Fantastic trip in Uganda

"Don’t forget to allocate a % of your spending money to buy balloons, sweets and school furniture to distribute to the children that you will meet along the way; you will put big smiles on their faces."

This is the worst advice I've seen all week---and it's been a bad week. The OP may be spamming or not, but this part is pathetic.

Mark

....... a bad idea waltzing around distributing "goodies" to kids and not just in Africa. A dangerous habit to develop in children. For tourists following you there's an expectation of more goodies, and these tourists may be behaving correctly not following your bad idea.

Totally agree with above posters about the goodies. Saw this in Nepal on the way. Kids were asking for sweets and balloons, just crazy. They get spoiled by tourists giving all sorts of presents. Just DON'T DO IT !!!
The next thing they're asking for are I-pads and cellphones.

sorry but I have to disagree with the above comments, if making kids happy by giving them 2-3 sweets or a few balloons is wrong, them maybe we should apply this to our society where our kids are spoiled rotten, and cannot go to a shop without starting a tantrum asking for sweets and toys. Yes it can be an inconvenience when children stop you asking for something, and so what, are these kids not allowed to a bit of happiness? What better ideas have you? I think that "i am the tourist, i don't want to be disturbed by the locals" is a wrong approach, but these are my views.

First of all I don't think you make kids happy when you give them sweets. That counts for every part of the world.
If you really want to give something that enhances the community, give it to a school or something. My experience on long treks in Nepal was that all the kids ask for sweets and/or balloons. Therefore, many people (have) give(n) balloons and sweets to children during their treks. I cannot see the importance of this.
Secondly, we (western world) are spoiled to death with all our gadgets and stuff. even 6 year old kids have cellphones. I'm not giving sweets/pens/balloons to kids here, so why should I do it in an other country?
And I always interact with local people, asking about their life and country. That's a main reason to visit other countries for me. But why should I give something everytime I interact with local people. I've seen many tourists giving pens, sweets, etc like they were Santa Claus. But I have to say the kids are encouraged by the elders to go begging with the westerners (seen this clearly on my travels).

.... what happens ..... when children stop you to ask for something what happens then if you have nothing to give...... remember children grow up eventually, and have formed a habit of getting free stuff from tourists, as grown-ups maybe a pen or a sweet won't cut, they'll have different needs.

A recent post from a tourist to Ethiopia reported on disappointed "grown-up kids" throwing stones because the visitors had nothing to hand-over.

Anything you wish to give a child should be passed to the Parent first, an example, a child with an allergy or diabetics, you hand the child some rubbish that could cause them to be sick, will you feel good then.

If these posts seem to be a gang up on you, its not intended as such, this issue is serious, its not to be measured in the value of a few sweets, its much more than that and I hope on reflection you see it.

Thanks for you post and response, you have raised unintentionally an issue lots of readers and posters here feel strongly about.

I think the OP needs to take a step back and think about this a bit. I understand how tempting it is to want to put a smile on a child's face but, to add on to what's already been said, I'd also like to pose a question: do YOUR children take sweets from strangers? It's actually a cliche, isn't it, this admonition about taking things from people you don't know. And yet tourists blithely do it all over Africa when they know they wouldn't dare do it at home.

Apart from setting a poor precedent for all the tourists that follow, it's just not a smart thing to do. I've watched a culture of "begging" taking root in several tourist areas and it's appalling. To get truly cynical, who's looking forward to a "you poisoned my child" scam?

#8 - you have summarised the situation perfectly! If you do not do it at home why should it become the "norm" here in East Africa.

I do a bit of volunteer teaching and in this situation I "do" hand out pens and pencils - but more as a reward for good performance - not to make me feel good. If you are travelling to East Africa and would to "help" then making donations such as books, writing materials directly to schools is possibly a more effective method of helping out.