The thin line between charity and cheating

No one who has visited Siem Reap would say that the place is wealthy. Children roam the streets when they should be in school and mothers use their babies to milk any charity that a tourist might have. Children learn at a tender age to ask for "one dollar" and sniff sadly when rejected, or in one instance today, tap Kishy's hand and ask for food only to cheekily smile when he said no.

I was initially very perturbed by the poverty I was seeing. I felt sorry for the children and the landmine victims. I wished I could help them but I read so many stories about how the money that we donate is actually taken away from them and given to an ominous, larger organisations (think Slumdog Millionaire) so it does more harm than good to give money to them.

Today, Kishy and I took a boat ride to the Tonle Sap Lake. If I'm not wrong, it's the largest freshwater lake in Cambodia connecting several provinces and countries. The guide was immediately sharing with us how poor these people were, and how many of the children don't get to go to school. Being slow on the uptake, I was at first quite perplexed by why he kept telling me they were poor because anyone can see that these are not wealthy people living on the lake in tiny boats that housed a few families. Then, he started telling us that we will be making a stop at a floating school so we can and should buy some stationery or notebooks. That sounded fair, right? Not. Because he brought us to this boat that sold a bundle of maybe 20 B5-sized notebooks for USD15 and ten pencils for USD4. In a place where a mug of beer is 50 cents and a three-course meal for 2 costs USD7, the notebooks and pencils were waaay overpriced! I'm all for charity but I'm upset that this has to happen by ripping off the tourists in the name of charity!

Before you say, "what do you expect, you're in a third world country where tourists are cash cows", I just want to say that I don't mind paying inflated prices for food but not when it is supposed to be in the name of charity! Call me naive but the next time I visit, if I do, I will come armed with a stash of stationery that I will very happily donate.