HomeOld_PostsNGOs and the funding dilemma: Part One

NGOs and the funding dilemma: Part One

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I HAVE had a hectic week since independence and because there are different people who are now busy asking me to write proposals for them so that they can get funding in the environment that is facing donor extinction.
I have been declining some offers because most of those who want to have proposals written to donors are requesting me to write on issues that my conscience refuses me to write on.
The issue of donor funding, is a challenge for most people in the civil society movement.
When the elections did not go the way that donors had been expecting, especially after the false prophecies from social media fanatics, they started pulling out their funding.
They had hoped to fund a ‘new Zimbabwe’ under the rule of the ‘deceased’ Tsvangirai regime.
During the election campaigns non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were busy trading their souls with the devil; assuring donors that they would ensure that regime change took place.
A lot of NGOs were busy doing ‘field work’ going around communities and ‘empowering’ them of their rights to vote and that their vote was their secret. This would have been all well and good if their intentions had been pure.
The challenge that was there was that the NGOs thought that doing this ‘field work’ would bring in lots of voters (which it did) and hence mean a clear win for MDC.
Sadly, it was not to be because what they forgot was that MDC is only popular in the cities and not the rural areas where the majority of Zimbabweans come from and also live.
It was a serious gamble which the ‘social media’ informed them would be a certain victory for the opposition party.
We all know that the elections were nowhere near in their favour and most of them already started panicking because the donor ‘devil’ was ready to take their soul; and the drama has started.
Some of the donors who were popular for trying to ensure this regime change were none other than the American Embassy and USAID who were and still are at the top of the list.
The huge amounts of money that they usually give NGOs are now coming in drips and drabs.
Other Western donors excluding those from the Nordic countries are now also pulling out funding.
The crisis is now so bad that most NGOs are now coming together to form collaborative partnerships as a means of survival.
They are being punished for their failure to change the regime.
Employees in the NGO sector are now getting contracts for three months and some for six months because the funding is getting dry.
If you think I am exaggerating, just call your relative who works in the NGO sector and ask them what is happening at their workplace.
Those who are surviving as usual are the big fish who are now busy looting the little funds available.
Some employees are now going for months without pay because their current funding cannot afford to pay all the salaries of the staff members.
It is a sad state of affairs, but to be honest, they do not have anyone to blame, but themselves.
The donors agree and they will probably come around in the next two years as they wait for the next election.
Their pride was wounded because during the election phase, there was already jubilation on their part basing on the assumption that Tsvangirai would win through the work that was being done by NGOs.
Now the NGOs are faced once again with a new dilemma of re-bargaining for the soul that they sold.
This bargaining is going to come at an even higher price and that is what we will be looking at in the next part of this article.
To what extent dear NGOs will you prostitute for funding?
You would sell your own brother and sister just for 30 pieces of silver when your country is sitting on riches and wealth?
Oh well, the price has been set and the bargain has been done and now we will wait to see the rolling of the dice and once again see who shall win?
The lengths that NGOs will go are not only disheartening, but disgusting.
Please as Zimbabweans we must not to sell our souls to donors.
Communities are being broken and the fabric of society is being withered away because of the NGOs love for money.
Next week we will look at the new tactics that are now being used by NGOs and what it is they have agreed to start doing in order for them to get more funding.
This is a strategy for the plot for regime change which is set for the next five years in time for the next elections.
Let us not drop our guard.

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