The Holiday challenge was indeed challenging. It was the grueling self-reflecting process I thought it'd be. The first day of the challenge, I joined and wrote a blog post. Then on the second, invited as many friends to the facebook group and invited them to join the givology group. I'm used to writing about givology, but usually to strangers and new people but I'd forgotten about the many people on my email list that I hadn't directly asked to be a part of givology. It was a good experience in that regard to inform those I care about to take a look at our organization.
The next days past by and I wasn't sure of what to do for a fundraiser. Then I went to a viewing called "What are we doing here?" a documentary about the behind the scenes of western institutions efforts to aid poverty in Africa. The documentary was an eye opener, one that made me believe that it is still important to donate and help but to be critical and smart about knowing where the money goes. Although I didn't collect any money for minifundraiser yet, I did dogsit for my sister's indefatigable puppy which took up my entire weekend. How does this relate to Givology? Well, I see that postchallenge how during the period since I started the challenge, it enabled me to give in ways that I hadn't before. For example, as a college student, time is one of the most precious things to me, but it didn't seem to cost me so much to offer my time when I thought about how much my sister would benefit from it. Also, another example is how I've learned through this challenge the way that I've changed my way of looking at these organizations. I thought before it was okay not to give my money to big corporations because I had heard a lot about how the dollar doesn't directly feed the people or help them and this deterred me away from donating, but I realize that wasn't the only reason behind my distrust. The stories about their unreliability was an excuse for me not to care, or bother to look a little closer at the problem. Before I'm sure someone would have needed to physically undo my fingers from the twenty clutched in my hands, and honestly, would have felt as a loss, but I can say sincerely that this time, it was not at all. I did believe in the cause I was giving to but not mindlessly, it was because I could crtically think and know where the good was going.
As Sarah mentioned in her blog before, education and therefore awareness makes people active and capable of change. We cannot forget that although at times there are unreliable and ineffective methods being used in these NGOs, the problems do not go away. The people in poverty are still people in poverty. Face the issue, realize the power of caring and giving discerningly.

-Eunice

ps. eProps those who came up with this challenge. :)