Save The Children… if British Gas Approves
Posted: 10/12/2013 | Author: The Political Idealist | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: big six, capitalism, Charity, children, justice, NGOs, poverty, principles, Save the Children, society |Comments OffSave the Children is one of the UK’s favourite charities. Why wouldn’t it be? Everybody likes the idea of children in difficult circumstances, of any kind, here or acroad, receiving the help that they need. But another function of charities (or NGOs) is to be effective campaigners for the people or cause they aim to support. Some would say that NGOs’ role as advocates is equally as important as the direct help that they can provide with their limited resources. So the news that Save The Children has self-censored criticism of the Big 6 energy cartel for fear of jeopardising corporate donations is deeply saddening.
Leaked internal emails show that Save The Children’s corporate donations department scrambled to block press releases from the charity’s policy office warning of the grim implications of energy price rises on child poverty. The following email was sent between Save The Children staff last winter:
Hi both, I have just spoken to EDF about the planned media coverage around energy,affordability.
They expressed some concerns that just one story will provoke a huge attack on them and that this won’t go down with their senior execs who are making decisions about their charity partners. They really want to work with a positive organisation. It looks likely that we are down to the final three for this partnership. I am really conscious that this will need to be handled carefully so as not to jeopardise what could end up being a long-term partnership for Save the Children. Of course – the ideal thing would be that we win the partnership, start working together and create the story off the back of that but I appreciate that doesn’t fit in with your timings.
The “partnership” with EDF had a value of £600,000- just a tiny fraction of Save The Children’s annual income. The NGO’s existing relationship with British Gas is with just one quarter of that. It was once said that evil can only flourish when the good remain silent, and it seems that Save The Children will sell its silence at a very low rate. Meanwhile, families up and down the country slide into fuel poverty as the profits of the energy cartel grow and grow and grow. Is it really worth keeping out of the fight for the sake of a crumb- less than 0.05%- of the cartel’s profits?
But this is not the only case of Save The Children selling its soul to ruthless companies. It’s work with the likes of GlaxoSmithKline, the epitome of heartless Big Pharma, allows Save The Children to distribute some life saving medication to children, which is of course fantastic. However, how vocal is Save The Children about the deaths of the same children’s parents for want of drugs that Big Pharma will only sell at huge profit margins?
Somehow, I think that Save The Children needs to reevaluate what it’s for and who it exists to serve. Why not abandon the pretence of being a charity altogether, and become a glorified public relations firm?
