Bad aid?

For some time now, I've really questioned the effectiveness and impact of Fair Trade claims or companies like TOMS Shoes. It seems unlikely that the companies offer or do as much as they promise, to the people they claim to help with our over-priced purchases. 
Here is an article that I came across recently, addressing this very issue (thanks Chelsie!). Click on the link to read the entire article. 

A tryst with TOMS

By Vivek Nemana | Published November 12, 2010

We buy TOMS Shoes or Fair Trade chocolate or poverty-fighting water bottles because we genuinely want to help. But in the frenzy of do-gooder consumption we stop thinking all the way through. We fail to ask how our money will help, and we overlook how our good deeds might actually do harm. We forget that what we want to do for others might not be the same as what they really need.

http://aidwatchers.com/2010/11/a-tryst-with-toms/

Uncovering the Truth

Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth

On Thursday, June 30, 2011, the 51st anniversary of the Democratic Republic of Congo's independence, Friends of the Congo will host premiere screenings of Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth in select cities throughout the United States and Canada (New York, Washington, Toronto, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Pittsburgh).

Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth explores the role that the United States and Great Britain's allies, Rwanda and Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century. The screenings will be a short version of the feature length production to be released in the near future. The film locates the Congo crisis in a historical, social and political context. Leading experts, practitioners, activists and intellectuals provide analysis and prescriptions that are not readily available to the general public.

Featured prominently in the film are such figures as Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost, Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, and Former New York Times Reporter Howard French, author of A Continent for the Taking.

The film is a call to conscience and action.

Click here to view clips from the film and find out the time and locations of the June 30th screenings. Should you wish to screen the film contact us here.

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ii3tlD-l6k

Film Website
http://congojustice.org/

You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/crisisinthecongo

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/CrisisInTheCongo

We encourage you to continue supporting the work of Friends of the Congo. It is through your contribution that we are able to pursue justice in support of the people of the Congo. Click here to support our work!

REMEMBER to sign-up for Congo Week IV, October 16 - 22, 2011.