Dubai Consumer Mirror

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I need your help

If you have $5000 to spend on charity. What would you do?

Please bare in the mind that...

- I do NOT want to give it in CASH
- I do NOT want to give it in one of those blown up cheques
- I would like involve as many as possible from both sides (giver and receiver)
- It should have a helping, healing, feeding, pleasing, dressing, feeding, educating or cleaning nature or offering
- It should go to people who REALLY need help (orphans, patients, the elderly…etc)

and if possible..

- Would like the donation to have some kind of a lasting/sustainable effect; not a one-off thing.

Please do elaborate as much as you can.

posted by moryarti at 1/10/2007 12:34:00 AM

18 Comments:

  • Well the last charitable donation I made was via http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com, where I bought a llama and a llama care kit for some farmer in Peru.

    The things that you could do with $5,000 are quite amazing, such as buy a whole classroom, or a whole mango plantation to help out an entire village in a developing country.

    It depends if you need it to got a local charity or not. Oxfamunwrapped helps several countries in Africa and Asia in the "wider region" but nothing specifically in the Middle East. Supposedly they were doing something in Yemen but I am not sure that they still are.

    To be honest, in this country I would target my charity money towards expat-specific charities, because welfare is so generous for citizens. In the same way I prefer to target my money to third world/developing countries, or the kind of things that don't receive government funding.

    By Blogger secretdubai, at January 10, 2007 at 1:52 AM  

  • Moryarti: I can advise about the Islamic Relief website:
    www.islamic-relief.com
    I don’t mean any offence at all to non-Muslim friends, but I believe that those people are great and I hope you consider them in part of your donation. You will find all what you mentioned in your post.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 10, 2007 at 2:31 AM  

  • rent a studio in dubai

    contact & subscribe @ www.samencammen.net

    bring some wifes of the labour force in dubai to uae

    and let them life together in their condow (where they work as well)

    this is charity ! 5000 or 500.000 no problem

    i want to unite the families but have a lot of problems with xxx-content and uae and inet providers.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 10, 2007 at 8:59 AM  

  • Mory, I agree with borth Secretdubai and Hatem, both orgnizations are really great... http://www.alyateem.com/ also try this one.. they help you sponsor an orphan.. and with 5000$ you can do some great things.. I am proud of you... :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 10, 2007 at 9:00 AM  

  • The saddest people in Dubai are the maids. They are invisible as they push strollers and shopping carts behind their minders. Even if you make eye contact and smile at them to acknowledge their existence, they don't respond. They are walking dead. Maybe this is the wrong thread for this, but these women need a way to socialize with others in their same situation.

    By Blogger The Image Village, at January 10, 2007 at 9:15 AM  

  • I would sponsor college education of an accomplished but underprivileged Palestinian student..

    M, I work with an education organisation in Nablus and a medical association in Gaza that both provide receipts for whatever your money was spent on. Let me know if you are interested.

    Red Crescent / Red Cross / Greenpeace also come into mind.

    Good luck and God bless!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 10, 2007 at 9:19 AM  

  • I'm sure you've heard the "teach a man to fish rather than give him a fish" axiom. You might consider donating the cash to an educational project of some sort--preferably one locally that you, yourself, could monitor to see that the money is well spent. The sum you're considering might be enough to support a single project of limited scope, so you might have those who are to receive the award participate in determining the parameters of the project.

    Good luck, and great humanitarian spirit!

    Did you hear that Oprah has spent $40 million of her money to set up a school in South Africa? That's great but it would have been much better for that money to set up 40 schools, rather than a single ome.

    By Blogger B.D., at January 10, 2007 at 9:42 AM  

  • Check out Stephen Miller (of the Mission to Seafarers) who is raising funds to build a boat to serve many impoverished seafarers marooned off Fujeirah on tankers awaiting their next cargo.

    www.mtsdubai.com

    Well worth a look, a deserving and underreported cause.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 10, 2007 at 10:58 AM  

  • yeah, lets educate some Palestinian so he can become an electrical engineer. Guess whats the first thing they do, build bombs to blow up others.. woot

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 10, 2007 at 11:05 AM  

  • Mr M
    off the subject a bit here, but your blog has suddenly become very active. I can only think that your break from work got you all stoked up again. good stuff.

    As for the charity. Keeping it within eyeshot is usually a better idea. And to be honest I disagree with SD about local charities. There are so many stateless 'citizens' here that need help.

    By Blogger CG, at January 10, 2007 at 12:09 PM  

  • I would give it to Bei al Kheir Society in Dubai. They run an orphans program for the UAE, where you can sponsor a UAE national orphan for AED 300 monthly. You get to know and interact with the child on a regular basis. I feel it's important to give back to the community in which we live. Not everybody in the UAE is fortunate!

    By Blogger www.hallodubai.com, at January 10, 2007 at 1:32 PM  

  • Mory, may God reward you for benevolent intentions, I have some suggestion:
    -Find out what kind of ‘probonos’ charities are in shortage of, and then buy it for it/them as a service.
    -Try anything in Gaza, you know it was recently reported that the strip is the most violent and depriving environment for the upbringing of children.
    -You may consider helping Palestinian refugees fleeing Iraq (second time refugees), it was recently decided to build lodging camps for them inside Syria, I am not sure if charities are there yet, I may be able to find out soon….
    Good luck…

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 10, 2007 at 2:24 PM  

  • Microcredit - that constantly gets reallocated. Help people to help themselves with small loans, and when it comes back, help others. It's a perpetual cycle. Not sure the best way to do that from the UAE. Some governments match contributions, so if you have friends in Canada, you could maximise the amount that gets allocated. Or invest in educating people about charity which may bring more than your initial sum. ie spend 5000 to go and do a big trip like hike to everest base camp, and get sponsorship for it that would be larger than 5000. and at the same time give money to needy people on your trip. Good Luck with your decision. With the amount of comments, it seems philanthropy is popular.

    By Blogger grapeshisha, at January 10, 2007 at 3:19 PM  

  • Anon@ 11:05...That's a pretty stupid, degrading comment. Why don't you go educate yourself before stereotyping and generalizing?

    Why would you automatically assume that all Palestinians are terrorists? Please! Spare us your comments.

    Mory, what you're doing is really great! I don't have any ideas now as to who you can donate the money to, but whatever you end up doing with it, I'm sure it'll help a lot of people.

    By Blogger Dubai Sunshine, at January 10, 2007 at 5:27 PM  

  • I'd give it to the Angel Appeal (http://www.mtsdubai.com/about.jsp)which tries to give comfort to sailors who are stuck (often for months) out at the Fujeirah port. They are miles offshore and are not permitted on shore and generally have no way of even communicating with their loved ones. With almost everything that Dubai has coming in by ship, it is amazing that the people who make it possible are not better treated. That's where I'd put the $$, anyway.

    By Blogger Mme Cyn, at January 10, 2007 at 5:50 PM  

  • Wow .. i am Overwhelmed


    ....I would target my charity money towards expat-specific charities, because welfare is so generous for citizens..

    SD - you know something, that was the exact reason why i had this "i need help" post. I was always under the impression that charity orgs here are well supported... but upon contacting (and visiting some) they are not as supported as one would think they are...
    There is a lot of misery out there and those agencies need every help they can get..


    Hatem and RnD - thanks for the heads up on Islamic Relief. I am quite aware of these guys and what they do. I am planning to contact them soon.

    Anon 8:59 - I trust you have good intentions, your means though, need to be .. um.. revisited :)

    Anon 9:02 - same thing

    The image Village - disgusting can even describe the way some people treat their maids. It very sad.

    Dalia .. we are already doing something in Westbank. I don’t have the exact details .. but we are involved.

    BD - you are 100% right. That’s what I meant in wanting to do something that’s sustainable

    eyeondubai and mme cyn - I will definitely talk to the guys behind Angel project. And you are right. It is a shame that it not reported enough.

    Anon 11:05 - suggest you crawl back to the hole you came out from

    CG - more activity indeed ... that’s what happens when you take time off and stay home :). And you are right about doing more domestic work here

    hallodubai - i love the lead. I contacted them and meeting with Beit Alkhair next week enshallah - should keep you posted

    Balushi - You visited my blog! I AM TRUELY HONORED! And your idea is brilliant. How can one find who/where these pumps are needed?

    dubaijazz - thank you for dropping by and for brining light to the Palestinian refugees situation in Iraq. I am in dialogue with my peers in the Levant area to see what can we do to ease up the situation there.

    Grapeshisha ... what a fantastic idea as well. Do you mind talking more about it offline?

    DS - once I am done, I will share with you what I did. See if your people would like to do something similar

    By Blogger moryarti, at January 11, 2007 at 3:15 PM  

  • 290 - the number of poor Indian children whose education you can support for an entire year with 5,000$. I donate to CRY very often and I experience great joy when I receive reports from the organization as to what my money is exactly doing . With 5,000$ you can sponsor three vocational schools for a year!

    http://www.cry.org/index.html

    or

    https://www.cry.org/donor/crydonation.asp

    Wherever you do donate, thank you.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at January 11, 2007 at 4:46 PM  

  • well first let me start with a friendly welcome to one specific anon who wrote:

    "yeah, lets educate some Palestinian so he can become an electrical engineer. Guess whats the first thing they do, build bombs to blow up others.. woot "

    you are stupid and ignorant.. as someone who's studied electrical engineering in a top university i can tell you that they left out the course about bomb making my idiot commenter.. also why do people always prefer to be anons when they post stupid or crazy comments? really you have no face, no guts and no brains..

    not that you deserve any..

    as to Mori.. well my friend.. i was thinking something on the lines of what Dalia suggested or something to help the many poor working class expats over here.. maybe sponsor a few kids through schools and pay their fees if their parents cannot afford it.. or maybe sponsor to build a library (to help eradicate ignorance).. etc..

    but then maybe u need a bit more cash!

    god bless u + allah ye3teek el 3afye

    By Blogger BuJ, at January 13, 2007 at 12:57 PM  

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