Aid to Africa
It is too easy for individuals and governments just to shovel out financial aid to African countries. But this aid needs to be accurately directed and apportioned if it is to be of much value, and many people who would like to help will be conscious of the vast amounts of public money poured into this continent, only to disappear into the back pockets of its rulers and officials. As an aside, we don’t necessarily think that this means that Africa is any more corrupt in this sense than any other country in the world, merely that the inevitable cultural differences affect the actual form that this takes, together with its visibility.
We have already shown how the individual wanting to help out at local level can make his contributions in kind, rather than in cash, if desired, and there is an increasing awareness that this small-scale local level of aid is in fact the key to helping Africa in the future.
In brief, the principle is that of microfinance: making small-scale loans to individuals or groups, who can then use these as a form of business start-up capital, and go on from there. As an example, one lady in Malawi recently borrowed the princely sum of £30 from the London-based Microloan Foundation. She then used this to buy rice, which she sold on door-to-door, eventually building up the business to a level at which she is now supplying rice and other foodstuffs to several schools and other organisations within her region. This principle – of providing opportunity, rather than just a handout – is an example of how a different way of thinking may succeed where conventional massive aid handouts does not.