Your Donations and Poverty
A couple of months ago I wrote about a lady called Karly whom I met in Sri Lanka. Karly needed to build a bathroom so she could bathe her disabled daughter Themi in privacy. Karly cannot work full time as she has to spend her day caring for Themi. After the blog post went out I was absolutely delighted at the pace of response from family and friends who all wanted to help.Within a month the generous donations had flown in and £400 was electronically sent to Eagle House to pass to Karly. It was a special moment calling Karly and Edi to bring good news and they were both really happy (Karly had no idea the fundraising was happening).Eddi sent me this note by email that Karly had written so I wanted to share it with you all as without you guys I couldn't have raised the £400.Dearest AliceThank you very much for your kind and great help. Madam Eddi has gave me all that money. from that money I keep some for building our bathroom and the rest for Themi my daughterEver so many thanks for all this help, and i wish you a very happy, healthy life also a bright futureGod bless you alwaysyours sincerelyKalyAccording to the World Bank the scale of poverty in the world has fallen by 700 million in the last 30 years but still 1.2 billion people live below the poverty line which currently stands as those surviving on less than $1.25 per day. 3 billion people live on under $2.50 per day and as the world population stands at 7 billions that's a frankly shocking amount. Its people like Paul Van Gelder who I met in Kovalam, India, who are making a difference to those living in extreme poverty. I spoke to Paul one hot evening sat outside Abbhi's cafe as he told me how he was shocked and appalled when arriving in Kovalam at the amount of families living in such extreme poverty. He couldn't just walk away from that so he set up S.I.S.P which is an extremely successful charity running a school, employment workshops and social care programmes. The aim of S.I.S.P is to empower people to not only have an education but be able to improve the conditions of their lives so they can become more financially independent.What I'm trying to say with this blog is that poverty shouldn't be ignored. We live extremely privileged lives where food, drinking water and clothes are in abundance. I've seen whole families living by the roadside under one sheet of tarpaulin in India, had children begging at my feet and see people so disabled that their families cannot look after them. If we can all contribute to charities, programmes and projects looking to eradicate poverty then surely we can put an end to it sooner rather than keep the cycle of suffering. I'm sure I'm looking at it too simplistically but all I know is from contributions I made £400 for two women who could never raise that money by themselves and it wasn't difficult. So when you're spending £4 on a pint maybe think to also add £4 to a charity who work to improve the lives of the poor. So many charities like S.I.S.P, Eagle House and The One Love Project rely on donations so let's help them to help those who need it most.Thank you for reading.Alice