After my charity rant a couple of weeks back, I was again in the supermarket today, and again some charity parents and children offered to pack for me.
I was in a far less grouchy mood, so this time I graciously agreed to packing assistance (thinking of you, Miss Eagle!). The father packed my shopping away (far better than I would do myself) while I asked the teenage daughter about the charity they were collecting for.
She knew her stuff and really cared. She told me about Advantage Africa, and their work supporting people in Africa, mostly Uganda and Kenya, to overcome obstacles such as the stigma surrounding people with disabilities and HIV.
What struck me most about their story was that the charity was started five years ago by two people with a £10 ($20) donation. In those five years, they have raised nearly half a million pounds and their projects have reached over 20,000 people.
It gave me hope. Individuals like you and me really can make a difference.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
so, tess, you “graciously agreed to packing assistance”, but i am dying to know…did you make a contribution or say “thank you very much” and walk away with your new found information?
just kidding.
it really is amazing how small steps and starts can make a difference. thank you for sharing this with us and i love seeing the shift from rant to grace. (i am very familiar with the tug between those two polarities
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I’ll have you know, Miss Lucy, that I gave them all the change I had on me!!!
Two people with a $20 donation. So often we hear of individuals setting up their own foundations – which is great but sometimes one wonders – but this speaks of individuals lower down the food chain who wanted to do something and others followed. This, to me, is what it should be all about – and I am gobsmacked when I hear of it because I feel ashamed and wish I could be like that.
Blessings and bliss
Thank you Miss Eagle (and for your ‘zeal’ comment as well).
Yes, I often think that wealthy individuals setting up foundations have more than one motive in mind. But then I guess they can’t win – damned if they do and criticised if they don’t!
It’s amazing how we as individuals really can make a difference. It may seem like a drop in the ocean, but the ripples from that drop can spread a very long way indeed!
Thanks Andy. Yes, all those drops, streams and rivers merging together!