Charity begins at home goes a popular saying , on this note, charity is a familiar word to our society and the world at large. There are several charitable groups or organization ranging from religious group to non governmental organizations.
The oxford dictionary define charity as the voluntary giving of help typically in the form of money to those in need. The United Nations Organization on the other hand define charity as ‘’ Charity, like the notions of volunteerism and philanthropy, provides real social bonding and contributes to the creation of inclusive and more resilient societies’’. Forbes quote said ‘’ He who has never denied himself for the sake of giving, has but glanced at the joys of charity’’
In view of this, The United Nations Organization has chosen today September 5 as The World Solidarity Day . This is aimed as a global solidarity to eradicate poverty. It is believed that charity can help to alleviate the worst of humanitarian crises. Voluntary giving of help to supplement public services,education, health care, housing and child protection is widely believed to help in the development and advancement of culture, science, sports and the the protection of cultural and natural heritage.
Global solidarity to eradicate poverty sustains and promotes the rights of the underprivileged in our immediate space and community.
No To poverty ranks on the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted in year 2015 and statistics revealed that the number of people living in abject poverty declined drastically from 36 percent to 10 percent in year 2015. On a sad note, the covid 19 crisis have greatly affected the fast declining rate of poverty.
In a research published by by the UNU World Institute For Development Economic Research tell that the economic fallout cause by the Covid-19 global pandemic could increase poverty in the global space for a much as 500 million people or 8 percent of the total world population.
Hence the need for philanthropic institutions to enable all people to contribute to a better life in our immediate communities and the world at large surfaced.
Today September 5 was chosen as the World Humanitarian Day in loving memory of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who was graced with the award of The Nobel Peace prize in 1970 for her contribution to overcome poverty which has been termed as ‘’A threat to peace’’
Mother Teresa is a nun widely known in the catholic church as Saint Teresa Of Calcutta . she devoted her lifetime to the care of the sick, poor and underprivileged She was born in Albania and founded The Missionary Of Charity, a religious congregation reportedly consist of 0ver 4,500 nun and active in well over 130 countries of the world . She died on September 5, 1997.
The concluding lines of this article will be drawn from the analogy of the 5 fingers. The 5 fingers are namely Thumb, index finger,middle finger, ring finger and middle finger. There is a African proverbs which states that ‘’ Fingers are not equal’’ drawing from this, the concentration of wealth and the distribution of resources solely lies in the hands of few people. Hence our society is predominantly occupied by underprivileged and the need for charity is evident. Therefore today is a wake up call onIndividuals, Government Agencies, pressure Groups, Peer Groups, Religious Groups and Trade Groups to reflect and geared to charitable course towards eradicating poverty from our immediate and glo bal space. Lets all come together in unity to make the world a better place for every one of us. Mother Teresa said ‘’Peace begins with a smile..
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love’’
Mother Teresa, The Missionary Of Charity Lives On
Kayode Adeshina Rhymes
