Each Easter a group of 4 families, one being my own, put aside a day to do something in celebration. All having children around the same age, in years gone by these days consisted of egg hunts and eating as much chocolate as possible.
A few years ago as we were all older our parents decided to show us instead what the less fortunate people in the city did over the festive break. We donated our day that year to the Smith Family. We each loaded up the cars with pre-packaged boxes of food and where given a list of names and addresses to deliver them to.
The commission flats where the main destination for my family, before then I had never really paid too much attention to them. A trend emerged as the deliveries went on, many were old and lonely, living alone and knowing you were coming really made their day. All of them would want you to stay and have a conversation, what was most confronting was you could see past them in the doorways. They lived in small colourless rooms. At times you could see a small tv on an old cabinet, a table with a few different chairs and maybe a rattly old couch. I guess it’s what you don’t normally see when you just give money to a charity, you don’t always see where it is actually going and how grateful people can be.
If it wasn’t for that day I would most likely still be oblivious to how people live in the ‘concrete eyesores’ as I have heard them described. I finished that day with a new appreciation for what these charities do, Australia is by no means a third world country but there are still plenty of people that need help.
What are some of your experiences with charities?
Mark, 1DC
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