Experience giving!

 

The part I really love most about my work at betterplace is the feedback project managers are sending us (I might have written this before, but that’s the way it is). Normally they do so by e-mail, blogging or uploading photos on their project blog. Not so Ann Wambua, who runs Cecil House in a village near Mombasa, Kenya, an orphanage for children, who have lost their parents to AIDS. Since I first started corresponding with Ann 2 years ago, we have exchanged dozens of text-messages, as Ann has only infrequent access to the internet and hasn’t got the technological resources to scan in photos etc.

Thus I have helped her to publish her project on betterplace. In February we were finally able to transfer the first donations for the renovation of the orphanage to her and today I know exactly were the money went: in the parcel, Ann not only sent all receipts, but also heart-warming thank-you notes from the children, as well as a full photo documentation of the work process thus far. Now everybody who has donated to the project can see how the lorry transported the building materials to Cecil House, how the renovations were done and how happy the children are with the results.

As I am leaving for Laos tomorrow I will only be able to make them accessible to all project supporters after my return, but I couldn’t resist sharing my joy at least in this blog. Thanks Ann!

The Graffiti of the Philanthropy Class

The new home of the Shakespeare Theater Company in  Washington D.C. tells the tale of a new class of pilanthropists. As  The New York Times in an amusing article writes:

You enter through the Arlene and Robert Kogod Lobby. From there you may choose to ascend to the orchestra level by taking either the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Grand Staircase West or the Philip L. Graham Fund Grand Staircase East. (One wonders: Do the friends of the Cafritz family feel disloyal if they enter on the east side, running late, and choose to head up Phil’s stairs?)

Should you arrive with time for a drink before the curtain, you can linger near the James and Esthy Adler Orchestra Terrace West, or the less personal-sounding American Airlines Orchestra Terrace East. And don’t forget to check your bulky outerwear at the Cassidy & Associates Coat Room, before entering the Landon and Carol Butler Theater Stage to watch the performance.

Two long lists of names of benefactors also cascade down the front of the terra-cotta-colored facade. More are etched into the glass balustrades on the upper level.

Indeed, from top to bottom the new theater is all but covered in this graffiti of the philanthropic class. Attending a performance can be like leafing through somebody else’s high school yearbook. Who are all these people? Should I know? Should I care? How much would I have to give to get my name on, say, a drinking fountain? And would a urinal be cheaper?