Sunday 19 May, 2013
THE IRISH CHARITY Trócaire is marking its 40th anniversary in operation this year.
While it is now just one of several Irish charities involved in projects in the developing world, it is fair to say that the ‘Trócaire box’ has long been a high-profile fundraising device every Lent. But is the Trócaire box as prevalent in households around Ireland as it once was?
Do you have a Trócaire box in your home?
Poll Results:
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I used to like contributing to John O’Sheas €115,000 salary until I found out that by charity he meant giving job to his wife and daughter……..
no we dont have one
we used to have them because me and my brother would be given one at school
we always seemed to use it to dip into to make up the odd change for bus-fares
Hmmm no point in giving one penny. Has not changed a thing. People die thats war torn africa. Want to really help these people then send in militaries to rid the lands of war lords.
Gotta love live aid all the money went via warlords. Well done sir bob make a bad situation worse.
I love donating to charity so countries like Uganda can spend the money on fighter jets and other instruments of war to further propagate misery in their countries.
TRÓCAIRE
Chief executive: Justin Kilcullen
Salary 2010: €146,191.
Salary 2011: €133,605.
Expenses 2010 & 2011: Vouched out-of-pocket only. No figures supplied.
Bonus payments: None.
Pension entitlements: Based on 1/60th of final salary for each year of pensionable service. Maximum of 40/60ths.
Company car: None.
Charity income 2010: €63m.
No of euro paid to chief executive per €1,000 of charity income: €2.32.
thats a huge salary for a charity man, €50-€70k should be enough and at that its high for a charity worker – sure the cost of food has come down here, a box of groceries is cheaper now than it was in 2010 lol. Still doesn’t top Angela Kerins of Rehab group on €234k!!! Would i or anyone donate to these charities after seeing those figures? No.
Charity CEOs should be voluntary like all of us do, no one should be making money off a charity ffs!!! Thats just not right.
Used to donate, but when Trocaire got involve in Middle East politics, I stopped donating. If they start supporting Jewish-Arab summer camps or coexistence I would donate again, but really they should stick to just feeding and educating the poor.Leave Politics out of it
Didn’t donate until they started getting involved in human rights abuses and poverty issues in the Middle East, just as they do in Africa. Jaymilireland, if you have a look at what they actually do in Palestine, they focus on helping farmers put food on the table, who no longer have a livelihood because their land was stolen to make way for illegal settlements or the Apartheid wall. If you don’t believe Trocaire, just read the UN reports. How would there be Jewish Arab summer camps (and why do you define one group by their religion and the other by their race)? Most young people I met in Beit Jala weren’t even allowed travel to Jerusalem because the Israelis wouldn’t give them travel permits. Your comment reminds me of the hasbara on the Trocaire website, commenting from various parts of Israel, saying they would never donate to ‘Trocair’ or ‘Trocar’ again. Thankfully people who work on development issues can see the views you espouse for what they are, a complete lack of understanding of daily life for people affected by authoritarian governments, corrupt governments and/or occupying forces.
Patrick I’m not a teacher but friends with several and I’d hardly consider their salaries huge. They are facing the same difficulties as the rest of us, and as is the case with two of my friends they are the only person working and have to pay mortgages bills and feed the family off a salary that is being cut again. Having said that your sons teacher sounds like she is out of touch with the current economic situation. Perhaps she is a politicians wife living off his unvouched expenses!
Where you pulling that figure from Patrick??
http://www.Into.ie/ROI/InfoforTeachers/Salary/CommonBasicScales/
Wont have one in the houses, they are the over seas development section of the Irish catholic church.
Not in recent years; I’ve split my giving between Concern, Land Aid and St Vincent de Paul. The reason I do not give to Trocaire is that they have crossed the line between impartial aid and political advocacy in respect of Palestine. I want to see the little I give to charities going to direct relief and not forwarding a political opinion; I could do that myself online. If Trocaire made a specific appeal for the relief of suffering relating to the affects of under-development I would consider assisting the proposed beneficiaries.
Kevin, perhaps you could let us know what Trocaire spends the money on in Palestine. I mean specifically. Is it marketing materials, paying salaries of development workers, buying farm implements, buying olive trees?. The NGO sector is leading the way in Ireland in terms of good governance, impact assessment, disclosing financial statements etc, so I would imagine the information is available. Obviously you must have this information in order to make your statement.
for me its SVDP, Focus, Simon Community, ISPCA, Samaritans and AWARE. You could fire all the money in the world at Africa and it still wouldn’t stick. It’s been going on years and will never end. A lot of money went amiss. They can say “oh it won’t happen again”… too late, they had their lot and blew it. Let their own filthy oil rich countries help each other out.
They refuse to provide condoms to AIDS victims because the catholic church condemns contraception. I’m not going to give to a ‘charity’ that cares more about it’s own religious beliefs than helping AIDS victims. I give to secular charities instead.
I binned ours without opening it. Billions have been given to Africa over the years and still little changes. The catholic church over there are so busy converting people to Christianity. Which of course discourages birth control which in turn causes a population explosion and rampant disease. The trocaire days are over.
who’s the CEO of this organisation and how much does he earn, company car?, expense account, business class travel?……..and then I’ll decide if I’ll get a box
Absolutely not. I never donate to any charity which has an affiliation to the catholic church. I do not trust them that the money will go where it is supposed to. I suspect that a percentage donated to all catholic charities is skimmed off the top, sent to the Vatican and used to add to the vast vast wealth of the church.
we have been giving to trocaire for in my house 4 generations, they get billions each year from different countrys,, think they should be paying us back in our hour of need,, we have people freezing in their homes, no one giving them blankets, we have people going hungry,, no one giving them food,, oh sorry we are irish,,, look after the foreign babies and not our own,, that is how i feel,,, and am ashamed sometimes to say we are irish,, while our charities dont look after their own
I think a lot of people feel like this, where we spent years helping people and now so many families are hungry and cold in Ireland, losing their homes and all they know, and nobody is there to help them. People will always prioritise their own family before others. and rightly so, and many families in Ireland are really struggling and they have nobody to turn to.
Yes but in that case give to a charity like Vincent de Paul – Trocaire is a charity that gives to the developing world. I personally think with any spare cash, no matter how small, we could give both to charities that help struggling people at home and charities that help starving and dying people in Africa – especially since it is the emissions of the western world and our lifestyle that has led directly to Africa becoming a dustbowl that cannot feed itself – wow, I would be pis*ed off if I were them… see more here from the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice http://www.mrfcj.org/?gclid=CNDzirymzLUCFdCK4QodkTwAFw I think it is easy in difficult circumstances for people to become completely heartless… let’s not…
Does it have to be either / or? No-one is expecting people who are struggling to give to developing countries, but as we all know there is actually a lot of money in this country, a lot of which should be redistributed to struggling Irish people through better tax policies. Perhaps have solidarity for all people of the world who are hungry, cold, unemployed or suffering human rights abuses, whether they are Irish or foreign. It does seem that very little has changed in many of these countries, but there are other factors at play, including neo colonialism by big corporations who exploit the developing world because of weak or corrupt governments, most of which are backed by Western powers. Wake up and smell the Fairtrade Coffee.
Its a pity because of skimming from Aid Agencys i wouldn’t put money into a box there is alot of other ways to donate to a really worth cause.These people really need our help still .
Still? I remember in school collecting a penny for the black babies. That was over 40 years ago. How much money has been pumped into Africa in that time and things don’t seem any better. Different approach needed and not sending goats or chickens either.
Hate to say it but I have to agree with Paul. Considering that things seem to be just as bad if not worse than they were 40 years ago, you have to question where the millions if not billions over the decades have gone. It doesnt seem to be making a difference. Maybe it is and we aren’t been shown it, but overall I think people have lost interest in supporting charities such as trocaire because it seems that the money isnt fixing the problem. Its sad but true.
Still even with our own problems i should have said.Africa is a giant mining for minerals factory with the biggest corporations down there making a killing and paying small tax to warlords and puppet Governments to keep it that way .To help Africa we must first change Western Ideology because its these countries along with China that make poverty in Africa a normality .Corporate Greed is a murderous monster.
That’s because OUR western lifestyle, OUR carbon emissions are making most of the huge continent of Africa a baking dustbowl unable to sustain crops… I wonder how we would feel in their position? Perhaps we owe them… more info here at the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice http://www.mrfcj.org/?gclid=CNDzirymzLUCFdCK4QodkTwAFw
There’s also a reliance on food packages, the people are losing the knowledge to farm their lands, to help themselves. As a result, farmland is lost, the soil loses cohesion and dustbowls are formed.. This is why I prefer the likes of Gorta, give a man a fish and all that.. They’re out there teaching people how to clean the water, how to make the most of what they have, get crops growing, businesses started, how to begin to get on their own two feet.
Emergency food in famine situations is needed and no one would deny that, but it’s a temporary solution that has become permanent. Ultimately it’s like throwing money into a hole. And in the long term it is doing more harm than good.
Of course, the wars, corrupt governments and corporations are the other major factors, and as said above – a lot of that is the developed worlds fault.
Send the box back to the school. Note inside return to sender. Not at this address. Or we feed, water and house enough 3rd world people here. No point sending money there when there is so many here. That need looking for after. Point is I’d be tell the school to go feck them self. If One of the kids came in the door with a box.
My son came home with one yesterday and his teacher told them every one must fill it and return it on holy week. Though it was a bit cheeky of her considering some families hardly have enough to feed themselves never mind people in the third world. But then again with the salaries teachers are on that’s probably not a problem for her. Maybe the school should have a trocaire box style campaign for the saint vincent de paul
You should go to the school and complain. My brother and a few other parents got together and went to their kids school to object to a school tour to…. usa!! This daft teacher thought it would be acceptable to ask parents to fork out €750 plus spending money for a week in usa!! My brother lives in a small rural town, major unemployment blackspot and many parents felt pressurised so there kids could go. Tour was cancelled instead its a three day trip to Belfast…. cheaper and more affordable. Oh and at Christmas they insisted the proceeds of the school concert and raffle went to vincent de paul not trocaire. Many teachers think they are masters and mistresses of all in the community along with the priest… those days are thankfully gone
We give Africa enough money in AID every year and still it doesnt make a difference.
Our young are migrating for jobs and we are taking in Africas unskilled and paying them a fortune for the pleasure.
Look after your own Ireland!
Michelle Rogers. We are a country of 4 million. Our emissions are nothing compared with the rest of the developing world. We already give 638 million euro to Africa every year. More than Germany. We have neverinvaded anywhere and most of the European countries have looted that continent for centuries. I am sick of this collective catholic guilt And I have roof over my head and don’t starve and I so should feel guilty!! Please get off you soapbox
That is not true Sean Conroy,for as little as 7% goes to some charities.
Just to clarify, I am sure they do good work, but would they work against the use of condoms for example in communities with high HIV status, or birth control in areas where women who feel hampered by having large families want to change their lives and promote birth control to other women?
It’s not these people’s fault that they are in the situation that they are. They re poor and starving thru no fault of their own, same as Ireland residents are not to blame for the shit they are in but their leaders are. Nobody chose to end up in the shit, but that’s way it is so don’t bag someone( or an organisation)that’s helping people out
Susanna, you are dead right . Africa is one of the richest countries on the planet. They have been getting aid from all over the world for years. I’m 55 and i remember the collection box’s in our schools for the black babies. We have done our bit.
Just looking at the results of the Poll, I think there are a lot of people out there in denial about their youth. Trócaire box’s were part of growing up in a Catholic Ireland in the 1970’s, 80’s. The Trócaire box’s were everywhere, even given out in school to every student of every religious sect and belief. It was a time to put a few coppers in the box and to help those in need and more misfortunate than ourselves. It’s called charity and something modern Ireland has lost touch with. People remember where you came from.
Nonsense . Every religious sect? You wont find too many Church of Ireland schools fundraising for Trocaire.
I have Protestant friends and they would donate a few euro if someone is say doing a sponsored run for Trocaire, but they themselves have their own charities such as the Bishop’s Appeal and Christian Aid.
I know the Jewish community did donate to Trocaire but Trocaire’s entrance into Middle East politics has probably driven them away.
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