Changing the world - Day 36

I just have to say that I am really enjoying this 365 days of good deed blogging. I feel really good about things...So, on to today.

I am not a religious person but I was raised as a Catholic and spent every Sunday at mass with my family until they decided I was old enough to make my own decisions. At which point I happily rolled over in my bed on Sunday mornings and went back to sleep.

But one thing has stayed with me (well a lot of things have - how can they not when you have religious education class for 13 years?!) and that is the story of the rich man and the poor woman who go to offer a donation to the local church (or something like that). The rich man gives heaps of money but it is only a fraction of what he has. The poor woman, on the other hand, has very little to give but she gives everything she has. And the morale of the story is the rich man is morally bankrupt and the old woman is a saint. (I've paraphrased for

convenience :-)

With that in mind, I always feel like I'm never doing enough to help those less fortunate and really I should be living in a mud hut without any creature comforts. But I know that that is pretty unrealistic and since I'm not religious, but instead subscribe to the 'be kind to others' school of life, I content myself that doing something is better than nothing. Even if I could always do more.

So, getting on to today's good deed. For the past 5 years I have sponsored a child in Africa - Clifford is his name. I found Clifford through PLAN International which I think is a fantastic organisation. Anyway. Today they rang me up to ask whether it would be possible for me to contribute just a little bit more each month for a new program they are running called 'Women Champions'. The plight of the girls in Africa is more dire than that of the men and they need extra special help. Many of them just 'go missing' which is definitely code for something heinous. The lovely PLAN spokesman also told me that African women reinvest 90% of any income they make back into their families and communities where-as the men re-invest only 30%. So they're thinking that the ladies need a bit more help which will in turn help everyone. Agreed.

So I said I'd pitch the extra $9.00 a month (not much when you consider all the good it will do) and fingers crossed the girls might get a slightly better deal.

Until tomorrow do-gooders xx