Two weeks left for PROJECT-E’s crowdfunding campaign
They are often rather hackneyed, making the eyes of some roll and yet softening the hearts of others: the catchphrases that remind us of what the Christmas season originally stands for. Spending time with friends and family, coming down, doing good, giving back, being generous. Whether Christmas is celebrated for religious reasons or not, the expressions are often present in some way, but actually living them out is another matter.
This year, PROJECT-E is using the betterplace.org donation platform for its crowdfunding campaign on the theme of “giving”. In a total of six weeks, PROJECT-E aims to collect 6000 Euros for the PROJECT-E Hospitality Institute (PEHI) to finance the education of 100 female students every year. The basic idea: all people can give and donate; with the campaign PROJECT-E therefore calls on you and its own team to think about ways to be generous. And maybe even donate to PEHI and its female students in the two weeks during that the campaign will still be online.
If you think about what giving means, you may find that in some situations it can make not only the person receiving the gift happy. So donate to feel better? It is important to PROJECT-E that giving is not done for self-serving motives. Colonial thought patterns paint images of the white saviour, presenting people of the so-called global north as saviours of People of colour. However, white people in particular should not donate or help because they consider themselves and their society superior and it makes them feel good to let people from the so-called global south benefit from their supposed superiority. They should donate if they want to support a specific project – because they really care about the people who are part of the project and because they agree with the contents of the project.
This realisation can also result from the process of thinking about giving, which PROJECT-E wants to initiate with its fundraising campaign. PROJECT-E wants to motivate people to do good – and to answer some questions: why do I give? What does it mean to me and the person I am giving to? The volunteers and permanent staff at PROJECT-E also ask themselves these questions and invite you to use the Christmas campaign to exchange ideas.
