The poor you always have with you...
During Ramadan this year, OCO aims to distribute RO400,000 (approximately US$1,039,000 at today's rate of exchange) worth of food aid to 13,100 families in all 60 wilayats of Oman as well as mobilising cash donations through SMS pledges to the needy, thanks to a Ramadan campaign sponsored by Oman Mobile.
The Khaleej Times, but not the Oman Observer which also reported the story, mentioned that the 13,100 families actually accounted for 75,000 individuals.
The newspaper quoted Ali Ibrahim Shenoon Al Raisi, Executive President of OCO, as saying that, "the actual number of people requiring such assistance is nine times greater.." Perhaps the quote was not in context, since that puts the number of people accounted as being needy at 675,000, roughly a quarter of the total Omani population. Could that really be true?
At any rate, full marks to OCO for its work and may it go from success to success.
Comments
bowsher wrote:
newsbriefs wrote:
Very interesting piece from Business Today. It struck me that once again, businessmen were calling for the government to do something, or to organise the voluntary sector. I can endorse Richard Groves' statement that in UK, a great deal of voluntary work is done by individuals and charitable organisations without recourse to government.
I hope that the businessmen took away with them a measure of just what the charity administrators are having to deal with in terms of payrolling their staff and maintaining facilities, attempting to get training for their staff, and the bureaucracy of dealing with government and other institutions.
It seemed incredible that the businessmen were not aware that 5 percent of their profits could go, tax-free, to charity. I'd recommend the charities to focus on that in creating awareness.
And then of course, there was the image problem. Someone would be willing to donate funds if he were to be approached by a prestigious, high-ranking individual speaking on behalf of the charity, rather than if approached by the charity direct. What do you think of that?
I'm sure the charities will have taken on board that they need to do more marketing, but how much money and how many volunteers do they have to achieve that? Public availability of information and transparent accountability are also essential. Couldn't the charities approach KOM to give them just a tiny bit of web space each to publicise their work and accounts? Could schools have their own charity drives? Use PSE lessons to examine the charity sector. Use charity appeals as a basis for preparing leaflets and posters in class.
And couldn't corporations lend their own marketing departments and know-how to help charities as part of their five percent?
The issue about feet on the ground is and will always remain a huge problem. There are never enough suitably qualified volunteers.
Nasra wrote:
I love what you wrote in here. OCO are doing great job, not many know but great deal in reaching out to the needy family ...
You might find the following link an interesting read
http://www.apexstuff.com/bt...
"Do not be shy to give a little bit, as a snub gives less"