Over the years, many scholars in Africa have come to the conclusion that direct aid from Western Countries to African Governments has been a big failure.
Whereas some people argues that African Governments are worthless managing aid monies due to lack of accountability, transparency, and endemic corruption, some are of the view that Western Governments also have to take some of the blame as they use aid in disguise to drain the African economy.
In 2014, an article published in the Guardian by a group of African and UK based NGOs claimed Western countries are using aid to Africa as a smokescreen to hide the “sustained looting” of the continent. The NGOs alleged that Africa loses nearly $60bn a year through tax evasion, climate change mitigation, and the flight of profits earned by foreign multinational companies.
The NGOs cited that Sub-Saharan Africa receives $134bn each year in loans, foreign investment and development aid but $192bn leaves the region, leaving a $58bn shortfall.
Therefore, in these accusations and the counter-accusations about how we can help the many underprivileged on the African continent and elsewhere, some non-profit organizations are using alternative ways of making sure that the real people in need are aided to be able to make a decent living to reduce poverty.
Globetops, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization solicits for used laptops and other modern communication gadgets to be given low-income earners in Africa so that they can also start their own small business.
The organization has created an opportunity by which entrepreneurs from Guinea, East Africa Haiti, Nepal, India can submit brief profiles on their ideas, stating the possibilities that could come from owning a laptop. After that the organization will review the proposal and decides to support their favorite cause by shipping off the items to the applicants.
Through this initiative, some people have been able to open internet café, repair shops, call and transfer of mobile recharge cards among others.
It is just amazing how this initiative is impacting on the lives of the people. People can now engage in something that will generate income for them to support their family. That is a good strategy to reducing poverty.
The founder of Globetops, Becky Morrison, partnered with Northern Lights editor, Chris Carson to make a video illustrating just how much of an impact their donations have made.
The heartwarming clip shows the recipients grinning from ear to ear and hugging the newly-gifted technology to their chests. It is a live changing moment. In this modern digital age, it can be easy to take technology and its benefits for granted in the West. But some are not as fortunate to have the same access to electronics that are essential to cutting-edge thinking.
“I’m very passionate about depicting images of people in the developing world who are not needy and suffering, but who are passionate and powerful. There are people doing big things throughout the world, who simply don’t have the resources that they need”, the Good News Network quoted as saying Morrison.
Maybe it is time for all of us to get involve. We can start to keep our used laptops and ipads safely. We are also thinking of similar project in Africa and other places. You will also have the opportunity to change lives in this project. Just Expect Us Soon!
You want to support Anonymous Independent & Investigative News? Please, follow us on Twitter: Follow @AnonymousNewsHQ
This Article (African Entrepreneurs Receive Laptops From A Non-Profit Organization To Start Small Businesses [Video]) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com
This was awesome 🙂