BlindFish Ideas

I think this is a great talk about charity. I work for two charities and live in the frustration of small scale and the desire to keep the overheads low. Now waste in overhead is always a bad thing but I cringe when I hear people being classed as overheads. Yes trim the budget on the travel by making sure people take the most reasonable train option but don't fire your face to face workers. Just because their face to face work involves talking to donors not clients. Your people are the real strength of any charity. please pay them a fair wage. If we believe non-profits serving communities deserve the best people doing the best they can. Then we need to pay a competitive wage. We can not short cut our way to success in the non-profit sector. We need to invest in growth and advertising.  I have two  lingering questions from this talk  "Is there a limit on what is reasonable to pay a charity worker or CEO?" "Can chariti...

It is impossible to go to Vietnam and ignore the Vietnam war (and the conflicts before and after it). Vietnam has suffered at the hands of  foreign armies including the French, Chinese, Japanese, American and other allied forces. The Vietnam War is the most obviously destructive war with evidence of it all across Vietnam.  On our way between Hanoi and Halong Bay we stopped at a craft centre. I immediately jumped to the conclusion this was one of the regular scams put on by tour companies where they get massive kick backs by depositing bus loads of tourist to buy overpriced items. But I was very wrong. Handspan (the tour company we went to Halong Bay with) has an eye for be ecological and helping out local NGOs and Charities. The craft centre we had stopped at is an employment scheme for disabled Vietnamese who  otherwise often get forgotten about or become a large financial burden on a family. The centre ( http://hongngocvn.com/ ) ...

Improving subsistence farmers diet with fish husbandry in Cambodia How can a bunch of fish ponds make a real difference? This summer I am travelling around South-East Asia, including Cambodia. In Cambodia I will be visiting some NGOs and  voluntary aid projects . I meet with our main contact this week and most of the work is focused on people projects, teaching English,  prison visits , drug addiction etc but they mentioned one project where they help rice farmers start fish husbandry projects. These projects are designed to help the local subsistence farmers grow on fish to adult size for increasing the protein component of their diet. Being interested in all forms of fish keeping I hope that when we travel to Cambodia I can visit the project or at least meet up with the team managing the project. It sounds like a fascinating and practical way to help some of the worlds poorest improve th...