Today is Blog Action Day: The Conversation on Poverty
With regards to the current context in South Africa, poverty is ,and always has been, a very big problem. Most people even point this out as the source of all the other problems which South Africans face on a day-to-day basis. Things like violent crime, lack of education, corruption, etc. are all rampant in South Africa at the moment.
But let’s not all this deter us from one simple fact: WE ARE DOING NOTHING! except, ofcourse, COMPLAINING. Right, get off your asses and high horses and do something concrete to uplift your communities. There are NGO’s and other institutions available and you also have your own God-given brain to figure something out to help out people who really do need helping out.
So if you never gave a 5cent piece to the guy at the traffic light begging for change, make a change and start with that. however, I do urge you to aim a little higher ;)
Here’s some South African Welfare organisations which are pretty active in helping out the indigent…
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Gift of the Givers Foundation – The Waqful Waqifin (Gift of the Givers) Foundation is a humanitarian relief organisation supporting the impoverished worldwide.
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Al Imdaad Foundation – The Al Imdaad Foundation is a non-profit humanitarian aid organisation, registered in South Africa.
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Muslim Hands (South Africa) – Muslim Hands is an international relief organisation. Website features reports from projects. Online donation system available.
- Islamic Relief – Islamic Relief provides you with an opportunity to support the poor locally and internationally, by assisting widows, orphans, disabled and the illiterate.
These are the Muslim organisations I could find off hand which are doing really good work in South Africa to alleviate poverty, not only from helping people out, but also from upgrading their skills and education to help them help themselves. Please send me links so I can add to this list of other organisations in South Africa so that we can get moving with uplifting communities out of Poverty!
The Conversation Agent site gives 3 things we can do to alleviate poverty in one way or another:
1) Volunteering
2) Mentoring
3) Giving
Let’s try and do at least one of these things on an individual level to help those less fortunate than us.
Peace.
: Activism, South Africa, Blog Action Day, Volunteering, Giving, Mentoring
We sometimes think the problem is bigger than us, when collectively we’re bigger than anything out there.
Really good turnout of saffa bloggers writing on blog action day this year.
It’s already started.
Hello
My name is Abdoul and I am working at Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders in London. I would like to get in touch as we launch a campaign of appeal to Zimbabwe.
Indeed cholera has spread all over the country now and Zimbabwe is experiencing an unprecedented outbreak. The situation is even worse for the lack of sanitation and water. There are also concerns with the start of the rainy season and the shortage of drugs.
We obviously want to spread this message as far as we can and I know that for this particular place, mainstream media isn’t necessarily the place to do that and that the online communities who care about the situation is big and very active. I was basically wondering if you would like to cover this issue on your blog.You can get more information about our involvement in Zimbabwe at http://www.msf.org.uk/msf_reponds_beitbridge_20081127.news
I apologise for contacting you out of the blue – I found you through various online networks and through your blog itself and I have only contacted you because I thought you might be genuinely interested in this topic.
Thanks for taking the time to read this far
Abdoul,
@Abdoul: I am interested and will see what I can do. :)