Ben Affleck is taking a fourth visit to the Congo to help raise awareness about the human rights issues in the country. Over 250,000 people have been displaced and about 5 million killed in war. Affleck has created a documentary to bring attention to this cause. You can read an essay about his experience in the Congo here.
Gather wants to knowÂ…
Have you ever first learned about a cause through a celebrity's work? Do you care more about a cause when a celebrity discusses it? Do you think celebrities have more power than the average person to convince others to learn more and help organizations that support these causes?
Do you want to learn more about the Congo? Connect to Women for Women International to read their content on the Congo, here on Gather.
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Comments: 37
I've been interested in Congo issues, but celeb interference is going to send me the other way.
Celebrity endorsement of anything, especially charities, tends to set off my BS radar! And worse, charities with big ad budgets tend to have high front end expenses, over-pay their executives, and ultimately very little of what is donated ever reaches the advertised target for the aid. Because of fraud, embezzlement, excessive executive salaries, and other misdeeds I crossed even the United Way off my list. A true charity should not be lavishing huge salaries, expense accounts, and benefits on their CEOs and other executive members. I look for charities that have low overheads and get the greatest amount of their revenues to who or what they targeted for help. I give directly to those charities to lessen the chance of funds being diverted.
I couldn't agree with that statement more!
"i support the causes i support b/c they are causes that i believe in, if a celeb supports them as well . . . great! but i'm not going to base my opinions upon what they are doing . . ."
I also find with unemployment reaching stunning propportions the need to go offshore for 'causes' a bit suspect. Yes these things are horrible but there are plenty of malnourished folks in the USA too... we just don't find the need to 'tribe up' and kill each other with machetes. (Usually...)
I'm a cynic though :)
Do you care more about a cause when a celebrity discusses it? - No. In fact, I do just the opposite. For some reason, it seems the "cause celebre" always involves foreign countries, rather than help at home where it should be.
Do you think celebrities have more power than the average person to convince others to learn more and help organizations that support these causes? - Yes. They get more air time and have much deeper pockets to pay for that air time and any other facets to getting the word out.