Corruption

Coming from Canada, it's so difficult to wrap your mind around the way things work in a country that is rampant with corruption. For example, the volunteering visa fee was just raised to $500. My thinking was that this would just deter volunteers from coming to Tanzania to help out. To my surprise, it turns out that many of the larger international volunteer organizations are not affected by this change. This is because many of them collect money from volunteers (not the full amount) and split this- giving some to immigration officials and keeping the rest. The immigration officials then issue fake visas, and everyone is happy. I was shocked to learn this, and realize that it is the smaller organizations who try to do everything legally (in this situation by paying all required fees in full) that get the worst end of the deal. It is also very difficult to get anything done if you are not paying bribes. Luckily, Give a Heart to Africa has an honest person from immigration sitting on their board who makes sure that everything goes through without any problems. They refuse to pay any bribes and make sure that every is done the right way, even if it costs a lot more. It is very disappointing to find out that some of the most visible international organizations operate dishonestly!