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That's why the OurWorldInData essay mentioned that some use charities that focus on 'giving locally', even letting you personally contact and vet people. An example of skimming I've seen firsthand: large-scale subsidized programs of house construction for poor folks. The skimming that arguably occurred: the local program administrator's son, both of his woman's kids, several of his ex-wife's kids in another province, all got houses under this program. It's arguably skimming or corruption, because he and his family gained 6 houses from this program intended to help the least fortunate, out of maybe the 20 or so I know were built in the area. 'Arguably', because these people did qualify; they were adults living with other family who legitimately couldn't afford their own houses or rent, it was only an injustice in the sense that it disproportionally benefitted one family in the community. But all of the money stayed in the area, and mostly in the country, because (in the words of the prefect of police in the movie Casablanca), he was 'only a poor corrupt official'; no one in their family had even attended local universities at that point. The construction and trade workers were local, the materials were local, and his now more-materially-secure family was engaged in economic activity locally. It's possible, of course, for scammers to organize large-scale fabrication of 'sob stories' and I'm sure it's happened and will happen, but hopefully the scammers are 'sufficiently local'. :) |