> But, according to several friends of mine who have done charity work in various African nations, the hardest part is that poverty is so stark and corruption is so entrenched that you can't outsource benevolence. If you want to get money into the hands of a specific individual, you need to go there yourself, do the legwork, and pay them directly. If you pay somebody else to do it, the money evaporates.

This isn't an Africa thing, it's typical third-world grift. What they're saying holds true anywhere, even with immigrant communities in America.

You offer X Solutions $100 to do a job (what a steal!). X pockets $60 and solicits Y Recruitment for $40. Y pockets $30 and hires 10x Z Workers for $1 each. It's middlemen all the way down.