Thatta Kedona

Even if generally and in the meanwhile the term NGO has degraded into Sham-NGO, an effort is made to describe the most important functions of such an entity.

Contrary to a GO (Government Organization) and a Firm (prive or public limited company, etc.) the offices of management in an NGO are honorary positions, i.e. the president, treasurer etc. do not receive any remuneration for their work. The members of the NGO are not salaried employees, rather they work according to their own possibilities and necessities of the NGO, because contrary to the above mentioned entities, the NGO posesses neither the annual budget nor can it operate in a perspective.

An NGO should not be the extended arm of a political, religious, scientific or any other entity, thereby appearing as an institution, which is intended to be an income generating measure for its workers, because -as mentioned above-, there should supposedly be no employees in the NGO.

If this description appears to be unreal, then only because the NGO in the meanwhile is seen as a milkable cow, which is to be milked until it dries out. An NGO should also not function as a charity organization, which gives financial or material aid without the receiving party contributing anything in return. And there is also no back door (see above); - which would enable influence through the purchase of shares !

Also the tasks should be defined in such a way that, that new problem factors are not created through the work of the NGO. This means that the organization of the NGO should be horizontal in nature and it should consider its surrounding environment.

In order to achieve a certain level of independence, it is important for an NGO in urban as well as rural areas to collect and concentrate the forces at its disposal. This is infact the basic idea of an NGO - to convert an idea into reality. Administering with charity in the foreground would actually mean that instead of being strengthened, the forces are actually being weakened through the acts of charity. International charity organizations do this for the sole purpose, because they are themselves income generating measures, - Providing help as profession is as reprehensible as providing help for image reasons !

These limitations, which reflect on how an NGO should actually be, again give rise to the question, whether there exists any institution at all, which fulfills all the classical requirements. The simple answer is: yes and one may point to AFA project in the TGD village, which is working on these principles since 1992.