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5 - 12 August 2014
Issue 577
41565
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Afrikaner poverty charity stirs up expats
| A fundraising initiative to address the issues of Afrikaners living in squatter camps has caused controversy, as the real motivation for the initiative may be a greedy scam and not a questionable charity case by sertan sanderson A dubious online campaign is raising suspicion, claiming to raise money for impoverished Afrikaner families in South Africa – with growing evidence that the movement might be a scam. AFRIKANERS IN POVERTY alleges to address poverty-related issues by presenting itself as a charity focusing on the plight of children; its mission statement claims “Children should not have to sleep on the floor, without proper bedding” and that children “should not have to go to bed at night or go to school without food or a lunch pack.” However, not deep beneath the veneer of a charitable organisation the first cracks begin to appear; the description of the group’s goals reveals that it has an intrinsic understanding that it must attract white donors with a chip on their shoulder to care for an issue that is presented as if it only affects white people. Grammatical errors and grievous spelling mistakes, where handouts are “scares” and not “scarce”, add to the growing doubt whether the initiative is truly pursuing legitimate aims. The clumsily composed copy reads, “There is an estimated 800,000 people living in Squatter camps living in conditions not suitable for humans, specially not for growing children” – but forgets to mention that millions of
| RUN SEAN, RUN: South African adventurer Sean Conway, who recently became the first person to swim the length of Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats, is now planning to run from where he ended his swim all the way back down to Land’s End – Forrest Gump style. If he completes this run he will become the first person in history to do a length of Britain triathlon. Read more on page 2
South Africans of all races live in exactly the same conditions. The movement continues to describe how its recently completed fundraiser run, which was promoted throughout various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, intended
to achieve noble aims such as assisting the elderly, promoting health, supporting soup kitchens and assisting victims of crime. But the more you probe into the dealings of the group’s leader, “Jenni”, the less trustworthy does the initiative appear. Her
full name is not revealed on the movement’s website but can only be ascertained by looking into her funding campaigns set up on other platforms, such as youcaring. com as well as various Facebook groups particularly aimed at addressing South African expats.
Using a mix of pictures that seem to originate from disparate locations, and even including some stock footage, Jenni’s credibility fails to gain favours in the photo gallery of her homemade site. Furthermore, her contact form seems to be broken, which erodes further trust in the organisation, and made it impossible to obtain comment from “Afrikaners in Poverty”, due to the malfunctioning contact form. When looking into the charity status of “Afrikaners in Poverty” it is revealed that the group is not incorporated in SA and receives its donations in US dollars via a PayPal account, making it highly suspicious and raising the biggest red flag of all. PayPal transactions can be made without clarifying charity status, and though the financial service prides itself in transparency, only a small number of its users ever enquire about the background information of people they trade with. When challenged in the comment section on youcaring.com about certain inconsistencies observed on her website, such as the fact that the children in her photographs don’t look undernourished but are presented as neat and clean, Jenni Leone Meintjies rushes in (with her full name) to defend her cause by saying that poverty doesn’t have to look dirty.
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