accountability

March 24th.

We arrive home one month from today.

James and Ellie and I were talking after dinner about some of the issues in my last post, and one of the things that James brought up in response to my thoughts about organizational accountability was this: people like us who spend a longish time with an organization like New Hope, or World Vision, or Compassion, or whatever, have a responsibility to be advocates for those organizations when we get back home. (assuming of course that we approve of and support the work that they're doing.) One of the big problems, both for recepients and donors of aid $ is that there is a huge disconnect between the givers and receivers, and little accountability for all the steps and people in between. (which is one reason that child sponsorship programs have been so successful for Compassion and World Vision, both for giver and recepient) Most people can't afford to fly to western mongolia to make sure that the $150 they gave actually goes to good use, and in fact it would be irresponsible if everyone did that. SO folks like us who have been on the ground, and seen things with our own eyes have a responsibility to tell the truth about organizations, the good and the bad. We have to tell people who want to be philanthropic about New Hope, so they can support the folks who are really doing good. There has to be trust somewhere for there to be accountability, so our friends trust our judgement, and we have seen and trust New Hope for their effectivenes in ministry.