Fergal Keane has visited the world's poorest areas in his role as BBC foreign correspondent. Here he explains why he believes that, at this time of excess, we should support charities promoting sustainable development and why we must guard against compassion fatigue.
It doesn't help anybody but I can easily understand why you might feel it. I know that I do from time to time. You see another starving African face on television and you feel despair. In my case it was the sight of a young girl in a remote village in the Sudan, starving to death, another death out of tens of thousands in that country, which prompted me to swear at the heavens and wonder if it would be like this always. Despair is a horrible word and a useless feeling. But that is how decades of famines and civil wars - and the widespread reporting of both - have conditioned us to respond. Even the most open-hearted among you, those who give freely to disaster appeals in the developed world, end up asking yourselves 'What's the point?' when you are confronted with another outstretched African hand in some country you know nothing about.
In fact, there is a very big point in giving and continuing to care. What, alas, you rarely see on your screens - and we broadcasters must accept much of the responsibility in this regard - is the slow, undramatic but critical work of sustainable development that is being promoted by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across the Third World. A woman and her children slowly planting seeds in a newly ploughed field somewhere in Ethiopia may not make for gripping television according to current news values, but it is a huge success story. I often tell the story of my time covering the conflict in South Africa when we would drive into embattled townships to count the bodies of those murdered the night before. As we drove around one settlement - Orange Farm outside Johannesburg - we noticed groups of children in immaculate school uniforms, heading to an old building in the middle of the veld.
Every morning, irrespective of the violence of the previous night, these children set out to the Chicken Farm School, so named because it was built on the site of an old poultry farm. The school was run with donations and whatever the children's parents could afford. Local and foreign NGOs also gave what they could.
This school made a huge difference to the lives of several hundred young South Africans. It should have been headline-grabbing stuff, but news demands drama and so an important part of the township story was missed. It is time journalists faced up to their responsibility to present a broader view of the developing world. We seem tied to the imagery of the 1960s, of Biafra and the Congo war; things have moved on, it is time for a new template.
Across the developing world there are success stories to tell. Like that of Cynthia Mthebe in a South Africa's Ivory Park squatter camp, who has set up a small shop with money donated by British people - four years ago she had to sell tin cans from a rubbish dump to make a living, now she is a very proud business woman. In the hills of Rwanda, where people suffered a genocide that claimed a million lives, futures are being rebuilt with the help of British aid. If you could go there and see for yourselves how people use your money to change their lives you would feel tears come to your eyes. I know because it has happened to me.
I believe the aid agencies have seen the writing on the wall; of course, there will be huge disasters in the future - natural catastrophes such as floods, earthquakes and bad harvests will always happen - but aid strategies now must be aimed at helping countries to reach a stage where the impact of such disasters on the population is minimised. Much of that will depend on politicians remaining interested in Africa, but they are notoriously difficult to engage, despite all the apologies about turning a blind eye in the past. They talk big and then cut back on aid budgets. They depend ultimately on the generosity of the viewing public. My message is to keep being generous but also to make the developing world an issue with your local MP. Write to them, badger them. Write to Tony Blair and Robin Cook. If enough people give a damn enough of the time, they will have to pay attention.
charitable gifts: how to make your money work harder
Gift Aid is a scheme that enables any charity to reclaim the tax on donations. If you are a taxpayer, the value of any donation to charity you make is increased. For example, if you donate £10 in the tax year 2000/01 using Gift Aid, the gift is worth £12.82 to the charity.The scheme applies whether donations are made by cash, postal order, direct debit, standing order, credit card, or even in foreign currency. Businesses can also get tax relief on donations through the scheme. For more information, call 0151 472 6056. Alternatively, visit the internet site at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk or e-mail saorderline.ir@gtnet.gov.uk. And don't forget, you can also help good causes by choosing Waitrose.com as your free internet service provider. The share of any revenue from the BT local call charges (after the cost of calls to the help line) is donated to The British Heart Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Relief, The Prince's Trust and The British Red Cross. This year, more than £22,000 has been raised by users.