Charity begins at home

Why one should inculcate values of charity by leading financial consultant Amol Erande.


The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver I keep coming across individuals who want to do something good for the society but lack ideas and ways to do the same or the subject of charity is pretty low on the agenda. Hence some of them take the shorter and easier route i.e. donating some money to renowned foundations. But a big CONCERN here is that the donor has very little idea as to who is the exact individual benefitting from the effort.

There are a few interesting ways: There are a few who donate some educational material to schools located in far off villages. This could include notebooks, compass boxes and steel cupboards used in school. But there is very interesting way to do the same. Take your child along, show how the children in the villages travel to their respective schools. If possible, let him/her attend a lecture. Apart from teaching your child the importance of charity, it will also get to see the lack of infrastructure and difficulties faced by these students vis.vis his luxurious urban routine. I am pretty sure that after one such trip, the demand for Iphones, Ipads and Barbie dolls will drastically come down. Secondly, finishing the school home work would be less tedious.

For some people, an interesting reason for not doing charity is tight budgets and inflation. On the contrary, their combined family restaurant bills and parties hosted easily run over a lakh of rupees. To them, I would say that even if they keep some small percentage of that money aside for charity, it can easily take care of the entire years schooling for a few needy students. A few thousand rupees of rice and wheat can easily take care of the basic food needs of a small orphanage for a month. If you don’t find one or if you think that the funds you want to donate are slightly less, there always is Round Table India, an organization which has been doing a lot of good work in this area. (pls refer to page for details about Round Table India)

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