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Answer by Laishram2
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Hi Yanay & everybody,

My name is Vikram Laishram an ex- illicit injecting drug users living with HIV for the past 24 years. When it comes to "suffering" I had studied a "lived experience" to suffering through my personal experience as a peer educator in different capacities from grassroot to international level.

I am the founder of The Existence, a non profit based in the eastern most state of India, a community of young adults who are desirous of bringing a natural solutions to all human challenges on this earth for peaceful existence.

Our working principles "Experience is the supreme value in Life" with rigourous refinement it is transmitted into "workable" knowledge to share among fellow companions to endure the sufferings. We defy conventional "treatment models" which does not include "the experience" of the sufferers in designing or in implementation of a program. We seek to unleash the "human potential" without dependence from the "outside" clearing our way away from disagreement.

If anyone here is further interested to continue the conversation on "suffering " on experience basis rather than the "ideas"generated through visions from empathy or academic practice. Please feel free writing in this EA space.

Thank you all for your time.

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Yanay
First of all, I'm really sorry to hear about your condition. Regarding your association: it sounds interesting, but I didn't fully understand - is it mental and social support for people who are dealing with serious illnesses, or does the organization claim to treat illnesses instead of medical treatments? What exactly does the organization do?
Laishram1
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Hi Yanay,

Our organization The Existence has a project called Existence Drug Dependence Resorts where current young drug users are enrolled as companions for a residential drug treatment program lasting Six months in duration, where the physical and mental state is carefully crafted to return to the nature by living together and working for Nature.

The first phase: Our companions once admitted to our facilities, he has to first undergo a drug detoxification under clinical setting with medical treatments provided by a doctor. Usually, it is to minimize the pa... (read more)

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by Yanay
1 min read7 answers 0

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Effective givingPhilosophyDonation choicePain and sufferingSuffering-focused ethics
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Hi everyone! 

I’m looking for effective associations to donate to – in the field of reducing suffering, more then saving lives. 

The problem that particularly bothers me is extremely suffering in the world, so I aim to focus on solutions to this problem. Unfortunately, EA's rating for the various associations didn't really help me because is focus mainly on saving lives. 

I know associations that deal with animal welfare, But I would love to get to know a variety of associations that approach the problem of suffering from different directions. I also know associations that deal with NTD, but I couldn’t understand if their bottleneck right now is money.

Do someone know an effective and reliable association that focuses on reducing suffering in the world?

Thank you very much in advance!

PS: I'm new to the forum, and I was promised that my first posts would be cringe (what's more, my English isn't very good), so please be nice ;)

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Peter

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Center for Reducing Suffering researches ways to best reduce suffering. 

StrongMinds focuses on providing mental health services to women in Africa - particularly treating depression. 

I'm sure there are many others. I'll add them if I think of them. Might be good to have a master list of suffering and/or s-risk focused groups. 

Chi9
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Center on Long-Term Risk (my employer) focuses on reducing s-risk (risks of astronomical suffering.)

(And AFAIK coined the term (long before my times though))

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Yanay1
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Thank you very much! I will read about these organizations

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Michael Huang

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"Invincible Wellbeing is a research organisation whose mission is to promote research targeting the biological substrates of suffering."

Appears on the 80,000 Hours Job Board

Yanay1
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Thank you, I will read about it

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seanrson

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In addition to (farmed and wild) animal organizations, OPIS is worth checking out.

NunoSempere3
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+1; also a fan of OPIS.

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Yanay1
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Thank you very much! 

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seanrson

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Here's a list of organizations focusing on the quality of the long-term future (including the level of suffering), from this post:
 

If you are persuaded by the arguments that the expected value of human expansion is not highly positive or that we should prioritize the quality of the long-term future, promising approaches include research, field-building, and community-building, such as at the Center on Long-Term Risk, Center for Reducing Suffering, Future of Humanity Institute, Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, Legal Priorities Project, and Open Philanthropy, and Sentience Institute, as well as working at other AI safety and EA organizations with an eye towards ensuring that, if we survive, the universe is better for it. Some of this work has substantial room for more funding, and related jobs can be found at these organizations’ websites and on the 80,000 Hours job board.

Yanay1
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Thank you. Indeed, I read about S-risks, and their treatment is important but very unpredictable (so much so, that some efforts to prevent long-term suffering can actually produce it). Until I make up my mind on the matter and direct my actions - both my contribution and my career - to the prevention of long-term suffering, in the meantime I am looking for more modest but safer options to prevent the suffering that exists at this moment

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Michael Huang

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For community building, there's the International Suffering Abolitionists group. It hosts meetups, a Discord server and a section of EA Gather Town.

Yanay1
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Thank you, I will read about them

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Cornelis Dirk Haupt

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Aren't global health charities like SCI and GiveDirectly slam-dunk answers? I switched to donating to them more than the AMF precisely because they seem to rank better as suffering alleviation rather than just saving lives.

As for whether NTD charities are funding constrained, I think obviously yes? GiveWell, as an example, put the SCI's room for more funding at a whopping $85 million last year. By contrast consider how everyone's favourite anti-malarial charity AMF has a funding gap of around $33 million. So in my head the SCI clearly has huge capacity to alleviate a ton of horrific suffering... They just lack the funds. This also isn't even considering all the other deworming charities. Last I checked the SCI has the most room for more funding out of all of the GiveWell recommended deworming charities (when deworming was still recommended that is) which is why I aggressively donate to the SCI.

Yanay1
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Thank you! I will read again about the NTD organizations and their room for more funding.

What made it difficult for me to understand was when I read about the Gates Foundation's investment in organizations like Gavi and Sightsavers, and I got the feeling that my personal contribution to such causes would be imperceptible compared to the contribution of Gates (and other big donors).

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Laishram

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Hi Yanay & everybody,

My name is Vikram Laishram an ex- illicit injecting drug users living with HIV for the past 24 years. When it comes to "suffering" I had studied a "lived experience" to suffering through my personal experience as a peer educator in different capacities from grassroot to international level.

I am the founder of The Existence, a non profit based in the eastern most state of India, a community of young adults who are desirous of bringing a natural solutions to all human challenges on this earth for peaceful existence.

Our working principles "Experience is the supreme value in Life" with rigourous refinement it is transmitted into "workable" knowledge to share among fellow companions to endure the sufferings. We defy conventional "treatment models" which does not include "the experience" of the sufferers in designing or in implementation of a program. We seek to unleash the "human potential" without dependence from the "outside" clearing our way away from disagreement.

If anyone here is further interested to continue the conversation on "suffering " on experience basis rather than the "ideas"generated through visions from empathy or academic practice. Please feel free writing in this EA space.

Thank you all for your time.

Yanay1
0
0

First of all, I'm really sorry to hear about your condition.

Regarding your association: it sounds interesting, but I didn't fully understand - is it mental and social support for people who are dealing with serious illnesses, or does the organization claim to treat illnesses instead of medical treatments? What exactly does the organization do?

Reply
1
Laishram
Hi Yanay, Our organization The Existence has a project called Existence Drug Dependence Resorts where current young drug users are enrolled as companions for a residential drug treatment program lasting Six months in duration, where the physical and mental state is carefully crafted to return to the nature by living together and working for Nature. The first phase: Our companions once admitted to our facilities, he has to first undergo a drug detoxification under clinical setting with medical treatments provided by a doctor. Usually, it is to minimize the pain and substitute with other "soft medications" to calm the turbulence or the sufferings. Atleast 5 to 10 days. The Second phase: Our companions are introduced to a regular routine to correspondent the theoretical class on Nature and conduct various therapeutic programs Mundane to Sacred program: Our companions work together to repair, rebuild waste land into beautiful gardens which has resonance with our own life. Nature Expedition Program: Bodily nearness to Nature, we hold regular outdoors meeting in natures abundance and get " high" from Nature. The Invisible Surgery: 2 hrs in the morning and 2hrs in the evening a session where all of our syllabus pertaining to Nature are shared broadly by our volunteers where we deconditioned ideas of "being sick" which only cripples the lives of many, but to unleash infinite human potential each one of us carries. Observation of International Day of Peace on 21st September as a the only function we have throughout the year. The Third phase: All of our our seniors or who had spent substantial time in our community is referred as volunteers and provide services to the new companion as a rotational figure. Our work is centred around inter-dependence and follows the drug dependence theory which we had developed over years of exposure to our lived experience. If you are interested we can share our "work" which can clearly reflect our program and our approach to sufferin
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