Certainly not only in America! There is an excellent book called Les Epluves de les Hommes Blanches (Tears of the White Man) about the negative impact that "humanitarian aid" organizations have had in South and South East Asia.

In the west many give to these organizations to assuage their guilt over doing nothing to help the poor while they remain rich. Unfortunately, the poor need help, not money.

If anyone here ever gave money to an NGO working in Nepal (I pick Nepal because I have personal familiarity with the situation, not because it is unique.) then before you give again, you should go to the country and see how your money is being spent. Some NGOs genuinely do good work, but from w...

Certainly not only in America! There is an excellent book called Les Epluves de les Hommes Blanches (Tears of the White Man) about the negative impact that "humanitarian aid" organizations have had in South and South East Asia.

In the west many give to these organizations to assuage their guilt over doing nothing to help the poor while they remain rich. Unfortunately, the poor need help, not money.

If anyone here ever gave money to an NGO working in Nepal (I pick Nepal because I have personal familiarity with the situation, not because it is unique.) then before you give again, you should go to the country and see how your money is being spent. Some NGOs genuinely do good work, but from what I have seen, they are few and far between.

Most NGOs spend their money on air-conditioned offices, large four wheel drive vehicles, and other western amenities. Their projects very often amount to nothing more than token gestures while worthwhile projects that are less glamorous go un-funded. I was told there was one NGO that was funded with $30,000 a year (a fortune in Nepal) in order to clean up Rana Park, which is a glorified soccer field in downtown Kathmandu. All the while there is a struggle to provide safe drinking water to Nepal's rural poor.

For many NGOs, it seems, the goal is to make affluent Euro-Americans feel better about themselves, rathter than making an actual difference.

What would I like to see done in these cases? Squandering donations? Dumbing food in the desert? I say prison time for all of them. Ban them from operating non-profit organizations. We need enforcement when it comes to NGOs that say they are doing good. They need to be held accountable, just like anyone else, perhaps even more so.