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Yes, of course. Do bear in mind though that some people walk from home and either walk back or get a bus. Not all Pilgrims are from another continent.If people can afford to travel to a Camino it's the least they can do to pay their way.
Donativo always raises the question "how much is fair?" I wish they would simply name a price, and take away the indecision factor. It would be easier. We know its 5 euro min at an Albergue and 10 euro for a pilgrim menu, and say 5 euro for breakfast. So anything less than 20 euro is not equivalent, unless you have an incapacity to pay, and 20 euro is still dirt cheap to pay for bed, breakfast and dinner. 95% of people could surely afford that. Comes back IMO to people looking for a cheap holiday by taking advantage of other peoples kindness vs embracing the Camino values of pilgrimage (and fairness).
If people can afford to travel to a Camino it's the least they can do to pay their way.
In a way agree with @Barbara. Perhaps it took years to save just to get the transportation\travel cost covered and maybe a very sparse meals.Yes, of course. Do bear in mind though that some people walk from home and either walk back or get a bus. Not all Pilgrims are from another continent.
There are many kinds of "donativos." When you find yourself well-off compared to your companions, it's good to keep a sharp eye out for the student who's eating patatas bravas while his friends order the pilgrim menu, or the man who is wearing taped-together sneakers and bluejeans instead of PolarTec UltraMax clothing and eating the macaroni left behind in the albergue cupboards. These are the people really in need.
When they go to the shower, slip a 20- or even a 50-euro note in the top of their backpack. Don't say anything. Don't tell anybody.
What some of us easily spend on a nice dinner can keep another person going for days.
I don't think she means they should, they just have to because that is what they get.Why?
I don't think she means they should, they just have to because that is what they get.
Sorry to be obtuse, thanks for taking the time and trouble to figure it out. I can speak from a little authority having volunteered in a couple of donativos and stayed in and talked to hospis of a lot more. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is a lot more complex than most people think. We never turned anyone away, no donativo should, and I don't think any would (unless they were privately run and I have seen one do it). There are people who don't give what they should but there were as many if not more who make up by giving extra. I do remember one lad who cheerfully admitted to having no money. Next morning, he dug a 10 cent coin out of his pocket, told it was all the money he had and promptly put it in the box. We politely informed him that if that was all he had, he was giving more than most. However, the system is often abused so I don't know if it can survive.I had to read back through the thread to see what the 'Why' referred to.
I agree, they shouldn't have to. But may need to, to show compassion to those with a genuine need.
That's a whole other topic of course.......
Scams may occur but I generally don't worry about them when giving because they don't harm me.Theatregal,
I too firmly believe one must act towards others with trust and mutual assistance
“as ye would that men should do to you”.
Unfortunately scams do occur.
I, may have been scammed on the Camino during late February 2006 in what I later called The Snow Job. It all began late one stormy night in the Villafranca Montes de Oca municipal albergue and lasted for several weeks!! You can read about it here
.....In retrospect I still do not want to believe that I was milked for money in a real snow job! Hopefully all was not just a ruse and I had not been duped.
At least what I gave then was given
in the Camino spirit.
Absolutely. I think we can rest assured that anybody on this forum is going to do the right thing. We have worked in a couple of donativos. In the first, the parish representative would carefully count out the money in the donativo box, divide it by the number of pilgrims who'd stayed (both with our help - he was a great churchwarden but not the world's best mathematician) to calculate the average donation. It worked out to around what they would have paid for a dorm and breakfast at a different kind of establishment. However, we spoke to people who'd run other donativos and some of the stories were quite shocking. It seems worst on the Norte, where a lot of European back-packers have latched onto the idea of getting a Credencial and using it to get a cheap beach holiday. The donativo albergue on the outskirts of Bilbao would receive an average of 2 euros per pilgrim per night; the owner of one private donativo on the historic route that bypasses Ribadeo told us some pilgrims left 2 euros even after he had given them a full evening meal.Scams may occur but I generally don't worry about them when giving because they don't harm me.
I give what I want to give. If I give to someone who is genuinely needy or if I give to a scam artist, I am out the same amount of money. I lose no more money giving to a scam artist than if the person is genuine. Likewise, the good feeling of being charitable is the same - in either case I am giving from myself to make someone else's lot better.
A formal payment albergue has to pay government and local taxes, a donation based albergue pays no tax on any profits.That's what I have been wondering... how does the donativo vs formal payement get treated fiscally?
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