Aid for Africa?

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Every day, about 25,000 children die. (TED) Every year, nearly 9,000,000 children under the age of 5 die. (WHO) And around 70% of those deaths are due to conditions that could easily be prevented with proper food, water, and medical resources. (WHO) Many countries like Africa lack the resources to properly provide food, water, and health care for their citizens. In spite of media and propaganda encouraging international citizens to provide donations to help their cause, I believe the challenge must be resolved by local citizens in order for it to be truly resolved. So even though the media is encouraging us to, wealthy nations should stop giving monetary aid to Africa, as they will not become independent by receiving charity and the aid is being put into the wrong places.

For one thing, when we give money to poorer nations, we take away their ingenuity. “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish; you feed him for a lifetime.” -Chinese Proverb. If you give people money, sure you may help them for a bit, but if you present to them new ways to make wealth for themselves, they will be better off in the end. And although Africa does have some weaknesses, it is also bursting with potential. So the challenge that Africa struggles with should not be a challenge of reducing the amount of impoverished; it should be a challenge of creating skills and frameworks for people to pull themselves out of poverty. If you say that Africans are poor and they need to reduce the amount of poverty, you get international donors with money for the poor, medicine for the sick, and food for the hungry. However, that is counterproductive, because you are treating the symptoms and not the problems. If you were to send a p...

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..., Feb. 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Glennie, Jonathan. "Giving Aid to Poor Countries Is Hardly a Great Act of Generosity." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 14 June 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Mwenda, Andrew. "Andrew Mwenda:Aid for Africa? No Thanks." Andrew Mwenda: Aid for Africa? No Thanks. TED Conferences, LLC, 2007. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Ntale, Charles Lwanga, and The Opinions Expressed in This Commentary Are Solely Those of Charles Lwanga Ntale. "Where Does Aid Money Really Go -- and What Is It Spent On?" CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Pasquali, Valentina, and Denise Bedell. "The World's Richest and Poorest Countries | Global Finance." The World's Richest and Poorest Countries | Global Finance. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Shah, Anup. "Foreign Aid for Development Assistance." - Global Issues. N.p., 8 Apr. 2012. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.

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