What happened next at the Refugee Camp

What happened next at the Refugee Camp

25^th August 2006
Long term readers of www.crazymalc.co.nz - all two of you - may recall that there were some dramas on the Refugee Camp just before I left. The full story can be found here.

A brief summary goes as follows:

CBW - the organisation I volunteered with on camp - purchases a van about a year ago with volunteer money.
The volunteers on camp get very upset.
The head of GVN - the parent volunteer organisation - sends its head honcho over to sort out the mess.
GVN almost pulls out, but decides to stay on for the sake of the good that CBW does.
GVN sets up a GVN Rep who will live on camp and basically keep an eye on CBW.
Things go "OK" for about a year.
The most recent GVN rep leaves and no one replaces her.
Two weeks later - while I am on camp - GVN purchases a Landrover. Not just a car, but a God damn Landrover.
Volunteers on camp get angry
Crazymalc shouts at Semeh Roberts - the head of CBW.
Crazymalc leaves camp in a huff and waits to see what happens...

What Happened Next
Meh. Not much.

Turns out that GVN in some way, shape or form, supported the purchase of the car.

The sent out an email to volunteers saying that the car will help CBW explore Liberia and that will hopefully help all the refugees return home one day. Oh and by the way, don't tell us what to do with our partner organisations.

A second email soon followed stating that they are looking for a new GVN rep and that the terms of agreement between GVN and CBW have changed for the better. One of the stipulations was that CBW will be financially transparent and that volunteer money may only be spent on Refugee Camp projects.

I don't think it will work. I think CBW will continue to be slimy and snake its way around the new conditions. Semeh refused to even meet Erin - the most recent GVN Rep - for her last five weeks on camp.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

It is all just disappointing. I just can't see how any reasonable organisation can come out in support of the purchase of a luxury can over the feeding of the hungry, giving water to the poor, and paying people a decent wage.

Meh.

I'm a bad bad man
And on a side note, GVN runs a journal site where volunteers can write about their experiences. I would add entries to their site that would contain links to my website.

I had a lot of good feedback from the entries. People would often email with questions and I would spend a lot of time answering them.

GVN didn't like the link to this entry. The deleted the entry from their site and insisted I delete the page on my website. Fat chance. Freedom of speech and all that.

Since I wouldn't delete the page from my website, they deleted all my entries and banned me from the journal site.

Meh.

Kinda of a shame really as nobody writes more about their GVN experiences than me. They have lost a valuable resource.

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(c) 2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.