As with any project, we would like to share our limitations, as sharing them might help you to do better than us. Most of the shortfalls stem from the short-term nature of this project, but this was expected given that it was intentionally designed to be a pilot project.
We list our shortfalls below:
- Difficulty in contacting orphanages. Not all orphanages or medical institutes are responsive so we should have allocated even more time prior to the on-the-ground phase of our project. Open all channels of communication available (email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook) as this differs between countries.
- Lack of metrics. We did not actively think about metrics for our two-pronged strategies due to the short timeframe of 12 months.
- Resource allocation. Unclear if we dispensed resources in the strategy that yielded the greatest impact. This links back to our lack of metrics.
- Donation channels. Not streamlined and multiple bottlenecks incurred e.g. Wise does not allow transfers to Indian charities as it may be considered fraudulent.
- Full time devotion. We were naive to think that we could work on this project with multiple other responsibilities. Full time devotion would be required for maximum impact.
- Indecisions cost action. Given our only 1-year period and even shorter 3 month on-the-ground period, we should have been more decisive to be able to contribute to more orphanages.
- Voluntourism might be unavoidable. When we visited the orphanages to inspect the facilities and to learn from the operators during these visits, it was difficult not to meet the children, especially when the operators pushed for these encounters. We believe that it was easier to politely ask for no performances by the children, which any of you could also implement as a strategy. Also, some supermarkets offer the ability to deliver goods, minimizing physical contact with the orphans – we were able to do this in Hanoi, Vietnam.
- Language barriers. Not possessing the native language throttled our ability to acquire goods for orphanages during market runs (but we’re glad to have received from support from the locals!).
- Pressure to donate. Every externally funded charity will try to obtain funds from you as much as possible. This is just the nature of charitable organizations, and there is usually no ill intent behind this. This means that as a donor, you should carefully consider your priorities and values before deciding where to contribute. It was challenging for us to overlook the needs of the charities we visited, as responding with compassion is a natural human instinct. However, we must remember that there are many charities in the world, and we have to pick our priorities. Don’t be afraid to say no, if you feel uncomfortable at all.
- Time allocation. Visting a charitable organization can take time as many of the facilities are located outside of the main city area. It would be beneficial to understand how long and what transport methods are available to get to the organization (e.g. we had to rent a driver for a day or half a day to travel to most of these organizations). We were also unable to visit a particular charity of interest in Cambodia due to the timing of the response from the charity and the distance from the main city area to the charity. Shopping for donation goods also took more time than expected. Traffic is also severe in certain areas of e.g. Bali, Hanoi and etc., so allocating ample time for this is recommended.
- Difficulty in obtaining the right donation goods. Once we had a list of goods that were needed by the charities, we went shopping in big supermarket franchises. However, we noted that not all the items were in ample stock (e.g. only a few small cans of Pediasure formula were displayed in one of our shopping trips, which was one of the essential goods for the charity). Furthermore, you may think it might be more affordable (and therefore an opportunity to maximize impact) to go to the local wet markets to obtain staples like rice, but you might be cheated as a foreigner. We were lucky that one of our contacts kindly offered to go shopping with us because of this very concern that was raised by him. We also noted that the prices weren’t too much different between large, air-conditioned supermarkets versus local wet markets.
- Transport of goods. Some drivers were reluctant to take 100 kgs of rice around in their sedan – which was understandable. They required extra fees for this service, which is something to be mindful of. In these sorts of cases, it may be better to opt for a shipping service, which generally does not cost a lot in developing countries and protects the drivers’ car. Also, going with extra pairs of hands would be beneficial – lifting and carrying goods was difficult to manage with just one of us on the ground. Thankfully, the drivers and supermarket staff were kind enough to assist us, and we truly appreciate their support.
- Divided attention. As mentioned in our previous posts, each country has different regulations and cultural nuances that you must understand to establish a charity. As we were expecting to travel to four different countries, our resources and time were spread thin. Whilst it was a good method to gather a wide range of feedback and experiences, if we focused on one particular country, we would have found more meaningful results and gathered better quality data.