The Spirit of Giving

THE SPIRIT OF GIVING

By Shazia Islam

December is a time of year when people generally think a little more about the poor, and therefore give just a little more. It’s unfortunate that those who are living in dire circumstances where food is practically a luxury must wait until the holiday season to receive a surplus of charity. The fact that the food bank is having trouble filling its quota and making enough to carry them through the winter in Canada’s largest city might be a reflection or warning of tough times ahead. Of course all humans are complicated beings with complicated lives, and things are never easy especially when the country’s economic future is on the brink of…something. Hopefully disaster isn’t the word my mind is going to push forward. However, it could very well be a disaster, and if so, how many of us are going to pull our family close to us and look out for their needs – yours, mine, ours – and their needs only? How many of us will be able to think about the millions of people living out their lives from shelter to shelter, soup kitchen to soup kitchen, welfare to welfare, some without bank accounts, others without identities? How many of us will forego the Christmas presents this year and settle for everyone giving as much as they can to charities like Daily Bread Food Bank and The Salvation Army?

The truth is, poverty and inequality have been on the rise since 1995. There are 1.3 million low-income children in Ontario. Almost thirty percent of families in Toronto are living below the poverty line. Queen’s Park is expected to invest $720 million next year as part of a plan to eradicate poverty. The Federal government sends child benefit cheques to help hungry families, but has also cut back on other programs and subsidies to make up for the amount being spent on the monthly allowance. Families are basically no better off than they were without the cheques. In such circumstances, relying on the kindness of strangers is the only other choice they have until, by some combination of determination and luck, they are able to pull themselves out of poverty’s black hole. This, of course, does not often happen. Although success stories do abound about people overcoming destitution, those stories account for only a small percentage, in other words, the lucky few. The rest of the lot suffer through life on their meager earnings and provisions.

This is where giving plays a vital role in helping poverty-stricken families and communities survive the indignities of hunger, poor health, lack of education, unemployment, inequality, and exclusion. The government of our country has a responsibility to meet the needs of all of its citizens through policies designed to narrow the rich-poor gap, but it’s regular Joes like us who can make a real difference in the lives of others just by turning the holiday spirit of giving into a year-round tradition. This isn’t too hard to do if we viewed charity more as a duty than a choice. We could make arrangements with our financial institutions to automatically debit a small amount from our accounts in the same way we pay our bills. The charity of our choice would be like a bill to pay, but instead of paying a corporation to maintain our lifestyles, we’d be paying a non-profit organization to provide the basic needs and more for the city’s poor.

There are scores of charities in the GTA that help different communities in different ways from providing healthcare services to assisting people with addictions, from raising awareness of terminal illnesses to offering a safe place from abuse. There are charities that help animals too like The Royal Humane Society. It is a matter of personal choice as to which charity to support, but charities that help alleviate the deprivation caused by poverty should be given priority. Adlai Stevenson, an American politician, once said “it is not easy for [people] to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty”. How true indeed! A hungry child can’t concentrate in school. A single mother can’t work because she can’t afford the cost of daycare. A homeless man can’t afford a suit and tie. Homeless youth can’t fit into the ‘system’ and end up selling their souls to drug lords and pimps. New immigrants can’t get jobs they’re actually qualified for because they can’t speak English fluently, and therefore, must settle for the low-paying jobs that no one else will take. Also, the struggles of our First Nations communities to escape the indigence in the reservations have gone on for decades. There are many more communities who are suffering the same fate.

Self-righteousness is sometimes used as an excuse not to give. We sometimes think that the reason why some people are poor is because they chose it. Another judgment is when we criticize people on welfare. Of course, we can never fully comprehend the choices people make in their lives unless we put ourselves in their shoes. No one deserves to go without the basics, particularly children. And because so much of the future of this country rests on our youth, it is imperative that we give all children a chance to achieve their goals.

This holiday, make charity your number one priority. Leave the Ipods, Playstations, and big screen TV sets off of your Christmas lists, and donate your time, money, goods, and healing energy to the poor. Celebrate the true spirit of giving by making it a year-round endeavour until it becomes as traditional and indispensable as Christmas dinner.





Copyright © 2008 Shazia Islam. All Rights Reserved.