Red Cross contemplating of investing money donated for Haiti

Well, if I told you that an organization whose core business is to provide aid to those in distress while relying on donor funding is thinking of investing that very money, you would probably say that am out of my mind.

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Right?

How do you even explain that idea to people who gave willingly because they had a desire to alleviate the suffering of some individuals?

Is it that the organization has done everything it desired to do, so that now there is nothing else to do with the money?

It now turns out that the International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Cross Societies are contemplating investing donated funds in a hotel and a conference facility in part of its land in Haiti with the hope that these two will generate revenue to abet it in running its affairs in Haiti for the coming years.

While the idea may be noble I am tempted to ask whether the objectives that led to the establishment of Haitian Red Cross are met. We do know that the situation in Haiti has obviously easened, but there are ugly facts staring at us. Thousands of Haitians are still sleeping in tents and ramshackle without toilets, sewerage systems or access to clean drinking water. These people are under constant threat from epidemics such as cholera. It has attacked them before and what has been done is not enough to prevent another attack.

The question begs: Why is Red Cross ignoring these desolate citizens and choosing to invest in a luxurious facility meant for diplomats and foreigners?

Those who donated the money had other intentions I would think. Their objective was not to see their money going into a risky capital expenditure which is not certain to generate returns but to see the people of Haiti liberated from the abject poverty and other afflictions that face them day in day out. Is the money being used in accordance with the will of the donors? Or do they forfeit their ability to direct where the funds go once they have released the money to the organization?

I am of the opinion that donors should have the right to dictate what is done with their money.

Otherwise, if this is the trend or the example being set I am likely to follow suit and open a charitable organization pretty soon. I think I stand a good chance of doing something that I should not be doing in the first place -making mammoth profits!

Yet this is not the first time the Red Cross is doing this. In Kenya, a developing country that is located in East Africa, the Kenyan Red Cross built a hotel called Red Court. It generates admirable revenues for the organization.

If the money must be invested, has it considered less risky projects?

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Read more: hurricane, Red Cross, Investment, Charity, Donation, International

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