I have taken on the task of writing something for Blog Action Day on poverty. The more I consider this, the more difficult the task seems … this is, after all, a baby blog about a child who knows nothing yet about the concept of poverty.
Or does he?
As I sit here in my grand home letting the cleaner clean and the gardener garden, I am more than aware that my small attempts to alleviate poverty are nothing of the sort. But an attempt is an attempt and I can only speak from the perspective that is my own.
When I fell pregnant I vowed to give up Christmas … well, not totally give it up but give it up in the sense that it is all about overindulging and overconsuming – polluting the environment, our bodies and our karma. From that very first Christmas, my husband and I calculated what a regular Christmas with food and gifts would cost, we took that money and went on a shopping spree at Makro (for those outside South Africa, this is a big ‘buy-bulk-and-save’ superstore) for party hats, crackers, snacks, sweets, cigarettes and liquor. We packed up 120 parcels of goods and early on Christmas morning drove around Cape Town handing out parcels to the homeless. This Christmas will be our 5th … and the 4th with our child.
Although children are young, they are impressionable and they take in everything in their environment (I know this mainly because of bugger being my child’s first word, followed by something along the lines of edible … and more recently a word that would prevent most people being able to launch this site at work) so I hope that this small act will have a huge impact on my child’s dealings with poverty in the future. We maintain the ‘lesson’ by buying footballs every month and he drives around with us while we hand them out to underprivileged children.
Everyone has a right to celebrate Christmas and every kid should have a ball.
If you want to teach your child the art of giving but you don’t have the time or inclination to do the above … because, let’s face it, not many people do (and that comes with no judgement) then there is a fabulous NPO I have just found out about called Kidz2Kidz. Getting involved requires a small effort and a lot of heart so please check out the website www.kidz2kidz.co.za pack your santa box and pass the info on to everyone you know who may have a little giving left over at Christmas time.
Email Irenè Pieters for further info.
