A family is gathered on the work-field at the Stung Meanchey Landfill in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved
According to an article written by Andrew Nette that appeared online at IPSNEWS.NET on April 24th 2009, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a five-hour speech September, 2008, NGOs are out of control...they insult the government just to ensure their financial survival."
Mr. Hun Sen said that new laws are needed to curb NGO activity, as "he feared terrorists might settle in the kingdom under the guise of NGOs."
Mr. Hun Sen may be correct but if you follow this blog, you may have read what I've written regarding NGO's, (Non-Governmental organizations) institutions, and foundations. I've detailed of individuals who help other people despite great financial hardship and risk. Moreover, you have seen unedited statements and documents that detail the non-profit industry at its worst.
For some unknown reason I get a continual flow of emails and requests from NGOs asking me for everything from free photographs (they don't get them because they don't work for free and neither do I) to free travel advice. As a photojournalist, I normally act as a "go between". What this means is I act as an impartial observer with no pre conceived notions of what I may learn or see.
When what I observe finally makes it to you in various forms, it's up to you as to whether or not you decide to take action to perhaps right a wrong or offer comfort, aid and assistance to people I've written about and photographed. My job is to merely point out situations that perhaps you're not aware of or offer you a glimpse of organizations you've already heard about.
However, since this is personal blog, I will attempt to share my experiences with non-profits with you in an effort to reduce the frequency of emails I receive that inevitably ask, "How can I help?"
Please be aware of the fact that some non-profit programs are solution driven while others are donor driven. As a rule, solution driven programs exist in the labor, public health, environmental and agricultural arenas and their objectives are sharply focused. The objectives of donor driven projects is less clear and mission statements include fuzzy wording such as "Promotion of democracy and respect of human rights," "Provision of training to youth and CNGO staff," "Community development, poverty reduction, education, and moral."
In a nutshell, a NGO doing "hands on" work where people are digging water wells, handing out antiretrovirals (ARV's), building compost heaps, supplying books, printing newspapers, paying school tuition, constructing schools, rehabilitating the physically injured, delivering mosquito nets, planting seeds, laying irrigation pipe, working with police to physically detain sexual predators, feeding orphans, building toilets, sheltering victims of domestic violence, delivering rice to the hungry and inoculating people are your best bets.
Projects tailored to "build awareness" that consist of workers handing out material containing definitions of abstract foreign concepts and ideologies are generally less successful paths to visibly improving the daily lives of people who are in desperate need of better living standards and more opportunity. The old saw, "less talk and more action" comes to mind.
I met an American man in Laos a few years ago who explained the process of preparing a grant proposal for UNESCO. One of the criteria for receiving matching UNESCO funding for the particular program status he was applying for (co-action program status) was proof that the problem he proposed to address with his newly formed NGO would exist for at least several years. You can read my remarks regarding Donor Driven Culture in this previous post.
Please also appreciate that there is a wide range of working conditions NGO employees encounter globally. According to a report issued in April 2009 by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO):
"Conflict has continued at an intense pace with attack metrics recording a 95% increase over previous first quarter periods. The 08-09 winter downturn was shorter and shallower and, for the first time, did not fall below the three-year average of 300 attacks per month. The 'ramp-up" to summer fighting season is already evident in Feb-March data within which attacks jumped from 381 to 597, the largest month to month increase ANSO has ever recorded.
NGO have been victim to 37 serious security incidents this period (31 in Q.1 2008) including 2 deaths, 20 abductions, 4 IED strikes, 7 armed robberies and 3 cases of arson along with less serious threat letters, beatings and lootings. NGO have made no gains in being able to present themselves as impartial or independent actors and continue to be forced from the field due to security concerns."
If the report is accurate, and I have no reason to dispute its findings, NGO employees in Afghanistan face some of the most dangerous working conditions in the world.
The twelve-page report can be downloaded here.
The NGO working environment in Cambodia varies widely but when comparing offices I've visited, local NGO's staffed by Khmers are more comfortable and well appointed than international NGO's where facilities seem more austere.
The following NGO's and projects have my "seal of approval" based on the knowledge I have:
William Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Two staff members were working in a very small office the day I visited and the working environment was cramped. No fancy furnishing but rather, basic office equipment consisting of computers, a printer and file cabinets.
I spoke to Matthew H. Magenheim, Country Coordinator, Cambodia, and asked him how the HIV/AIDS Initiative program was funded. "We maintain our presence here with very little money changing hands," stated Mr. Magenheim, "The William Clinton Foundation seeks donations from drug companies in the form of product rather than cash. The foundation also seeks to negotiate lower prices for antiretrovirals (ARV) such as lamivudine, stavudine and nevirapine." He explained further, "Once we receive the pharmaceutical product we turn it over to Cambodian representatives and coordinate distribution with them."
Summary: Solution driven organization doing good work in Cambodia.
Note: I believe the role of Country Coordinator, Cambodia has been reassigned to someone else.
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontières / MSF), Kampong Cham Public Hospital, Kampong Cham, Cambodia.
The field office of this 1999 Nobel Peace Prize winning organization at the local public hospital in Kampong Cham, Cambodia was a meagerly appointed affair. Office amenities included a computer, table, file cabinet, desk and chair. Jerome, a doctor from France in his early 30's, is one of two physicians assigned to the Kampong Cham field office. This Medecins sans Frontières office employs one local Khmer driver and maintains a fleet of two vehicles. The fleet consists of a twenty-five year old Land Rover and a newer mid-sized Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).
The hospital facility itself is comprised of cement and ramshackle wooden structures. A new American financed HIV wing is near completion but conversely, the hospital lacks a morgue. Deceased persons lie on gurneys parked in vestibules of non-air conditioned buildings to await pickup.
I asked Jerome directly if he thought Medecins sans Frontières was a transparent and honest organization. "I wouldn't be working here if they weren't." he responded. Medecins sans Frontières is currently in the process of transitioning this office to local Khmer staff and the organization will be leaving Cambodia at the end of July 2009.
Summary: Solution driven organization that did good work in Cambodia while they were in the country.
Pour un sourire d’Enfant, (Association “For a child’s smile”) Cambodia.
This French NGO has helped 5000 Stung Meanchey dump children living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia attend school during the past 10 years. They also provide a free breakfast program for the landfill workers. According to Thingha, a young worker from Phnom Penh, “I eat the breakfast the NGO provides every morning." He continued, "I earn more than most of the other workers, as much as $ 2.50 USD per day, but the breakfast really helps me out." I have also spoken to people who attended school with the assistance of Pour un sourire d’Enfant who now work in safer environments such as garment factories. Some have even eventually moved on to jobs that provided enough money for them to purchase motorcycles.
An arm of their operation I am less familiar with involves rescuing underage girls serving as sex workers in Sihanoukville. It's my understanding that the operation there works with local police to identify child sex tourists in the area. To find out more about their work in Cambodia, please visit their website.
Summary: Solution driven organization doing good work in Cambodia despite the fact that Yves Dupont in a branch operation, Action Belgium pour un sourire d'enfant asked for free photographs and failed to respond to the email I sent him regarding his request.
The Cambodia Daily Newspaper - Phnom Penh Cambodia.
As their masthead states, "The Cambodia Daily is an independent newspaper dedicated to strengthening a free press and educating journalists."
Since the first Cambodia Daily appeared on newsstands on August 20th 1993, The Cambodia Daily has never failed to publish on a scheduled day according to a story published in the newspaper itself.
Although The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service, The New York Times, The New York Times Digest, Kyodo News and Dow Jones News Service among others provide Cambodia Daily with free news service, the paper frequently puts this cost savings to good use by publishing full-page pleas for causes that benefit Cambodia's most impoverished citizens.
One frequently recurring full-page public service announcement explained a program developed by the paper's publisher, Bernard Kirsher. The program, "Skip A Meal And Save A Cambodian Child" was developed by Kirsher in conjunction with Japan Relief for Cambodia and Kirsher's own American Assistance For Cambodia (a non-profit registered as a 501c (3) organization (corporation) in the USA). The program was developed in response to The World Food Program (WFP) "abruptly halting" rice distribution to schools in 2008.
Editorially, the publication focuses on hard news during weekdays, but offers a mix of news, review and culture in its weekend edition. From the reportage I've seen, the paper's journalists are unafraid to tackle and investigate Cambodia's most pressing and important issues. In addition, the newspaper frequently publishes a pull out section that contains international, regional and local stories translated from English to Khmer, as well as a valuable Khmer/English language study guide.
First Amendment scholar Thomas Emerson once stated:
"An individual who seeks knowledge and truth must hear all sides of the question, consider all alternatives, test his judgment by exposing it to opposition, and make full use of different minds. Discussion must be kept open no matter how certainly true an accepted opinion may be; many of the most widely acknowledged truths have turned out to be erroneous."
I brought up Thomas Emerson's thought here because some of you may disagree with my choices above and if so, I'd like to hear about it. Just be nice. Further, are you an individual or NGO that needs a bit more money and exposure, a "seal of approval" or even better photographs? We can discuss that too.
Please stay tuned for more NGO reviews in the coming weeks. Just navigate back to the top of the page and click on the Subscribe To Posts icon.
Ban Buamlao Primary School Book Project Photographs
John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive HomepageStung Meanchey Landfill Phnom Penh Cambodia Photographs
Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved
According to an article written by Andrew Nette that appeared online at IPSNEWS.NET on April 24th 2009, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a five-hour speech September, 2008, NGOs are out of control...they insult the government just to ensure their financial survival."
Mr. Hun Sen said that new laws are needed to curb NGO activity, as "he feared terrorists might settle in the kingdom under the guise of NGOs."
Mr. Hun Sen may be correct but if you follow this blog, you may have read what I've written regarding NGO's, (Non-Governmental organizations) institutions, and foundations. I've detailed of individuals who help other people despite great financial hardship and risk. Moreover, you have seen unedited statements and documents that detail the non-profit industry at its worst.
For some unknown reason I get a continual flow of emails and requests from NGOs asking me for everything from free photographs (they don't get them because they don't work for free and neither do I) to free travel advice. As a photojournalist, I normally act as a "go between". What this means is I act as an impartial observer with no pre conceived notions of what I may learn or see.
When what I observe finally makes it to you in various forms, it's up to you as to whether or not you decide to take action to perhaps right a wrong or offer comfort, aid and assistance to people I've written about and photographed. My job is to merely point out situations that perhaps you're not aware of or offer you a glimpse of organizations you've already heard about.
However, since this is personal blog, I will attempt to share my experiences with non-profits with you in an effort to reduce the frequency of emails I receive that inevitably ask, "How can I help?"
Please be aware of the fact that some non-profit programs are solution driven while others are donor driven. As a rule, solution driven programs exist in the labor, public health, environmental and agricultural arenas and their objectives are sharply focused. The objectives of donor driven projects is less clear and mission statements include fuzzy wording such as "Promotion of democracy and respect of human rights," "Provision of training to youth and CNGO staff," "Community development, poverty reduction, education, and moral."
In a nutshell, a NGO doing "hands on" work where people are digging water wells, handing out antiretrovirals (ARV's), building compost heaps, supplying books, printing newspapers, paying school tuition, constructing schools, rehabilitating the physically injured, delivering mosquito nets, planting seeds, laying irrigation pipe, working with police to physically detain sexual predators, feeding orphans, building toilets, sheltering victims of domestic violence, delivering rice to the hungry and inoculating people are your best bets.
Projects tailored to "build awareness" that consist of workers handing out material containing definitions of abstract foreign concepts and ideologies are generally less successful paths to visibly improving the daily lives of people who are in desperate need of better living standards and more opportunity. The old saw, "less talk and more action" comes to mind.
I met an American man in Laos a few years ago who explained the process of preparing a grant proposal for UNESCO. One of the criteria for receiving matching UNESCO funding for the particular program status he was applying for (co-action program status) was proof that the problem he proposed to address with his newly formed NGO would exist for at least several years. You can read my remarks regarding Donor Driven Culture in this previous post.
Please also appreciate that there is a wide range of working conditions NGO employees encounter globally. According to a report issued in April 2009 by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO):
"Conflict has continued at an intense pace with attack metrics recording a 95% increase over previous first quarter periods. The 08-09 winter downturn was shorter and shallower and, for the first time, did not fall below the three-year average of 300 attacks per month. The 'ramp-up" to summer fighting season is already evident in Feb-March data within which attacks jumped from 381 to 597, the largest month to month increase ANSO has ever recorded.
NGO have been victim to 37 serious security incidents this period (31 in Q.1 2008) including 2 deaths, 20 abductions, 4 IED strikes, 7 armed robberies and 3 cases of arson along with less serious threat letters, beatings and lootings. NGO have made no gains in being able to present themselves as impartial or independent actors and continue to be forced from the field due to security concerns."
If the report is accurate, and I have no reason to dispute its findings, NGO employees in Afghanistan face some of the most dangerous working conditions in the world.
The twelve-page report can be downloaded here.
The NGO working environment in Cambodia varies widely but when comparing offices I've visited, local NGO's staffed by Khmers are more comfortable and well appointed than international NGO's where facilities seem more austere.
The following NGO's and projects have my "seal of approval" based on the knowledge I have:
William Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Two staff members were working in a very small office the day I visited and the working environment was cramped. No fancy furnishing but rather, basic office equipment consisting of computers, a printer and file cabinets.
I spoke to Matthew H. Magenheim, Country Coordinator, Cambodia, and asked him how the HIV/AIDS Initiative program was funded. "We maintain our presence here with very little money changing hands," stated Mr. Magenheim, "The William Clinton Foundation seeks donations from drug companies in the form of product rather than cash. The foundation also seeks to negotiate lower prices for antiretrovirals (ARV) such as lamivudine, stavudine and nevirapine." He explained further, "Once we receive the pharmaceutical product we turn it over to Cambodian representatives and coordinate distribution with them."
Summary: Solution driven organization doing good work in Cambodia.
Note: I believe the role of Country Coordinator, Cambodia has been reassigned to someone else.
Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontières / MSF), Kampong Cham Public Hospital, Kampong Cham, Cambodia.
The field office of this 1999 Nobel Peace Prize winning organization at the local public hospital in Kampong Cham, Cambodia was a meagerly appointed affair. Office amenities included a computer, table, file cabinet, desk and chair. Jerome, a doctor from France in his early 30's, is one of two physicians assigned to the Kampong Cham field office. This Medecins sans Frontières office employs one local Khmer driver and maintains a fleet of two vehicles. The fleet consists of a twenty-five year old Land Rover and a newer mid-sized Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).
The hospital facility itself is comprised of cement and ramshackle wooden structures. A new American financed HIV wing is near completion but conversely, the hospital lacks a morgue. Deceased persons lie on gurneys parked in vestibules of non-air conditioned buildings to await pickup.
I asked Jerome directly if he thought Medecins sans Frontières was a transparent and honest organization. "I wouldn't be working here if they weren't." he responded. Medecins sans Frontières is currently in the process of transitioning this office to local Khmer staff and the organization will be leaving Cambodia at the end of July 2009.
Summary: Solution driven organization that did good work in Cambodia while they were in the country.
Pour un sourire d’Enfant, (Association “For a child’s smile”) Cambodia.
This French NGO has helped 5000 Stung Meanchey dump children living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia attend school during the past 10 years. They also provide a free breakfast program for the landfill workers. According to Thingha, a young worker from Phnom Penh, “I eat the breakfast the NGO provides every morning." He continued, "I earn more than most of the other workers, as much as $ 2.50 USD per day, but the breakfast really helps me out." I have also spoken to people who attended school with the assistance of Pour un sourire d’Enfant who now work in safer environments such as garment factories. Some have even eventually moved on to jobs that provided enough money for them to purchase motorcycles.
An arm of their operation I am less familiar with involves rescuing underage girls serving as sex workers in Sihanoukville. It's my understanding that the operation there works with local police to identify child sex tourists in the area. To find out more about their work in Cambodia, please visit their website.
Summary: Solution driven organization doing good work in Cambodia despite the fact that Yves Dupont in a branch operation, Action Belgium pour un sourire d'enfant asked for free photographs and failed to respond to the email I sent him regarding his request.
The Cambodia Daily Newspaper - Phnom Penh Cambodia.
As their masthead states, "The Cambodia Daily is an independent newspaper dedicated to strengthening a free press and educating journalists."
Since the first Cambodia Daily appeared on newsstands on August 20th 1993, The Cambodia Daily has never failed to publish on a scheduled day according to a story published in the newspaper itself.
Although The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service, The New York Times, The New York Times Digest, Kyodo News and Dow Jones News Service among others provide Cambodia Daily with free news service, the paper frequently puts this cost savings to good use by publishing full-page pleas for causes that benefit Cambodia's most impoverished citizens.
One frequently recurring full-page public service announcement explained a program developed by the paper's publisher, Bernard Kirsher. The program, "Skip A Meal And Save A Cambodian Child" was developed by Kirsher in conjunction with Japan Relief for Cambodia and Kirsher's own American Assistance For Cambodia (a non-profit registered as a 501c (3) organization (corporation) in the USA). The program was developed in response to The World Food Program (WFP) "abruptly halting" rice distribution to schools in 2008.
Editorially, the publication focuses on hard news during weekdays, but offers a mix of news, review and culture in its weekend edition. From the reportage I've seen, the paper's journalists are unafraid to tackle and investigate Cambodia's most pressing and important issues. In addition, the newspaper frequently publishes a pull out section that contains international, regional and local stories translated from English to Khmer, as well as a valuable Khmer/English language study guide.
First Amendment scholar Thomas Emerson once stated:
"An individual who seeks knowledge and truth must hear all sides of the question, consider all alternatives, test his judgment by exposing it to opposition, and make full use of different minds. Discussion must be kept open no matter how certainly true an accepted opinion may be; many of the most widely acknowledged truths have turned out to be erroneous."
I brought up Thomas Emerson's thought here because some of you may disagree with my choices above and if so, I'd like to hear about it. Just be nice. Further, are you an individual or NGO that needs a bit more money and exposure, a "seal of approval" or even better photographs? We can discuss that too.
Please stay tuned for more NGO reviews in the coming weeks. Just navigate back to the top of the page and click on the Subscribe To Posts icon.
Ban Buamlao Primary School Book Project Photographs
John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive HomepageStung Meanchey Landfill Phnom Penh Cambodia Photographs
