Into Africa
So about this Senegal trip.
I had mixed feelings about taking it on, and not just because it would involve leaving my very small baby with my very tired wife in order to go somewhere where I might not be able to contact them. That’s right, in some parts of Senegal they don’t even have a functioning 3G network. Imagine.
And that wry remark is a clue to the source of my unease, which is that I’ve always felt a bit odd about rich people going out to Africa, posing in front of cameras for a few minutes, then suggesting that ‘you at home get involved’ and going back to their air-conditioned hotels and getting on Twitter to tell the folks back home about all the poverty. Don’t get me wrong: I always support these ventures. I always donate to Comic Relief, Sport Relief, Children In Need and anything else that comes on TV and pricks my conscience. There’s absolutely no doubt that there is huge value in Chris Moyles or Tess Daly or whoever spearheading these charity initiatives, and I don’t even really go along with people calling Bono a hypocrite and so on, because, yes, he might be very wealthy, but hey – he doesn’t HAVE to do anything at all to raise money. There are plenty of equally wealthy powerful people who don’t do shit. Bono might be a bit of a dickhead, he may once have paid for a plane seat for his hat, and he may have peaked as a musical force some time in the late 80s, but I still think any charity work is better than none, and someone being a bit of a self-righteous knob doesn’t invalidate the importance of that work.
However: I never watch Sport Relief or any of the other ones; I never listen to Bono or Geldof’s prononcements; I didn’t go to Live 8 or wear a MAKE POVERTY HISTORY wristband or any of that; basically, as soon as there’s an opportunity to donate to people in developing countries, I do it, then change the channel and don’t think about it again.
This isn’t purely because I’ve got no appetite for the spectacle of celebs climbing Mount Kilamanjaro with their camera crews trailing behind them for soundbites, let alone James Corden dressing up and dicking around with footballers. It’s also because of the fatalistic feeling - which I think creeps up on all of us where charities are concerned – that you are sending money into a black hole of injustice/poverty/hopelessness and next year it will all happen again, and basically, the world’s ills are far too big to be conquered even by the BBC newsreaders doing a karaoke number, and even if they could be cured there’s always a Haiti around the corner, and, basically, where will this end? Didn’t we make poverty history? Is it really worth me chucking 20 quid in the direction of Graham Norton or whoever, when need and hardship keep growing new heads as fast as you can chop them off?
The answer to all this is commonsense: no, of course you can’t cure all the world’s ills, but that shouldn’t stop you from making a tiny contribution to easing one ill. Which is where child sponsorship comes in. I’m sure you know the general idea of this – you pay a (pretty paltry) amount each month and the money goes specifically towards school supplies/clothes/Nintendo Wiis for a designated kid (small joke in that sentence). You write to the kid and they write back and so on. I’ve done this on and off quite a lot. I’d never seen it in action though, and this was my chance. So I went.
I could bang on about the harsh, arid landscapes/glaring sun from a white, cloudless sky/ramshackle settlements etc for a short novel-length blog, but you’ve all been to Africa or seen it in films: it was like that. Dazzling, strange and magical, but it won’t be particularly dazzling or magical to hear me describe it. I’ll focus on the villages we went to.
The trip was a frantic tour around – mostly very remote - communities helped by ActionAid money over the past months and years. In the way of these things we were welcomed everywhere by elaborate displays of traditional drumming and dancing, very long speeches by tribal elders, ceremonial wrestling (at last – someone respects Watson’s right to have wrestling wherever he goes) and hyperbole. In 0ne village our interpreter said that I was ‘a famous writer and actor from Britain’ and about three hundred people whooped and clapped hysterically, despite never having seen We Need Answers (just like most people in Britain). As with any visit to foreign lands, though, the best bit was not the scheduled rigmarole but the fasincation of meeting people in their homes and seeing what they get up to in their day-to-day lives.
I met several kids who are directly supported by ActionAid sponsorships and, again in the usual way of a British visitor to a developing country, I was pretty humbled and awed by all of them. I watched a 9-year-old girl carry a bucket of water (on her head, like they do in films) which I myself would struggle to move an inch with my entire bodyweight. I ‘helped’ other kids grind millet and fetch water from their well and heft bundles of firewood around; and by ‘helped’ I mean ‘watched goofily, wondering how the hell people manage to live like this’. In one village I also ‘helped’ the kids to play football for quite a while. The kids were all shy, good-humoured and unbelievably strong and energetic.
This was not just because of the (often, boringly remarked-upon) resilience and courage of people living in adverse circumstances, but because those circumstances had clearly been improved by Western money. Simple stuff like school books and stationery had made an enormous difference (noticeably, all the kids were desperate to go to school, and wanted to become doctors or secretaries, rather than X-Factor winners, although I did speak to one kid who wanted to be a footballer because ‘there’s money in it’). On a larger scale, money had gone towards putting an irrigation system in to improve productivity on farms, by a massive degree; updating buildings; maintaining power supplies and so on. The amounts of money in question are, by the standards of what we spend on stuff like boxsets or beer, pitiful. A couple of luxury purchases equals a life-altering amenity to a Senegalese family. Obviously we all know this, we’re all familiar with the ads on buses about ‘ten pounds would feed this person, twenty pounds get them medicine, etc’ and familiar too with the attendant feelings of unfocused, useless guilt. But it’s something else to see the proof of it. It restores your faith in charity as something that’s exciting and radical, rather than an endless, unwinnable battle.
(I should say as an aside, the people I worked with from ActionAid were highly motivated, passionate and basically amazing. It’s worth saying this because cynics sometimes moan about how if you give to charity, ‘most of it goes to their running costs’. It’s not true, but in any case, it’s worth stating that charity work is basically busting your balls for minimal financial rewards and no glamour at all. I really respect these people.)
What could have been a rather depressing trip was instead an inspiring lesson in the reality behind the rhetorical that accompanies charity campaigns. I’ve been shown that the beneficiaries of charity are real people like (cliche alert) us, and the benefits are measurable and quite easily brought about. Senegal is, in global terms, dirt poor, but it isn’t sitting there desperately waiting to be bailed out, only to slide back again; it’s using whatever resources we can muster to make genuine progress. I was fortunate to be able to see this first-hand and now I’m going to make it my business to pass the message on.
If you’re reading this in the West, you can get involved in the Bristol-centric campaign I’m heading right-now-this-minute by going to http://www.actionaid.org.uk/makeyourmark (it’s a coincidence that Mark is my name). On June 1, I’ll be on College Green in Bristol unveiling a great big portrait made of hundreds of little portraits people did as part of the campaign. And wherever you are, you can go to the same link and watch a film of me saying more or less the same things as I’ve said here, but with a hat on, and squinting into the sun. And if that doesn’t make you want to sponsor a child, I don’t know what will. (I’m not sure if the film is up yet, but it won’t be long.)
I apologise for the unusually sober tone of this blog but you can be pretty confident I’ll go back to talking complete crap very soon. I won’t, however, forget this trip in a hurry.
PS I’ll take Emmy’s subject request in tomorrow’s blog. And a small prize for the first person to identify the source of yesterday’s song lyric-title.
Posted by Knox on May 24, 2011
“charity work is basically busting your balls for minimal financial rewards and no glamour at all” – yes.
Posted by Shell on May 30, 2010
It sounds like an interesting and rewarding trip and it’s so good to hear that the money goes where it should – thanks Mark. Now that is a sensible use of celebrity status: to visit Senegal and then be able to endorse such projects and reassure people that their money is well-spent.
I have sponsored a child, in Uganda, for ten years now. Well actually it’s a second child now as the first one came of age and moved off the sponsorship programme. I decided to do it to mark the birth of my first god-daughter. I enjoy the bit of communication back an forth and try to involve my god-daughter as much as possible as she and the sponsor child seem to enjoy that.
I like the way such sponsorships benefit the whole community rather than just the individuals with sponsors.
I wouldn’t have minded you “banging on a bit” about the sights, sounds and smells of the place but I guess you are more restrained than me in keeping the words down appropriately.
[This is a belated comment as my last two (one on this and one on the 'Paranoid man-droid' blogs have vanished - hope this posts]
Posted by Rachel Winter on May 28, 2010
I might go along to your thing next Tues.
Maybe even say hello if you’re around after it.
Posted by Of all the gin joints in all the world I had to pick Planet Hollywood? | Good Ness Communications on May 27, 2010
[...] blog post was inspired by reading Mark Watson’s account of his trip to Senegal with ActionAid: he says a lot of the things my interviewees said. They were a [...]
Posted by Rachael on May 27, 2010
I sponsored a couple of children when I had money to spare, it’s great getting their letters and pictures that they had drawn. Actually its nice getting any post that isn’t junk or bills really.
Posted by cymruangel on May 27, 2010
In 2009, I was part of a group that ran a 12 hour rueda (salsa dancing in a circle, swapping partners when moves are called – kind of like barn dancing for Latinos) to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.
We raised over £12,500, but in reality that’s a drop in the ocean for people trying to cure dementia, a degenerative disease that affects millions. We could have been depressed by this, but it turns out that we have managed to fund a very improtant project researching ways of slowing memory decline – we may not have saved the world, but we did buy it a plaster.
I mention this because we’re about to do it all over again for a project in Africa. Again, we won’t solve all of Africa’s problems, but we may be able to make a community’s lives that little bit brighter, and all by doing something which makes OUR lives enjoyable.
Even in the face of the multitude of problems dogging our planet (environmental, biological, social and financial), helping another human being HAS to be a worthwhile thing. Otherwise what is the point of any one of us?
Posted by Laurs on May 27, 2010
Mark, I think you are awesome for going out to Senegal to see what money raised does and then not just shamelessly using it as promotion for your own end but to actually want to help. Hats off to you sir.
I do as much as I can, but I’m debt ridden at present and the guilt at not being able to do as much as I should kills me.
Great blog as usual. x
Posted by Aislinn on May 27, 2010
Can I be really immature and point out how much I enjoy the comment three down from this one congratulating you on your bog?
Posted by SirChrisOfBumpstead on May 27, 2010
Should have pointed out I got first blog a few days ago but because of a ‘technical problem’ I couldn’t see the most recent blogs so missed a couple of days; wasn’t pushing in just catching up
x
Posted by SirChrisOfBumpstead on May 27, 2010
Haha Garth you are so out the Loop, I believe I am next in the queue here! There seems to be a backlog of ‘firsts posts’ so maybe there should be a special requests blog or something.
My idea for a blog: What should I do with my life?/What can I do to be part of the TYSIC?
Just finished second (of three) year of uni, completely lost all interest in it already and at the moment my part time job in Iceland is more entertaining too (a little bit too entertaining in a bad way which almost made my request but that’s another story…) and generally need something to inspire. So blog that.
And I really like the Africa post. My lil sis did some similar stuff last year and it sounds awesome. 1st June is the only day I’m not in the area as I will be returning to the middle of nowhere so I will throw some money in the online donations bucket some time instead or buy one of those footie shirts.
Did anybody else notice the blog from a few weeks ago “Can’t you see I’m trying, I don’t even like it” was the beginning of Is This IT? by the Strokes? Looking forward to the Supertramp blog. I have never listened to their music before, apparently it’s good.
x
Posted by lisa brunders on May 27, 2010
A wonderful bog Mark, which I finally found by following your link on Twitter. Glad I didn’t miss it. Still missing the one before this though, very strange.
Posted by Adele on May 27, 2010
An excellent blog. As someone that actually works for a charity, I completely agree with the sentiment that the money really does make a difference. I am lucky to work with so many dedicated people that go above and beyond their remit every day to help, and even so, there’s always more to be done.
I’m also lucky enough to see the difference my work makes in peoples lives every day, which even on the worst of days, makes coming through the door worthwhile.
Posted by Claire on May 27, 2010
Hey Mark, great work!
Just one thing – i hope you also donate to charities who can’t afford tv advertising!! They probably need it more.
xx
Posted by Simon on May 27, 2010
Lovely post! Not giving much to charity is a constant source of guilt for me. Perhaps I’ll be more generous in future.
I’d like to echo Aislinn’s sentiment:
Bless you Mark, Blark.
Posted by Ben Draper on May 26, 2010
ABBA, it’s ABBA! ABBA!
I have always considered myself too young to do anything proper for charity but this evenings realization that i am too old to be on junior apprentice has changed my perspective. I’ll consider it. I’d hate to have to write to someone though, I’d feel incredible if they write back but I’d be worried about saying something stupid. I’m reading the link right now. Good work, Mark!
Posted by Aislinn on May 26, 2010
I think I’ve posted enough rambly comments on this blog in the last few days now, and should probably hush.
I just wanted to say, though, that out of all the blogs so far (at least, out of all I can remember), that this was by far the most interesting to read and the easiest to agree with.
I’m thinking of sponsoring a child, and not just saying that like people do but genuinely doing it.
Thanks, Mark.
Thark.
(I bloody hope you’ve seen Look Around You now, or I’ll just look like a nutter.)
Posted by Tom Beasley on May 26, 2010
An excellent account here Mark.
(Fucking hell, I sounded like a patronising teacher then)
At some point, I would like to go on a similar journey and do some volunteer work in a poverty-stricken corner of Africa. It sounds like a really eye-opening thing to do.
Posted by (Magnificent) Josh on May 26, 2010
Oh Charity, we have a complicated relationship. I was one of 3 organising a charity concert at my school and raised around £350 for World Vision and £350 for our local Special Needs School. And yet the rest of the time I do very little. But to be fair, I spend very little money over all… so… I don’t know.
Posted by Steph on May 26, 2010
I like Supertramp
Was kind of impressed when my mother told me she used to go to loads of their concerts when she was younger.
Good to hear your always-realistic-and-kind view on things. And good luck to the boy who wants to become a footballer and be a bit more well-off. He seems to know where it’s at.
Posted by hornseygirl on May 26, 2010
Insightful and inspiring blog; thank you.
As to the PS, I’ll hazard a guess at Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Posted by Nick on May 26, 2010
That was a great blog..not often someone is able to revisit that old and much mentioned subject, but make it interesting and thought provoking! Good on you son!!!
Posted by Heather Jones on May 26, 2010
Great to read about your ActionAid involvement Mark. I support Oxfam myself by monthly donation – it’s a charity I trust to make good use of the money to transform people’s lives. Personaly I’m a bit wary of the exchange of letters aspect of child sponsorship – wanting something back from the person you help (like requiring proof of gratitude?) I’m probably wrong, but that’s how it seemed when my mother-in-law talked about such letters when she was sponsoring a child.
Oh, and re Bono, while no-one is perfect (although we like to expect that celebrities should be), I’m a huge fan of both Bono’s music and his various campaigning and charity work, so I just wanted to risk putting my head above the parapet on his behalf. There’s a current campaign – the Lazarus Effect – by the organisation (RED), co-founded by Bono, in support of retroviral drugs to combat AIDS in Africa – just 40 cents a day for a person to live a normal life again – see http://www.joinred.com/#lazarusEffect
And here’s a bit of info on Bono’s various activities:
“Bono has been a leader in the fight against poverty, and has helped to create the ONE Campaign, DATA, (RED) and EDUN, a clothing company which is striving to stimulate trade with poverty stricken countries.
He was on Forbes’ Generous Celebrity List for his work with Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA) against the spread of AIDS and for debt relief in Africa, participation in fundraising concerts like Live 8, and his donation of $50,000 to One in Four Ireland, a charity that helps survivors of sexual abuse.
Read more: http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/26-bono#ixzz0p3r4aaJZ
End of pro-Bono comment.
As you were.
Posted by Kathryn on May 26, 2010
I donate every year to Christian Aid, because my parents collect for it, and we sponsor a child. I don’t have a job right now (or in fact, I’ve never had one) so I have no money, but I feel like I help a little (tiny, tiny) bit. It’s good to hear back from people who have been to see that the money does actually make a difference.
Posted by Misha on May 26, 2010
Sounds like a fanscinating trip, spotted a couple of photo’s (on the BBC Bristol site) which made me smile.
I spent years (and indeed still do) sponsoring a horse. No where near the same kind of thing, but to my misanthropic child mind that was a pretty amazing idea, that you’d send off some money and in return the horse wrote letters and sent pictures. And of course as an adult you know it’s not Icky (the horse) writing it’s a bored secretary. But the idea is there.
I don’t know where this blog comment is going. So I’ll leave it there, I just nearly cried into the washing up with stress.
Posted by Megan on May 26, 2010
Supertramp!
Sounds like you had an amazing trip. I’m in awe of people who have the will and strength to work on development projects (a friend of mine is working on relief efforts in Haiti right now). I donate to Save the Children every month to quell the first world guilt, but really, I could do more.
(If I’m indeed the first commenter, I’d love it if you could (please) recommend some of the other awesome acts (pre-Edinburgh) to see in/around the UK this summer.)
Posted by Alex on May 26, 2010
Hey, I know I’m not actually first, but still, can you mention in your blog tomorrow whether you’re gonna do any more series of your radio show with Tim and Tom? Or comment or publish a radio show or something like that.
Posted by Gareth on May 26, 2010
Supertramp, The Logical Song. Are you still doing this first-come-first-served thing? I’m out of the loop. If I should happen to be first you may have to do tomorrow’s blog on Supertramp.