africa / Calendar / Society

What happened to the $10 dollars you donated to charity last year?

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by Nelima

If you are a fan of Dambisa Moyo’s Dead AID,  ‘What are we doing here?’ is a documentary you may want to watch. Here’s a synposis, for more information visit their website by clicking here.

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.

In the film, the Klein family travel 15,000 miles via public transportation from Cairo to Cape Town. They cross war torn and famine-ridden regions where aid workers, politicians, and inspiring individuals tell about the incredibly complex and often misunderstood issues that affect hundreds of millions of people across the continent.

Daring to ask the questions no one else will, the filmmakers invite the world to rethink the fight against poverty in Africa. Could our good intentions be causing more harm than good? Have humanitarian interventions prolonged suffering? Who is actually benefiting from our good intentions? These questions and many more are addressed for the first time ever in this groundbreaking feature length film. If you ever wanted to know what happened to the $10 dollars you donated to charity last year, look no further. This film will change the way you look at charity in Africa forever.

Where: Uptown Theater, Minneapolis 2906 Henepin Ave

When: Monday May 4th – 7pm and Wednesday May 6th – 11am

6 thoughts on “What happened to the $10 dollars you donated to charity last year?”

  4. Of course there are problems with the ‘relief industry’. And there’s plenty of money that gets lost along the way.

    But to jump from there to conclude that aid is harmful is wrong, both academically (i’ve read the book you mention and it offers no proof of causality whatsoever), and morally.

    First there’s no distinction between emergency humanitarian aid (people starving in a drought: shouldn’t we do our best to feed them?) and development aid, which is project based, and finally budget assistance, where most of the embezzlement takes place.
    Second, the ‘studies’ are dubious and offer correlation at best. If there is corruption at the same time as there is aid, it doesn’t necessarily mean that aid is causing corruption.

    I’m a development economist. And I’ve worked in humanitarian relief. I guarantee, if it weren’t for foreign aid, we’d have had many more dead on our hands.

    With all due respect to its author, ‘Dead Aid’ is dead wrong.

    This documentary seems interesting and unpretentious though, and I look forward to watching it!

  6. In the preview of the film, it asked “what do Africans think?” This forum should be answers of what Africans think.
    I think that poverty in Africa is sadly enormous. But, watching the beginning of the preview, it makes me wonder why the whole of Africa is often (including this film) depicted as one country that is extremely poor. For once, I would like to see a documentary that is not exploiting Africa’s poverty, but exploring it’s wealth. I want Aid to come to those who need it and I want the world to be more aware of some of the sufferings of some Africans, but what we as Africans need to do is take care of ourselves, our people, and our future. We need to stop relying on foreign Aid and start progressing, internally and externally.
    I would love to see this documentary, but for once, I want to see one that challenges the develop world and depict us as progressive, rich, intellectuals with a lot more to offer than war and poverty. I want to see the good in Africa depicted.

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