A month on and I
am still on the theme of charity. Well, it is Christmas time...
Since my last
posting, I've been on a mini break to Portugal to visit my father.
While I was there
he had one of those door-to-door callers asking for charity donations. We get them all the time in London, and
I'm ashamed to admit that knocking at our door isn’t always a roaring success
– we're a bit picky about who we give to, although we have signed up for a number
of charities to whom we now give on a monthly basis, including Shelter, St Mungo’s, Plan (through whom we sponsor a child in Burkina Faso), the Medical Foundation, and –
the latest - Battersea Dogs’ Home (we'd just visited the home, and the poor girl who knocked at our door was soaking wet and wearing ballet pumps...)
Anyway, back to
Dad. Living where he does, he was quite surprised by this knock at the door,
and told me afterwards how the caller had asked if he wanted to give money to help
the poor children who had nothing. When Dad said, “No,” the caller asked, “So
you don’t care about the poor children?”
“No,” Dad said –
and sounded quite pleased with himself when he reported back to me.
Of course Dad was
imagining he’d cleverly foiled a rogue beggar with no genuine charity
connections.
Later, we saw the
man near the home of some of Dad’s friends.
“Did that chap
call on you, too?” he asked.
“Yes,” said the
wife. “I called Security!”
Later still we
had dinner with another of Dad’s neighbours. Had the scrounger called on her,
too?
“Yes, and I gave
him 10 euros,” she said. “But he told me that last year I gave him 20... But I
only had 10 on me today.”
“Didn’t you think
he could be a scrounger?” Dad asked.
“Oh course he
could be,” said his friend. “But he’d taken the trouble to come calling around
our houses, knowing a lot of people would turn him away – whatever his motive,
he must need that money. It was only 10 euros – nothing to me - and I believe
in doing good deeds.”
I admired her
attitude, and, when I dug a bit deeper, she told me that once, many years ago,
she met a man who’d gone through a personal crisis and travelled to India to
rediscover himself. There he’d been shocked by the plight of street children
trying to scrape a living and often falling into the hands of men who would
abuse them. He’d rescued a few of these children and given them food and
shelter. But there were more children needing his help than he could provide
for.
“I gave him £100,”
she said. “And when I later told my husband what I’d done, he was so concerned
by the story he got in touch with the man and pledged to help him all he could.”
That was the
start of the Street Kids’ Community Village, which has since built at least 10
houses and gives food, shelter and education to as many children as it can.
You only need to
have watched Slumdog Millionaire, or read The Blue Notebook (James A.Levine) to
understand how crucial this work is.
So, this year, I
will be adding them to my favourite charities list.
And I'll be suggesting my father does too...
