Missed opportunities? Or is there still time to change?

Kersi Rustomji has outlined how informal or voluntary 'triggers' in the Wahindi leadership has resulted in the provision of some informal charitable giving. There are many successful beneficiaries and this form of support is best seen as an example of successful intervention in 'the donors supply chain'. An informal group or a religious organisation may adopt a given cause and continue to support it with intermittent funding, whilst still noting the qualifications that Kersi makes about lack of trust on the part of the donors and the possible failure on the part of Wahindi leaders to forge alliances with the needy communities.

There is little evidence of a structured and formal approach to charitable functioning even in a country like the UK where funding mechanism is fed by proceeds from the National Lottery and significant funding is 'on offer' where applicants can meet attainable criteria. Wahindi leadership has tended to invest their own and community funds in faith based infrastructure, a necessary and logical need in the early stages of migration. However, there is anecdotal evidence that there is excess capacity in religious buildings and associated provision such as language and religious schools in some faiths, in many towns and cities. In other cases, the motivation of splinter groups and disaffected leaders who have failed to work within shared frameworks is still leading to new investment, most of which is likely to add to the existing surpluses.

What East African Asians need to address with more vigour is to apply their collective energy to deal with mainstream issues - alcohol abuse, family planning, mental health, relationship and bereavement counselling for example. In these cases the beneficiaries are likely to be their own members but more significantly, mainstream communities as well. In practice, experience and observation suggests that the reverse tends to apply. Mainstream health charities - heart, lung, mental health and counselling for example are trying to create provision for South Asian communities by dealing with lay Wahindi leadership which may be failing to come to grips with the issues. In some cases the response is denial - teenage pregnancy does not 'happen in our community' or in others, the responsibility for rehabilitation of offenders lies with the state and local government networks. What the lay leadership needs to create is a framework for Asian professionals - doctors, social workers, dietitians to leverage more funds by using community resources to attract Lottery money.

Wahindi leaders may want to take the first step towards addressing their collective social responsibility by first building compacts within their own communities. They need to win the support of the professional and mostly younger members who bring expertise to the table and may also seek control in order to ensure quality. My personal experience suggests that Wahindi leaders connected with the migrations from the 1960s to 1970s tend to prefer control at the expense of delivery, leaving the younger and more professional drivers of change and delivery highly demotivated and feeling sidelined. However, many of them are now starting to work with mainstream charities and it is hoped that they will be able to secure trust from their own leaders in the future.