Page 258 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

village needed for a year until the aid agencies reached it. We devised
a plan that trained one person to use a computer who then made a
register of every woman and child who was left. Next we devised a
budget for each of them – not enough for luxuries but enough for
food, for electricity, clothes and transport. It was important to me
that the allowance enabled them to live with dignity. I didn’t want
them to have to sell any of their possessions or to beg, but to be able
to live well enough that they could start rebuilding their lives.
Yusuf had funded a similar project in a nearby village and had
some contacts on the ground who could help administer the
programme and distribute the funds. Each month, every person in
the village could collect their money and sign to acknowledge that
they had received it. If they needed extra funds to build a store for
food or repair their tractor, then I was sent photographs of the
problem and I released additional funds. There were as many as
500 kids in that village and fewer than 100 adults, and funding
them for a year was a significant financial commitment, but I was
learning that there was nothing better I could spend my money on.
I was wealthy, sure, but I wasn’t Warren Buffett. I didn’t have a
bottomless pit, but I believe if you’re in a position to help and you
choose not to, well, I would have found it pretty hard to have lived
with myself.
The stories I heard on that three-day trip have never left me, but
it’s often the smallest things that really stay in your mind. We had
spent most of the day inside the villagers’ houses, and at around
6 p.m. it was time to make our way to the town where we were
staying. When we left the last house I couldn’t believe my eyes
when I opened the door: it was pitch-black. I have lived in London
most of my life, where there’s always a street light on or a house
light or a car headlight. I couldn’t get my head round how dark it
was. I really couldn’t see anything: no moon, no stars, no lights in
any of the windows because there wasn’t any electricity. Every-
thing was black. No one could work without light, there was no

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