r/humanitarian • u/Sufficient_Basis527 • 10d ago
Help!!!
Hi all! I've been wondering for sometime on how i can help out others in need (humans and animals) when i have very little income. I'm not talking about helping out communities because i do what i can for homeless people and their dogs in my area. I want to have a good global outreach on helping firsthand, not any donations as i don't fully trust most charities and companies that say they donate to those in need. I've seen videos online where people rescue dogs and cats from meat trades and also people that help others get a house and give them a brand new start to life. This might even feel like a stretch and the reality of the situation could be that i just don't have the finances, i'm wondering if there are organisations that i can volunteer through that don't cost a fortune (most volunteering camps outside of my country require a down payment of 1.5-3k, which is quite silly and really expensive). If anyone has any ideas that would be much appreciated!
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u/diplo_naseeb 9d ago
As someone working for a medium-sized international NGO, I can confirm that donations - even the smallest - always make us (staff who process them) happy because private donations count more than ever in the current climate. They go to our emergency fund and once a year we inform our private donors of how their money was used (which project).
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u/Sufficient_Basis527 9d ago
How do donations actually work? I feel like i've been taught that nothing good comes from and its all just a pyramid scheme to make the rich more richer. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for sharing and i will also try my best to look more into it and learn where my donations go towards!
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u/diplo_naseeb 8d ago
I work for a major international NGO and my team receives private donations. They get directly added to an emergency fund which is then solely used to finance projects implemented in the countries where we're active, which are either highly economically and politically unstable, in the grips of a humanitarian crisis or reeling from economic collapse. Some examples - Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, DRC... And there are more. Only a tiny, decreasing fraction of our staff are international. Others are recruited locally and know the context like the back of their hand. They know what their countries or regions need, which means the money can be spent in an actually useful and impactful way. What's nice about private donations is that they allow us, the NGO, to design and implement projects that we perhaps struggle getting institutional (public) funding for, like smaller projects that may not be the priority of major donors (governments, European Commission, etc) or in countries where aid is declining. Some INGOs like MSF rely exclusively on individual donations.
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u/ZiKyooc 9d ago
Give that time to a local organisation, or find an organisation you trust to give that money to. Find one locally that you can engage with, or abroad through people you meet who have first-hand experience with them.
It will be more impactful than any volunteer tourism, as most of the time people pay a lot and provide nothing a local couldn't have, and far less than a qualified local could.
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u/Sufficient_Basis527 9d ago
Do you have any abroad organisations that you trust that would be worth looking into? I do as much as i can for my city and donate food and clothes and also try my best to make a difference in the homeless community as well by providing them with food and winter clothes and also offering, taking and paying for shelter for them. I see videos online that break my heart and want to help those people too. Any suggestions on who you trust would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
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u/jcravens42 8d ago
A great thing you could do would be to volunteer with refugees and immigrants in your own community. There are nonprofits that help these communities, and this will give you an international focus without having to spend huge amounts of money.
"i'm wondering if there are organisations that i can volunteer through that don't cost a fortune"
Local people are perfectly capable of doing the work you are describing - companies that charge many thousands of dollars are doing so to make money. There are some organizations that don't charge, but you need to have amazing credentials/expertise and be able to work in at least one language more than English. And they want to see that you have extensive experience working or volunteering locally doing the work you want to do internationally.
Here is a free guide to international volunteering - it's not behind a paywall and you don't have to sign in, it's just a normal web page.
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u/sealofdestiny 9d ago
You should wait until there’s a major international disaster, ideally in a country where you don’t speak the language, then fly over with a bunch of your own tools and just get stuck in trying to help.
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u/Sufficient_Basis527 9d ago
It's a great idea but i don't want to wait for a disaster to occur when there are so many people out in the world that don't have much already wether its because of war,natural disasters in that area took place, or even countries that are considered "poor". I'm already trying to save as much money as i can per month when i get paid to be able to travel to those countries and set up a sanctuary to make sure everyone is fed and clothed and dont have to worry about what tomorrow will bring. Thank you for the suggestion though!
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u/External-Shirt2811 3d ago
This is rage bait, right?
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u/Sufficient_Basis527 3d ago
why would it be?
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u/External-Shirt2811 3d ago
I mean, the above comment was obviously sarcasm, you should not go flying out to a disaster zone without speaking the language or understanding the local context 😅 There are lots of people in need as you said, there are already quite a lot of local charities and international ones that hire local staff doing this work, you would be better saving up money to donate to them rather than flying out to "set up a sanctuary". It reeks of white saviourism haha
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u/LayerParticular2581 9d ago
I'm a student in rural Spain so I can't give away a lot of money. And I want to volunteer too, but it's hard to do that where I live. So I think our situations are pretty similar. Here's what I did:
-First I investigated how to get an actual career on a humanitarian field. There are a lot of degrees or master's that can get you a career in an NGO. If you are still a student you could try to redirect your career towards that kind of job. -Then I asked around on Reddit and local "coordinators". On Spain there is a "coordinator" for each Autonomous Community that has the contact info for most NGOs in the zone. There has to be a similar thing for your country/zone if you look it up on google or ask for the info in your local goverment, school or library. -And yeah I was also pretty distrustful of large NGOs. But I ended up feeling confident on supporting Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International. Both organizations are lead by people with reasonable salaries (some CEOs of NGOs have a salary of 1 million € per year...) and receive their funding from private investors instead of depending on public funding. That makes them much more independent than other NGOs. They also have great reputation. Doctors Without Borders is praised by most people that work on NGOs and Amnesty International puts out detailed reports constantly which show that they are actually working. I donate 12€ to Doctors and 4€ to Amnesty per month. 4€ on Amnesty is the lowest amount that gives you the right to vote on things in the future.
I hope this was useful.
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u/Sufficient_Basis527 9d ago
I'm in the same situation as you, i work part time and i'm also going back into education to study politics hoping that in the future i can make an impact worldwide. What are some good degrees that i can change my course to become an NGO? I donate to my local shelters (homeless and animal) to try and help but i will definitely look into doctors without borders and amnesty. Thank you so much!!
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u/hudooj 9d ago
The most impactful thing would just be to donate to an organization if that's the price range you have. You can pay for a volunteer tour if you really want, but understand that program would focus you, not the people you'd be "serving."