Thought of starting a charity? What would it be?

Diana

Well said. It is a huge amount of work and it's daunting when one realizes that their honest intentions are presumed to be otherwise. I've just opened an inclusive preschool (kids with and without disabilities attend together) in Kunnamkulam Kerala and it's going swimmingly NOW.

I had to deal with unexpected "jealousy" (the nice word for all kinds of resistance, rumor mongering, personal attacks, harassment of staff, "sabotage" and such) from a local segregated "special" school that (I found discovered after much head-scratching bewilderment) was concerned I was going to cut into their lucrative business with locals (via payment of "donations" for services) and their scam of foreigners (who "thought" their donations were going to help kids.) Quite an operation. And yet...this "rival" NGO has good PR and is run by a well respected doctor.

Anyway, compared to this soap opera-ish situation, the registration as a legitimate NGO is a breeze!

One excellent thing that has happened is that I was careful to hire a completely local staff to run things (under my guidance but we do work very collaboratively) and just yesterday we had a neighborhood Onam Programme that drew in a slew of elderly neighbors for lunch (in addition to center parents who donated the food). So my goal of having the center be "owned" by the community rather than a bunch of American academics seems to be coming true. I hope.

Anyway, that's my dream coming true...inclusive education for the most severely disabled kids (mine have CP, autism, blindness, etc) where they are not beat, isolated, segregated....or denied services.

jalebiwallah

First, my charity idea (not so much a charity as a ridiculous and impractical stunt): to ride a bicycle ice cream cart across India passing out vitamin and mineral fortified frozen confections to happy kids (if we wanted to really get ambitious Bill and Melinda G. could whip us up a batch with the new Malaria Vaccine in it).

All implausible do-gooderism aside, I wonder if finding charities/people already doing good things and finding ways to help them isn't a more realistic option for me, seeing as I'm a bit disorganized (to say the least). Even though it sounds to me like there are some foreigner-founded NGO success stories on this very thread, I doubt I've got it in me to DIM (do-it myself), now matter how much I admire those who do.

I'll start a new thread on finding a charity to love, perhaps.

mary10

That's sad. Really speaks volumes.

mary10

Sounds like deja vu. I have a friend who started a charity for homeless kids in India. Wont even get into details... Lets just say the word nightmare dont begin to describe the obstacles she had. But she was very stubborn and would not give up. She didnt have money and space to make huge efforts but managed to expand to about 250 kids per year, more than half of them homeless and the rest from farming families, coolies and so on, got educated through her school. And we got so proud when two of the street urchins ended up going to real school and eventually college by their own grades and efforts! That really made us so happy.

I remember one street kid that used to approach me every week begging for money because "he wanted to go to school" so badly. They're clever little rascals, real little con artists. Of course, it was a lot of bull. What he really wanted was to get easy money and hang around and get into trouble with all the other rugrats he hung out with. One day I told him to be careful because what he asks for he may get, and to not waste my time if he's not serious... He didnt believe it. So, when he approached me again I took him to my friends orphan school. Now, she locks the kids in the school and they cant just roam about as they like but have to remain there and do classes all day. He couldnt leave! He was so angry with me he wouldnt speak to me for months...! After about one month he had bullied other kids and created so many problems in the school, they let him go back to his own life and told him it was not acceptable (it was an intentional strategy). Street life is hard. He got beaten by the police and locked in within 24 hours for loitering about and being a troublemaker. He was very hungry and asked for food from the school. They certainly would not feed him as he was no longer a student and the food was for the school. A few days later he came crawling back to the school and the rules of his conduct were laid out for him. After that, he became more sincere and stayed in the school for many years, studied every day and ended up having some formal education and skills too! Years later he told me he was verfy grateful that I had insisted to take him to the school and we laughed at how angry he got at me. He dreamed of becoming an architect.

jalebiwallah

I don't want to call it a charity - it's a word I'm having trouble with these days, but this is more of activist center, a place for people and groups working for social change (in my case in Delhi) to get together and share resources, knowledge and access to technology and support (help writing and editing grant applications, designing websites, etc). It's something I've noticed the NGO I work for could really use - I feel like we often re-invent the wheel because we aren't talking to our neighbors. Conversations are good...

ANNAM_CUTTI

I would like to build/run a school. It will charge fees to student who can pay and be free to the poor and the refugees. It will be a good school with very high standards.

I thought I would buy land in India and build a school but as I am not Indian I think that might be impossible. I could set up a charity and buy land through the charity but still I don't know how doable this would be. Any advise?

From what I am reading, it looks the best way to do this is to join force with a charity in India. I.e. a collaboration between a UK and an Indian charity. Do you know how I can go about trying to achieve this? Or any charityies that would be interested in something like this?

navinkurian2002

Exactly what i wanna do. People may pass through and help out. But the people who will really keep the dream alive are the locals.

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poipleshadow

Hi...

Starting a charity is possible although extremely difficult (to get it right). If I can do it, then I'm sure anyone can as I did not have much knowledge before hand, although you really need to beleive in what you do and have buckets of energy as it's SOOO hard and frustrating at times!

I do not see a problem with starting or building a school. You can create a Trust or Society and start from there. Perhaps it would be easiest to start from rented buildings (start small) and then grow from there.

You really need funding from India though or start early with the FCRA proceedure (ability to receive donations from foreign nationals)

Good luck and why not do it....

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puchoo

I would probably like to do something concerning animals..maybe just dogs...think there is a lot that can be done and which is not vis a vi their situation in Delhi.....just read the other day about a dog being beaten to Death somewhere in Delhi....

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Nick-H

Charities in India is a potential nightmare area. Diana's posts, as well as Poipleshadow's (they both succeeded, mind you!) will give some idea of the practical difficulties.

The current thread on orphanages in Mamallapuram will give an idea on what "charity" means to many many people here. Sad but true.

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federica

An excellent idea... but I guess a monthly meeting with full concentration could do that job. Maybe two meetings... a social one with food and chatting, and a working one