If by some miracle you have missed out on the so called 'Ice Bucket Challenge' then you're one of the lucky ones. Tens of thousands of videos have been appearing all over my social media pages, and to be honest it's getting a bit tiring. The actual point of this 'challenge', apart from not being very productive, is to raise awareness for ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), or Lou Gehrig's Disease as it is more commonly known. The theory is that once a person has experienced what a person with ALS has to suffer with on a daily basis, then they will donate money to charity, although that part seems to have got left behind on most of videos I've seen, as has the ice part, it's now just a bucket of water. I guess the challenge part is just making the ice.
Now before I start I will acknowledge that this campaign has succeeded in its goal to promote the victims of ALS, many people I know didn't have a clue about it before this campaign, and I only really know about it through famous physicist Steven Hawking. This awareness has led to a huge increase in donations in the last month, which is thought to be over 42 million dollars, which is what they where previously getting in a year. This is a great achievement and I really hope it does finally eradicate this horrible condition that thankfully only affects a very few people. But my question is will that actually make a difference? The cold, hard truth is that ALS has been known since 1939, and in that time hundreds of millions of dollars have been donated for the sole advancement of a drug that prolongs the life of a patient by a few months. Surely it would be more sustainable to give moeny to charities that are constantly making breakthroughs, I can't help but feel my money would go to waste if I donate to ALS.
To this day I have not given a single penny to ALS. I will willingly give my time and money to other charities where I can see what happens to my funding. But with ALS I just get the sense that this will be wasted on things like awareness campaigns, and hell if billions of dollars can't cure it then why will my 10 quid? I just get the sense that this is going to end up like that campaign to end the life of African warlord Joseph Kony in 2012, that with its massive funding has done absolutely nothing. I would also rather give money to a charity that deals with a more major threat, such as Malaria. ALS only affects 2 in 100,000 Americans, whereas pandemics such as Malaria can harm billions. I know if I give money to aiding Malaria victims it will be spent on a sustainable method of a mosquito net or something similar, whereas funding drug related cures is not sustainable. I have a diagram below that really illustrates my point, and shows that donations are based on social trends, not the severity of the ailment:
What's more, this 'Ice Bucket Challenge' is now viral, which means the message is starting to be lost, and like these 'Movember' type schemes it just ends up feeding people's egos at the expense of another individuals suffering. The majority of videos I watch don't even specify that they're for charity, or even give a link on how to donate, they just seem to do it for their own vanity, so they can finally be accepted by their pitiful friends. There are many other ways to give to charity, if you want to do this by tipping a bucket of mildly cold water over your head then be my guest, but please don't pressure people into doing this poxy tradition. It may come as a surprise but you can be charitable without being a complete tit, especially if you're doing it for your own benefit which totally misses the point.
Now I'm not trying to convey that giving money to charity is wrong, in fact I would encourage you to give generously, but I feel this social fad is blocking the funds of much more deserving charities, local charities that genuinely need financial help to aid the community. Raising awareness can only get you so far, and my chart above proves that people don't donate out of sympathy, but because it's socially acceptable to do so. In short why not give your money to save a life, instead of exploiting one.
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