Today 5th September is the international day for Charity.

What is Charity?

Charity is help given freely to people who are in need and the organizations that provide this help. Help can be in various forms which include money, healthcare, a place to live etc. Charity is about promoting social wellbeing, inclusion and alleviating distress in communities. Charities promote humanitarian acts and are motivated by compassion and love, not self-interests. The United Nations highlights that charity contributes to the creation of resilient and inclusive societies and can supplement public services in education, healthcare, housing and childcare. It promotes the rights of the marginalized and underprivileged and highlights the message of humanity in conflicts and adverse situations.

Why Charity?

1.       Charitable acts are soul affirming – Giving to those who are in need, volunteering your time, providing resource to those who are less privileged are all ways of making a difference in the world. Making a positive practical difference to someone else’s life is great for mental health and wellbeing

2.       Paying it forward – Everyone needs help and support at different times in life. These acts of kindness can be done on a large scale e.g., setting up a charitable organization to provide a service or simply by helping out a neighbor who is struggling. These acts of kindness are important to create bonds and foster togetherness in the community.

3.       It creates inclusiveness in communities – Many people are at risk of being marginalized for various reasons. A society driven by greed may not see the need to support the most vulnerable and charities bridge that gap by providing help and support to those at risk of being excluded from mainstream society.

How can you support charities?

1.       By giving – Charities are not for profit organizations who require funds to meet the needs they were set up for. Most charities rely on donations to cover their costs and funding can be a big issue to the continued provision of the service.

2.       Volunteers – Charities cannot carry out their work without the volunteers to run the service. They depend a lot on their volunteers who carry out various tasks to keep the service running.

3.       Fundraise – There are several initiatives that are available to fundraise for charities you support. You may decide to run the marathon and invite people to donate or you could utilize carry out challenges that people might want to donate to your chosen charity.

There are so many ways to support different charities. Some invite you to donate clothes, household items etc. that can be passed on to the people being supported. If in doubt of how to best support a local charity, you can ask them for what they would require.

Giving is one of the five steps to wellbeing and charitable acts of kindness are a good way to achieve that.