It was with some alarm and disbelief I read an article in the papers about the squandering of aid by the British government.

According to The Times, aid "consultants" are often earning up to £120,000 a year including perks.  

Individual staff in the poorest parts of Asia and Africa earn unto £1000 per day simply for spending UK's aid budget.

Why is this happening?

UK has a commitment to spend a certain proportion of its GDP on international aid.

As this has risen, the budget has increased which has led to a spending frenzy.  It is a lucrative business for aid consultancy firms.

Move over bankers, charity now has its own share of fat cats.

It is sickening to imagine money sincerely donated for starving villagers, children's education, earthquake victims, innocent victims of war going towards the champagne quaffing lifestyle of a consultant.

Where does that leave us?

It was with respect and comfort I observed the integrity and refreshing antidote of One Kind Act.  

All administration costs are covered by the trustees.  All services and time are given voluntarily.  

Minimal costs aside, almost all of the money donated reaches that hungry four year old African child who has walked five miles for his only meal of the day, that isolated disabled woman in need of a wheelchair, the earnest orphanages carving out a future for  the children no one else wants, the albino child with a witch doctor's £15,000 reward on her head

There are no fat cats, no consultants, no expensive meetings with "blue sky thinking".

Instead there is an intention to find those that have fallen through the net of these larger charity organisations: the bewildered, the lost, the despairing, the destitute.

OKA aims not simply to give a hand-out but a hand-up. It gives opportunity and hope for a future that is dignified - a basic right all humans should have.