$1 million to improve Iraq - Corrected question

Posted 07/01/2008

If you had a million dollars to improve Iraq what focus / charities / issues would you choose? 

The orignial thread wasn't getting much of a chat going because I phrased the question poorly.  Since enquiring minds usually want to know, here's the original poorly phrased question:


The recent donation by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to children impacted by the war in Iraq is oddly allocated IMHO. How could this money have been better used?

The money will be divided between the Armed Services YMCA Operation
Hero Program, which provides military children with counseling and
educational support; Women for Women International, which will provide
books, school supplies and other basic necessities to Iraqi women and
children; the International Rescue Committee, which will repair three
schools and offer classes for more than 2,500 students; and
NineMillion.org, which will give school uniforms and learning materials
to more than 2,000 displaced Iraqi kids.


Comments (3)

uncodified · Original Poster
Posted 07/01/2008

My question about the money isn't choosing to give it to Iraqi children; it's how they divided the original donation. I find it odd that they think the best way to make a difference is school uniforms and sending US military kids to the YMCA.

The YMCA part of the donation is odd to me. I'm a military spouse. We have plenty of support already. Please do not send me another "when daddy deploys" coloring book. Maybe it was a political calculation to give some to US kids but I freely admit Iraqi kids would benefit more from each individual dollar they give than my kids would.

The two charities they chose in the middle are fine. The school uniforms one is odd IMHO. If the kids need clothes then send clothes but uniforms are typically to press an identity on the wearer. Is that really helpful? How carefully are we screening the identity they're pressing and is that really our rightful role?

If it were my money I would have gone for microlending.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Help him start a business and you feed his family and the family of the guy he pays for fish. It doesn't give you the warm fuzzies of books for kids but I think it would do more for the long term future of Iraq to build stability now than to have literate instead of illiterate children getting blown up.

Posted 07/01/2008

 I think the Y program is for kids who have a parent in the reserves or guard who have been deployed.   Those families don't get nearly the support that actual military families get.   My best friends husband spend 12 months deployed and since they farm it was horrible.  She is a teacher not a farmer and almost got herself killed by a cow because she didn't know what she was doing but it had to be done.   Her kids got no support from the military while their dad was gone so something like this would have been great.   I think the government has programs to assist small businesses to get started in Iraq.  The Pitts have a real heart for kids so they focused.   Also about uniforms,   it is pretty standard in other countries and getting more so here in the US for all school kids to wear uniforms not ot press an identity on them, but to take some of the competition out of the school setting (like my family can afford designer clothes and yours can't)  and to get rid of some of the gang symbolism. 

uncodified · Original Poster
Posted 07/01/2008

I think they should have research the Y portion of it better.  I worked for the Y and we ran what we had a demand for in our area.  I went to the Chicago Y page (the theory here is big city = big Y) and searched operation hero.  All I found was neighborhood hero which is a fundraising campaign.

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