What do I mean? I mean, would you turn your back on somebody in need?
Here in the UK and countries like it we are very fortunate. We have healthcare, we have emergency services, we have a welfare system for those who need genuinely it (and unfortunately, with the way it works, for those who simply opt for it as a lifestyle choice). No matter what we may say about them, even the politicians could be worse. We really do have it good here, and most of the time we don’t recognise it. We might be feeling the pinch of the recession but most of us don’t know what real poverty and hardship is.
Many times over I hear the more fortunate complaining about why they should help others in need. Why should we send funds when our own country is in such financial turmoil? Has nobody heard about the global money issues? Look around though. We still have a roof over our heads, some food in our cupboards, and we can make ends meet somehow. We just tend not to like compromising on our luxuries most of the time. We don’t know we’re born.
There is a crisis in East Africa at the moment, where they are experiencing the worst droughts in sixty years. Crops have failed and so the food prices have risen steeply. Thousands of families are at risk of malnutrition and starvation. Their animals are dying. They cannot earn money to support themselves and cannot feed their children. The situation is very, very bad.
Even those of us struggling the most here can find a way to send pennies for a bottle of water. One bottle of water will make a big difference to someone in Africa. Their gratitude for it would overwhelm us yet we don’t think twice at letting the equivalent slip down the drain when we brush our teeth.
They need help and they need it fast.
“I don’t trust charities” people say.
Here are two you can trust implicitly. Compassion and World Vision.
We sponsor one child through each of these charities and they do an amazing job. We sponsor Hilario in Honduras through World Vision. Our Compassion sponsored child lives in Uganda, one of the affected areas. It is her birthday next week and I’m wondering if she’s healthy and strong enough to make it. Thousands aren’t. I’m hoping that the £21 a month it costs us to sponsor her is enough to be making a difference not only to Doreen but to her family as a whole. I know we make a difference because she tells me. Her gratitude shines through her words. She is so thankful for the meal a day, for the opportunity to learn and for the medical attention she now receives that she never did before. We make that much of a difference to her life and not having that £21 makes no difference at all to ours. It leaves our account on the first of the month and we don’t know it wasn’t there in the first place.
Now is the time to help someone in crisis. Please don’t turn your back.
You can sponsor through Compassion UK here or once there you can click through to any of their other country sites. You can do the same thing by sponsoring a child through World Vision here.
If you don’t want to commit to sponsoring a child right now you can still help by donating whatever you can to their appeals.
Even if it’s only enough for a single bottle of water.
