Some 25 people went to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, reaching the top earlier today.
Bravo: awesome athletic feat. Congratulations.
But for the organizers to pretend that they're doing it for charity is shameless, and rather despicable, self-aggrandizement.
"Climbing Kilimanjaro for Special Needs", the travel company officially titled the expedition.
How do you say bullshit in Swahili?
Consider this:
- Each climber paid for their own trip; while supposedly attempted to fund-raise 20,000 EGP ($3600) each.
Good.
But the climb cost about $5000 per climber [according to friends/siblings of climbers on this expedition] - which means that, had they donated the climbing money to the organization - the Right to Live - the organization would've gotten more money out of it.
How much did they raise so far? $51,990, from the expedition's own webpage. If there were 11 climbers, their climbing money would've been greater than that. (remember, there were 25 - so a total expense of $125,000).
Yep. Do the math.
As a friend rightly says, "احا، كانوا دفعوهم للمنظمة و راحوا يتسلقوا الهرم"...
And they claim they got corporate sponsorship. Seriously, your fundraising people are... Well the kids who did fundraising for our model UN in college consistently did a better job, for fuck's sake.
With the amount of coverage they got - and with a famous radio host on board - they could've done infinitely better.
The big winner? The leader of the expedition, one Omar Samra, "the first Egyptian to climb Mount Everest" says the FB page; who, not surprisingly, owns the travel company that organized the expedition.
[Do you hear what I hear? param pam pishhh....:]
I'm very much willing to be proven wrong - when I see the financials of this trip. Expenses, income, donations, how much money the company made, corporate sponsorship receipts, etc.
Until then, I'll consider this expedition as a shameful attempt to make a few dollars off the backs of children with mental disabilities.
Whom, as someone pointed out, were not included in the trip; as far as I know, there are no people with mental disabilities on the climb, are there?
The other claim is, huh 'creating awareness'? Oh peu-lease. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness in a country where a majority of the population depends on food subsidies is completely outlandish, irrelevant to most, and simply dishonest. And has an unmistakable Marie-Antoinette-ish ("They want bread? Let them eat cake!") feel to it.
Most of the Egyptian public doesn't listen to NileFM, son.
I will give them a little credit for not towing the bullshit line all the way: after all, and to quote Mr. Samra,
Indeed, I know for a fact that some of the participants went on this expedition for the pleasure and challenge of the climb, with no claims or pretense of saving the world.
Let me reiterate: I have no problems with going on a good adventure, quite on the contrary: I'd love to climb Kili one day. [Definitely not with that company though!]
But I do have a problem when some people - namely, the organizers - piggyback on an important cause for their advertisement purposes. That is disgusting.
Oh, and let's not play the 'I have relatives with mental disabilities so you can't doubt my sincerity' game:
a. I fully respect that, and sympathize with the families of mentally disabled children. I also have close relatives with mental disabilities and I know how difficult it is sometimes, particularly for the parents and siblings.
b. It's completely irrelevant. Good intentions are only useful insofar as they translate into something tangible.
The 'Right to Climb' expedition has not.
To sum up:
- This was either a charitable venture: in which case, it's a failure. When for every $1 raised for charity, $2.4 were spent on the trip (that's 125K/51.99K), then it was better off donating the participation expenses w khalas.
Charity sports events are by definition cheap - such as a race or a half-marathon, for instance, like that one which a friend ran recently. This way, sunk costs are very low; nearly all the money involved goes to the charitable organization of choice.
Having a 'charitable event' which needs to carry participants 4000 kilometres to climb a mountain just to raise money - if that is indeed the claim - is ludicrous.
- This is not a charitable venture but a trip, the climbers were going anyway, and they took the opportunity to raise some money 3al ganb: very well. Then the trip should NOT have been marketed as "Climbing Kilimanjaro for Special Needs" because obviously it isn't. You do NOT call it "The Right to Climb" because the trip wasn't advocating for disabled kids' right to climb anything, given that they were nowhere near the climb. And you do NOT pretend you're going to save the world because that's pure hypocrisy, and a shameful, shameful PR stunt.
Bravo: awesome athletic feat. Congratulations.
But for the organizers to pretend that they're doing it for charity is shameless, and rather despicable, self-aggrandizement.
"Climbing Kilimanjaro for Special Needs", the travel company officially titled the expedition.
How do you say bullshit in Swahili?
Consider this:
- Each climber paid for their own trip; while supposedly attempted to fund-raise 20,000 EGP ($3600) each.
Good.
But the climb cost about $5000 per climber [according to friends/siblings of climbers on this expedition] - which means that, had they donated the climbing money to the organization - the Right to Live - the organization would've gotten more money out of it.
How much did they raise so far? $51,990, from the expedition's own webpage. If there were 11 climbers, their climbing money would've been greater than that. (remember, there were 25 - so a total expense of $125,000).
Yep. Do the math.
As a friend rightly says, "احا، كانوا دفعوهم للمنظمة و راحوا يتسلقوا الهرم"...
And they claim they got corporate sponsorship. Seriously, your fundraising people are... Well the kids who did fundraising for our model UN in college consistently did a better job, for fuck's sake.
With the amount of coverage they got - and with a famous radio host on board - they could've done infinitely better.
The big winner? The leader of the expedition, one Omar Samra, "the first Egyptian to climb Mount Everest" says the FB page; who, not surprisingly, owns the travel company that organized the expedition.[Do you hear what I hear? param pam pishhh....:]
I'm very much willing to be proven wrong - when I see the financials of this trip. Expenses, income, donations, how much money the company made, corporate sponsorship receipts, etc.
Until then, I'll consider this expedition as a shameful attempt to make a few dollars off the backs of children with mental disabilities.
Whom, as someone pointed out, were not included in the trip; as far as I know, there are no people with mental disabilities on the climb, are there?
The other claim is, huh 'creating awareness'? Oh peu-lease. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness in a country where a majority of the population depends on food subsidies is completely outlandish, irrelevant to most, and simply dishonest. And has an unmistakable Marie-Antoinette-ish ("They want bread? Let them eat cake!") feel to it.
Most of the Egyptian public doesn't listen to NileFM, son.
I will give them a little credit for not towing the bullshit line all the way: after all, and to quote Mr. Samra,
the goal is to allow people to discover more about themselves and the worldSee the first half of the quote, that works for me. It's an amazing trip indeed and I truly hope the participants had the adventure of a lifetime - a truly perspective-altering experience that will leave them better men and women.
while benefiting the society that we live in.”
Indeed, I know for a fact that some of the participants went on this expedition for the pleasure and challenge of the climb, with no claims or pretense of saving the world.
Let me reiterate: I have no problems with going on a good adventure, quite on the contrary: I'd love to climb Kili one day. [Definitely not with that company though!]
But I do have a problem when some people - namely, the organizers - piggyback on an important cause for their advertisement purposes. That is disgusting.
Oh, and let's not play the 'I have relatives with mental disabilities so you can't doubt my sincerity' game:
a. I fully respect that, and sympathize with the families of mentally disabled children. I also have close relatives with mental disabilities and I know how difficult it is sometimes, particularly for the parents and siblings.
b. It's completely irrelevant. Good intentions are only useful insofar as they translate into something tangible.
The 'Right to Climb' expedition has not.
To sum up:
- This was either a charitable venture: in which case, it's a failure. When for every $1 raised for charity, $2.4 were spent on the trip (that's 125K/51.99K), then it was better off donating the participation expenses w khalas.
Charity sports events are by definition cheap - such as a race or a half-marathon, for instance, like that one which a friend ran recently. This way, sunk costs are very low; nearly all the money involved goes to the charitable organization of choice.
Having a 'charitable event' which needs to carry participants 4000 kilometres to climb a mountain just to raise money - if that is indeed the claim - is ludicrous.
- This is not a charitable venture but a trip, the climbers were going anyway, and they took the opportunity to raise some money 3al ganb: very well. Then the trip should NOT have been marketed as "Climbing Kilimanjaro for Special Needs" because obviously it isn't. You do NOT call it "The Right to Climb" because the trip wasn't advocating for disabled kids' right to climb anything, given that they were nowhere near the climb. And you do NOT pretend you're going to save the world because that's pure hypocrisy, and a shameful, shameful PR stunt.
22 comments:
You hit the nail on the head. Go have fun in the hills just don't call it charity. Disgusting. Aha!
Ya zalmeh this whole thing is unbelievable .... I wonder if anyone can take any legal procedures against such people..... or we can simply wait till they burn in hell!
You should probably blog about this in the same newspapers who have provided the media coverage for such people. You may also need to talk with the RTL Association and ask them whether they have received any money from the campaign. I hope they don't end up being affiliated with the travel organization and end up sharing the profits.
I like the way the Israeli TV (channel 10) tackle such issues . They have a correspondent who makes and records 100 [exaggerated number] calls during a day to investigate a certain case, and embarrass such companies on TV.
You know what they say, a little research goes a long way! And this is true of your post, which quite obviously could have done with a little research!
The $52,000 you speak of were raised by the climbers who were going on an adventure holiday and were approached with the idea of the cause by the organizing company. The climbers pledged to raise 20,000 Egyptian Pounds each. Some were able to raise that sum, some raised more, some less. But this is money raised by people going on a holiday and NOT donated by the organizers!!
Maybe if you had bothered to read about CSRs you would have seen that the organizers handled this initiative properly! If you couldn't find anyone to give you CSR 101, you could have, at the very least, found reading material on the topic!
And maybe you should call RTLA! I'm surprised you didn't and you obviously haven't called them yet, and you probably won't!
Oh and implying that people will find this cause insignificant or trivial in Egypt is just shocking, and downright insulting! If just 10 people listen to Nile FM, and they take interest in this cause (or any other, for that matter), and try to learn more about it, or learn how they can help, and they will speak to their friends, who will speak to other friends. And those who don't listen in on the channel will, eventually, have an idea about the issue. That's raising awareness! Social responsibility is not just for corporations, or do you have a different opinion? Isn't this how society's moral and social fabric is maintained? Isn't this raising awareness?
And like I said, it would do you a world of good to call RTLA. In fact, I would advise anyone who reads this to do so, I'm sure everyone will greatly benefit from making such a call. If not to follow up on the money and the funds and on exposing the evil wrong-doers, then at least to gain some insight on the association and see what you can do to help.... if you're interested I helping, that is!
John -
There'll be someone trying to squeeze some private benefit from a good initiative. Eh.
Khaled
I am familiar with the right to live association; it's a very solid one. Also I don't doubt that the donations will reach them; I am not accusing anyone of embezzling funds. I am however upset that the main purpose of this entire thing was apparently advertisement, not a good cause.
Anonymous - (Shaima, I'm guessing?)
I did my research and I stand by it. I also include sources whenever possible.
I didn't say the cause was insignificant or trivial, I don't know where you got that. I am saying that, when it comes to 'raising awareness', they did a terrible job given the means available.
I know very well what CSR is, thank you very much.
As for your demand that I call the Right to Live association - again, I'm not sure what the purpose would be in this context since I'm discussing the 'campaign' not the recipient organization.
Thank you for your comment.
I hate to sound pedantic, and I hope you'll forgive me, but in the following sentence:
"- Each climber payed for their own trip; while supposedly attempted to fund-raise 20,000 EGP ($3600) each.
"
Does the word 'paid' have 2 spellings? I remember people telling me this but I could never confirm it :)
Hello Egyptian,
Hmm, I believe you're right! Though this dictionary lists 'payed' as a past participle for 'pay', it's not as used as 'paid' - i'm actually surprised I've used it myself.. writing in a hurry I guess. Thanks for pointing it out!
Another example of a phenomenon that i just hate. The priviledged bored ones, who need a new adventure to brag about at the next dinner party, find this way to placate their guilt. Even when there is money at the end for the specific charity, I find it appalling.
Hey Shari -
Well I find nothing wrong with going on an adventure trip. Nor bragging about it. (I'd brag about it if I climbed Kilimanjaro too).
My beef isn't with the participants, whose intentions I neither know nor question.
But for the organizers to cloak a money-making venture in a charitable event, that is what, as you say, find appalling.
Thanks for the comment.
Point 1/8
My motivations are clear and have always been transparent:
1) Both my sisters are mentally challenged and securing funds for the organization indirectly secures their future
2) I care deeply about the cause and have regularly volunteered in the field since 1988
3) I sit on the board of the NGO (public info on the RTLA's website) since this year and the RTC is a way of contributing positively through my work (Wild Guanabana). Namely raising funds and awareness for the great work that is being done by the RTLA.
Point 2/8
The climb costs $2650 not $5000 as mentioned in the blog. The assumption that the RTLA would have been better off without the climb is flawed to the core. If we had reached out to those same people to donate $3600 each they would not have just handed over the cash. Most probably they have other ideas of how they want to use their money or other charities to give to. After all, philanthropy is a competitive field. What we did is give them the opportunity to embark on a unique journey they have always wanted to do, climbing Kilimanjaro, and use this as a vehicle to raise money and awareness for the cause, which they did successfully. With the idea presented in this way many were willing to do both things together. Also, this approach in terms of awareness is much more powerful than if they had simply donated money (assuming this was even possible in this magnitude) because then only those people would know about the RTLA and the great work they are doing as well as the cause itself. By getting over 20 people to prepare for one of the biggest challenges of their lives for 3 months they inevitably get to speak to tens if not hundreds of people and they spread the word this way. For them to raise money they need to be armed with answers about the cause and RTLA (most people don’t just hand over donations lightly) which means they do not become only donors but hopefully ambassadors which I am sure most will agree is infinitely more powerful especially in the medium and long term.
Point 3/8
The figure of $51,990 you mentioned was not an up-to-date figure and it is wrong to measure the success of the initiative based on results that are not final. Moreover, please bare in mind that there is no big corporation behind the RTC or Wild Guanabana for that matter. It is simply a handful of individuals including myself who were working round the clock those last 3 months to make this happen. So yes we did not update figures as efficiently as we wanted but we are working on this and everyone can rest assured that the full and accurate figures will be published at the end. We have updated the website recently and so far we have raised $121,000. We still hope there is more to come through. Whether the final figure lives up to Mohamed's expectations of success is a different story (in reference to the model UN pun) but we are trying our best and trust me these numbers are significant for the RTLA. Please bare in mind that LE20K is the cost of one kid there for one year so a rough calculation suggests we have funded the costs of 34 kids for a whole year, which is something. We hope to do more. You also make a remark that we could have done better. Assuming that you or someone else would have done a better job at this, is this really a case for such tone in your blog? Remember that big budgets and TV ad campaigns allow more mainstream charities to get the lion's share of funding from corporations and individuals so every person we convinced to donate something no matter how miniscule is a success. Sponsors that came on board to provide financial or in kind support were to a large extent driven by the originality of the initiative. Also consider that this is the first time we do this initiative, not everything we tried worked, we learn from our mistakes and will do better next time.
Point 4/8
As you can see from the above, Omar Samra (me) is not the ONLY winner as you say. My company Wild Guanabana did gain exposure from this initiative but there is no shame in this and it would be hard to run and initiative like this and not gain exposure for the organizing company. The Right To Climb name was promoted aggressively because it is the charity initiative, so was the RTLA’s. The people at the RTLA themselves will tell you how much exposure this generated for them whether through phone enquiries, donations (some people after hearing about the RTC decided to donate to the NGO outside of our initiative and this we don’t count in our fundraising) and website hits. As a company we did get 26 out of 26 people to the top and this is a great achievement on a world scale. The expeditions unblemished success reflected positively on the whole charity initiative and allowed us to raise more awareness. An expedition where people get sick, hospitalized or a large percentage not make it to the summit fills people with less confidence about the entire endeavor. Moreover, as a company that is only over a year old we managed to create a successful CSR campaign that was wide reaching and helped the RTLA and shed light on a much neglected cause. How many young companies in Egypt do you see doing the same? You can also speak to the Special Olympics if you would like to assess the effectiveness of the campaign compared to other initiatives they see through their line of work. An awareness seminar we organized at Sawi Cultural Wheel alone attended by over 400 people made a big difference. In it we spoke about the cause, the issues faced and had one of the RTLA’s graduates talk about her success story with the organization.
Point 5/8
When the idea of the RTC came about it was to take 1 down syndrome kid to the top with us to show their talents and prove that they are amazing individuals capable of so much more than most people think (hence the name The Right To Climb). As you can see on our website, the Special Olympics are our patrons and we went to them to pick the most appropriate special Olympian for this. After thorough consultation physicians advised us that this would be extremely dangerous because they typically have weak hearts (and at 5,500m your heart can beat at 120BPM at rest) and suffer from epilepsy, which might be aggravated by altitude. From here we decided that the risk is too high to do such a thing but we kept the name as it is symbolic and still holds true that everyone does have a right to climb, climbing is also a metaphor for any challenging endeavor including some of the misunderstanding and stereotype these people have to go through throughout their lives. Having said this, if not for the remoteness of the location and non proximity to proper medical care and altitude hostility, I am sure that they would have made it despite its difficulty because most of these athletes are more fit than most of us even. So when we could not do this we organized a bowling evening where we all took the kids from the RTLA out so that everyone can meet them and for the climbers to know who are the people they are helping with this initiative. All the climbers now know many of the kids by name and have made lasting friendships. We have plans to also go on a simple hike in wadi degla with the kids and hopefully maintain contact going forward.
Point 6/8
About creating awareness and using the right channels and saying that Nile FM doesn’t talk to the masses. As far as I know twitter does not reach the 80 million of Egypt Mohamed but you use it nonetheless. Does that make your message any less important? Or dishonest as you called ours? Sure there are more people out there but we do what we can and so should everyone. Going on TV, mass newspapers and reaching the 80m costs money we do not have so we start small and hope to get bigger one day. If every company in Egypt did their part in CSR no matter how small this would definitely be a step in the right direction.
Point 7/8
It may be true that some of the people on the trip did not have a primary objective of charity on this trip, at least to begin with, but there is nothing wrong with that. Did they not get off their sofas and raise money from friends and family? Did they not talk about what they are doing for weeks and months to everyone they came across? Surely you cannot discredit people’s efforts no matter how small they are. Moreover, if it started this way I can tell you confidently that after interacting with the kids at the RTLA and living this journey together for the last 3 months, every single one of the climbers are passionate about the cause, can talk intelligently about it and will forever be ambassadors for it. In their lifetime they will hopefully inspire many other people to do good in any way they can.
Point 8/8
Your 2.4:1 point is completely wrong. The trip costs much less and raised much more than you said (figures above). This again is an irrelevant calculation because once again you cannot count money people are willing to pay for a trip as money that could have gone to the charity. What we’ve done is effectively include people into this effort that would have otherwise not participated. I am sorry if you are only familiar with marathons as challenges to raise money for charity. You might want to search Kilimanjaro and charity and see how many times this model been used to great success around the world and yes these trips cost money. I can also site many other successful initiatives to raise charity money that are way more costly than a climb to Kilimanjaro. There are many highly respected for profit companies out there who do charity challenges as their core business. They make money off organizing the events but through the work they do raise thousands of dollars for good causes.
If good intentions are only useful as long as they translate into something tangible (according to you) then we have definitely achieved something we can all be proud of. We are in the process of gathering the last pieces of donations and will announce our results shortly. However, for the benefit of everyone out there in the world who tries to do good but is not successful, please keep trying and not let anyone put you down.
Thank you for your attention.
Omar
Thanx to Mo ha med and his blog on this issue, I examined my conscience and decided that the best course of action was to ... wait.
And thankfully, I did. Had it not been for Mo ha med I would not have known about this and not had a chance to read what Omar wrote in his defense.
So, with that, I would like to know where I can do my bit and contribute to this worthy cause.
Is there a website to make credit card donations?
Dear Omar,
Thank you for taking the time to respond. Btw, I compiled your response into a single standalone post which can be found here.
Concerned Citizen,
Glad you got to read both sides of the conversation then!
Yes, you can donate to the Right to Live association online:
http://www.righttolivecairo.org/make.htm
Mohamed,
Why is it such a bad thing for this event to be a win-win for everyone involved? Does charity have to be painful and completely fun-free?
1. Climbers win because it was an experience of a lifetime. An adventure that was WELL worth every penny spent. And it was not $5,000 or even close. And it's money that would have been spent on an adventure trip regardless of the fund raising aspect.
2. The Right To Live Assoc. wins because it got amazing publicity and over half a million pounds thus far in donations that it would NOT have received if the same 26 climbers were just collecting donations and not using the climb to help motivate them and those donating.
3. Wild Guanabana, the organizers, they have been transparent with everyone from day one about their intentions and the publicity they received. Just because they are benefiting from this does not mean they are evil or have bad intentions. It's an added bonus and frankly, they deserve it for organizing something that has and will continue to change SO many lives for the better. Everyone that has been involved with them for The Right To Climb will have positive things to say about the initiative and the organizing company.
The Egyptian public benefit from being exposed to a relatively new form of fund and publicity raising that is both fun and beneficial for everyone involved. It's about darn time too!
Who said fund raising had to be boring and benefit only one party? We are all winners here and there's nothing wrong with that.
Good Evening,
Iam writing about this event and I wanted to know what made you doubt the cause of the right to climb, and after the founder of The Right to Climb responded to the points you made regarding the cost,...etc
Thank You
Good Evening,
Iam writing about this event and I wanted to know what made you doubt the cause of the right to climb, and after the founder of The Right to Climb responded to the points you made regarding the cost,...etc
Please I need you to respond to my questions soon
Thank You
Anonymous 0928
1. I am told that it was indeed about $5000. But, indeed; I am sure it was an adventure well worth every penny.
2. Awesome. Really.
3. No, they haven't been transparent. At all.
As for 'added bonus' that 'they deserve': that's your opinion, not a fact.
There's a difference between getting some publicity off an event, and milking an event for publicity with a side of charity.
"Who said fund raising had to be boring and benefit only one party?"
Not me, assuredly.
Anonymous 1822 (in case you're not the same)
This piece was written before Mr. Omar Samra responded, obviously. I am not sure what your question is..
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