Bringing a random* foreign person to Ireland

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Hi guys,

I've been on this forum a long time and know the way After Hours works, but if you can just have a read of the below and offer some (hopefully) constructive feedback that'd be fantastic!

Last month I was told that my job is "At Risk" in work and that, barring a miracle, I'll be out of the job in August. I haven't started looking for jobs yet, as I'm thinking of doing some charity work for a few months before I go back into gainful employment.

One idea that had crossed my mind recently was organising some sort of a charity drive to raise money (a small donation each from a lot of people) to bring a foreign person to Ireland for a week or so. Now obviously, these days, a good chunk of peoples interaction is through Facebook, so this seemed like a logical place to start.

My idea then gathered a bit of pace, and is currently thus:

• I create a group on Facebook and get as many people to join as possible. Sounds like a novel idea, I know, but hear me out...
• Everyone who joins the group commits to donate to the cause. €2 was the donation mentioned, but anything would of course be welcomed.
• Once the group had a significant presence (I'm thinking close to 1000 for this to work), we randomly* pick a person on Facebook from an "underdeveloped" country, and everyone on the page adds that person as a friend all at once. I am conscious here that I might sound condescending or bordering on racist, but what I want from this is to give somebody who would normally not have much of a chance to travel, the chance to visit our country. Inviting somebody well-travelled and wealthy wouldn't feel the same
• The next time that person logs in to Facebook, they have 1000 friend requests from Irish people, with messages explaining how they have been picked, the concept, a link to the group etc... If that person chooses not to accept the requests, we move on to another person until we get our "visitor"
• We begin to get to know the person and their life, culture etc... and begin to arrange flights for them to come over to Dublin for a holiday. I'm going to try and organise sponsorship if we can get this far, to provide accommodation.
• Once the flights are booked, we begin to arrange things for our guest to experience. Places to see, foods to eat, people to meet and so on.
• When our visitor touches down, we get as many people as we can to meet them over the course of their trip, to show the "Céad míle fáilte" we are famous for.

* - Really don't like using the word "random" but can't think of a more appropriate word, I'm afraid. How the person will be picked isn't yet decided.

I appreciate that this idea might not be to everyone's liking, but I'm trying to do something positive for one person in the world and to show what Irish people are capable of doing when we put our minds to it. €2 isn't a lot of money to the majority of people in this country, and I'm sure a lot of people would gladly spare it to give somebody the trip of a lifetime.

If anyone would like to join the group, the link is below. If you aren't on Facebook maybe just reply in this thread, and we can arrange something on Boards. Apologies to moderators if this isn't appropriate or if it should be in another forum.

http://www.spam.com

Thanks for reading,
Mark

<Runs for cover>