Think before you donate

A few weeks ago a video went viral of an elderly couple that Ran a small food stall but was having trouble getting by. The story soon reached national attention, multiple news channels covered it. The baba won a lot of hearts, and loads of people were willing to help out in any way that they can.

Many YouTubers went there and made videos, asking their viewers to donate money. You would think that after all this, Baba would have received so much money that he could easily retire, or maybe hire someone to run the food stall.

On the contrary, in a recent youtube video interview, Kanta Prasad (The owner of Baba ka Dhaba) is seeing saying that he hasn’t received any of the donation money raised by any YouTuber. The only money they received was some cash that people who visited the Dhaba gave them.

So where did we go wrong? We saw a person in need, we came out to help them. We thought we were doing something good.

The first mistake was not checking first if the donations were legit. The YouTuber that discovered this food stall, was asking people to just send money to his own bank account. There was no receipt for donations, nor was the amount raised so far made public. You were basically just sending a stranger money hoping that he would use it correctly.

Secondly, people just saw the sad story and let their emotions get the better of them. They didn’t ask the right questions. Did the couple really need the money? The video didn’t say if they were in debt, or had a medical condition. It gave no reason to justify the donations.

What the Dhaba needed, was customers. While there was a sudden surge of people visiting the Dhaba after the video, it has dropped down significantly now. Kanta Prasad also admits that sadly a lot of people came there for taking selfies, not for the food.

So the next time you think of donating for a cause, make sure that your money is actually going to the person in need.