihoods, support sustainable agriculture and protect natural resources."

Shoshana Perrey - "Food Aid in Africa: A Profitable Business"

[bongoman37]

THE SONG IS: GUA by Emmanuel Jal

watch?v=nAtMME7Vv88

[ipegasus]

We could greatly change poverty condition all over the world when we actually learn how people interact with each other. We have to meet people at their level and offer them ways to get out of poverty. Most religious organizations have failed because their underlying cause is to convert them to become one of them. Instead of just proving them with the tools, education and resources that they need to thrive. The United Nations has failed miserably in not promoting and supporting good leaders.

[Slimdawgc]

@Norseflyer If aid is ineffective, then millions of people are going to die anyway. I fail to see the relevance of your point. You present us with a false dichotomy between aid and life, and no aid and horror - the reality of poverty is much more complex than such notions.

[Slimdawgc]

Looks like a fabulous movie. Can anyone tell me what the song is, that is playing the background? Also, I'd like to know the name of the artist.

[PrinceBerzelius]

@Norseflyer My personal opinion is that if you tame an animal, it becomes weaker than it was on its own. ..help them, yes. but by giving them a chance to work for their food and home.

[essy111]

Their making idiots out of them pouring sacks of food out of aeroplanes their human beings not birds

[Norseflyer]

Here's a complex moral question for you:

Is it better if aid stops today and a million people starve to death, or that populations are artificially sustained indefinately while the threat of starvation, poverty and sufferring are ongoing for the next 50 years, and affect a great deal more lives?