Establishing a micro-charity: helping someone abroad

On one of your trips to the third world you were shocked by the poverty that pervades everything. You likely saw an orphanage, a school, a group of students, a slum, poor health services or some other problem. You may have tried to do something about it by providing funds or some other form of support but you want to do something more. You want to start raising funds and help on an on-going basis.

Welcome to the world of international micro-charities which are groups of people knit together by a good idea and good intentions. It springs from a desire to help the people of the country that touched you so deeply. I’ve heard of micro-charities involving contributing funds to an orphanage in Tanzania and providing yoga training to young women in India to help with their self-image, among a number of other worthy causes.

This blog is about the challenges of deciding to help someone in a third world country. It is an amazingly powerful idea – that you do not need to go through a large charity and that you can actually help people that you meet. It can be a wonderful form of targeted international development that does not involve waste or corruption.

But what are the issues? What are the pitfalls? What have you gotten yourself into?

Bennett Gastle PC has a lot of experience with this. We established the Cambodian Legal Education for Women in 2008, by which we put poor female students from the provinces through the leading law school in Phnom Penh. CLEW registered as a charity in 2012 and our program has been a success. We have had 52 students in the program and we have 26 graduates doing a variety of jobs helping people in Cambodia, although none are lawyers.

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CLEW is incredibly rewarding for all of those involved in it and it has proven a success. However, it requires a substantial commitment that should not be undertaken lightly. Once you make a commitment abroad, whether it be to young women from the provinces in our case, or orphans in another case, it is a multi-year commitment and it must be kept.

CLEW students and friends on a trip to Angkor Wat, January, 2014
CLEW students and friends on a trip to Angkor Wat, January, 2014

We hope you enjoy this blog and we would very much like to receive your questions and comments regarding the subject matter.

By: Chuck G.

Contact CLEW with any feedback or comments!