Two Voice Poem: Poverty - Life is short, make a difference

I wandered across this poem, it was written by a teenage girl, Olivia,  I think: 

(My) Two Voice Poem: Poverty

Italicized is voice one

Underlined is voice two

CAPS IS BOTH VOICES

I HATE MY HOUSE

My house is not big enough. Three floors will never be big enough.

The streets are my home

I HATE MY FAMILY

I wanted a pony for my birthday but all I got was another dog.

My family left me, abandoned me in the streets.

WHEN I'M HUNGRY...

I told my mother I wanted a big steak dinner. Of course I got it.

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I'll find or collect enough money to get a small something at McDonald's. Most days, I'm left with trash.

BUT I HAVE A FUTURE

When I grow up, I'm going to be an astronaut that lives in a mansion with thousands of servants and hundreds of ponies.

When I get older, I wish to have received some kind of education, live in my own house, and start my own family.

I wonder if she underlined the poor child's voice because it is the important one to listen to.  Yes, yes we all matter etc but I find myself living in a middle class world of entitlement, where everyone thinks they have a right to everything - a parking space at the supermarket, a street light, a ...whatever first world problem presents today. (I'm not pretending to not be in the same pot)

I like to think that we each do our best to make the world a better place, but I do wonder if everyone is on the same page.

'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,Nothing is going to get better. ...Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” ― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax.

It's not just about trees, it's about everything:

"Why should we let Syrian refugees in?" - have you seen their country?!

"Why should I give money to that homeless person, I work for my money, they could too" - do you know how the poverty trap works?

"Why should disadvantaged kids get more of a helping hand than my child, mine deserves the best too" - Me, myself and I

I think I'm just seeing so much of it out on social media, the absolutely shocking comments of people with a lack of tolerance about race, faith, ethnicity, demographics, sexuality. The list seems almost endless, there seems to be nothing now that people aren't ashamed to put out there even the legitimisation of 'Britain First' as an acceptable thing to like and share on social media.

How did we get here?  As you rush through your day: STOP, take a moment, just a brief moment, to look around.  Look at the people that don't have. If they are here in front of you give them the money for a coffee. If they are on the page of a newspaper give to DEC. And if money is not the way forward: Give your time.  Volunteer here in the UK, there are a million ways to help.  Or just spend sometime raising awareness with your friends about a world of discrimination, open eyes about what is so wrong with a world of hate for people that are different or may get a piece 'of ours'.

Life is short, make a difference. 

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Deki - how to make a difference

Back in 2014 I 'spent' £10 on a Deki loan.

I lent it to a farmer in West Ghana, he needed to borrow £60 to buy seeds and fertiliser.  Once the whole loan had been raised and I guess his profit on his farm started to turn around, he paid me back.

I added another £10 and loaned £20 to a shop keeper in Soweto that needed £280 to buy a generator because of electricity supply cuts were affecting his business.  Again, my money was repaid back.

So I added another £10 and loaned £30 to  Alfacksadi "He lives with his wife and children in Chiwisi on the shores of Lake Malawi. He has eight children aged between 18 and 2 and most of them attend school.The family also support and care for two orphaned boys.  Alfacksadi runs a fishing business and his wife is a farmer. He works on average 56 hours a week. He has applied for a loan through Deki to increase his working capital. He plans to buy more fish with his loan, which will help him increase his sales and income. Alfacksadi said that the loan "will help to improve the living standard" of his family. In the future, he aspires to build a good house for his family."   Alfacksadi needed £100.  This time his total loan was raised very quickly and I received back all £30 very fast indeed.

So, (because now it was a habit!) I added another £10 and I had £40 to relend.

I have given £10 to Primrose in Sowetto.  She needed £250 to buy a computer and printer to help her start an internet cafe business.  She raised all of the money for her loan and has paid half of it back already.  I like the sound of single mum Primrose, I'm really rooting for her to have a successful business.

I gave £10 to Deline, also in Sowetto, who has bought a new sewing machine for her business, she hasn't paid any back yet.

£10 to  Marta who "lives in Wabigalo, Uganda after she was displaced by war from South Sudan along with her family. Her husband and three children, aged between 5 and 13, live with her. All her children attend the school.  Her husband runs a small business. Marta owns an off-licence. Marta sells both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in the community of Wabigalo and her business is doing well. She dreams of expanding her business but she does not qualify for a bank loan because she's a refugee. Instead she has applied for a loan through Deki. Marta will use the loan to buy six jerry cans of alcohol meet the customers' needs. This will increase her income. Her dream is to save money and build a house for her family. 'The loan will pay for my children's school fees and improve my standards of living together with my children' she said."

And £10 to Rachel in Nhkata Bay, who is starting a pig farm at home so she can work from home whilst looking after her children.

These people are working hard to make a good life in their own countries.  I feel really privileged to have the opportunity to help some of them achieve that.  I also feel that the more we can help people pull themselves out of poverty in their home lands, the less they will have the need to take perilous journeys to Europe risk their lives and putting their hard earned money into the hands of unscrupulous traffickers.

It is really easy to do, just a few clicks and you choose the entrepreneurs you want to lend to, see the payments going and coming back.

It started for me because I thought the gift vouchers made really good presents for teenagers, a way to teach them more about the world we live in and how they can make a difference to people a long way away and they can actually have the cash themselves when the loan is repaid (you don't have to relend it, you can take your money back out)

I loaned £10 myself that Christmas and have continued to relend the money, it gives me a sense of doing something when sometimes it seems impossible to know what to do to help people that weren't born into the same western privilege as most of us.

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Imagine a world where being Gay was the norm

The PM in Luxembourg has married his same sex partner this week.  I think this is great news for the world.

I am really lucky to live in a country where Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (and all the other letters that are being added to the end that means the readily recognised acronym is more inclusive) is not an issue (in law).  Although it is still an issue to some individuals.  I wish biologists would stop wasting time and energy on the gay gene and hunt the bigot gene down. Perhaps, in an ironic twist, once we had tracked it down we could suggest they weren't allowed to marry.

This is fairly interesting map showing where the world stands on homosexuality legally.  But don't spend too long on it.  Skip to the film, below, the reason I brought you here today.  It is incredibly moving.

source

Homosexuality legal    Same-sex marriage    Other type of partnership (or unregistered cohabitation)    Foreign same-sex marriages recognized    Limited recognition of same-sex marriages at the federal level, no state level recognition    No recognition of same-sex couples

Homosexuality unclear    Homosexuality unclear

Homosexuality illegal/restrictions

   Laws restricting freedom of expression and association

   De jure penalty that is de facto not enforced

   Imprisonment

   Imprisonment (up to life sentence)

   Up to death

"This film is dedicated to any child who has ever felt such darkness due to others' hatred and misunderstanding. Always know that love is meant to be within and you should never feel wrong or alone by being who you are ..... Unique"

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Why are the Catholics behind a wall?

So lots of people in France have died because people chose to mock a religion.

But mockery is what we do best, it is at the heart of our culture.  Just look at the Regency caricaturists and how cruel they were with the Royals and upper echelons. I believe the British have total, dry wit down pat but it would appear that the Cheese-Eating-Surrender-Monkeys have a better sense of humour than I ever gave them credit for.  Lucky that, they will now be able to hoot along with many hilarious digs I've made at them and chuckle away.

Like many, I am often at sixes and sevens with religion, I like the sense of calm and comfort that comes from faith but regularly shake my head at the bigotry of religion.  I was once at a meal out with many people from my church celebrating our success at having organised a week of special services aimed at growing faith and understanding.  I was feeling a bit disillusioned at the time, as is often the case after having suffered a few months of decisioning by committee, ironic given the week we had organised.  But anyway, during a discussion at the meal a fairly new curate used the words 'all muslims will go to hell'.  WTF? I said back. Which went over like a fart in church.  But even after all these years it still grates on me, I struggle with how someone that is learning about faith, love, peace and understanding believes that.  Perhaps he struggled with the one God concept or skipped a lot of classes!

At the same time as murder in the name of God was all unfolding in France, I was watching Dave Allen on TV.  It's such a good job it was the Catholics that were the brunt of his mockery:

A Guy goes to Heaven and gets a tour by St. Peter. He points out a group and Peter says "Those are the good Hindus"....points out another "Those are the good Protestants"....points to another "Yes, those are the good Jews"....points to another "Those are the good Muslims."
Then they come upon a giant 20 foot high wall.
"What's this wall, St. Peter?"
"Shhhhh, keep your voice down"
"Why?"
"Behind that wall we keep the Catholics"
"Why do you keep the Catholics behind this wall?"
"Oh, well...they like to think they're the ONLY ones up here."

I prefer the 'come inside no matter who you are'

 and the 'lets have some fun with it'

To the 'keep it sacred', untouchable and irrelevant to the modern world.



May your God go with you

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Deki Loans - A great Christmas gift for kids and teens

I get a little bit annoyed when someone buys me 'a goat' for Christmas.  It's a juxtaposition, I know I should get a warm fuzzy feeling inside but I also wanted something for 'me'.  You just put your goat to one side and poof the  fun is gone.

But I do like giving (and receiving)  Deki loans as gifts because the person you give it to has to do something with it.  They decide who to loan the money to and they get the money back for themselves at the end of it.  It's a hands on charitable gift.

The person you give the loan to will pick the person they choose to loan the money to and then yes, they have to wait, but the loan will be repaid fully in 6-12 months. At that point your recipient can then choose to withdraw the money from the scheme and keep it for themselves or invest it with another entrepreneur. 

They can have a direct impact on people’s lives by lending anything from £10 to an entrepreneur in the developing world.  100% of the money you lend goes directly to the person they choose to support.
Deki is a charity designed to help people work their way out of poverty, so the loans don’t generate profits for lenders. 

There are lots of people to choose from that are looking for money for different business ideas. The total loans are often made up of mini loans from lots of different people so with £10 you can 'complete' a loan and set the person off on their journey to work their own way out of poverty.

This is a great way to give money as a gift to a tween or teen and let them make a difference to a life but with complete autonomy, they choose who, what for and they will see the money come back to them.

To give a loan as a gift you just pay for it and print out a gift voucher, they have something to unwrap and then they can do their favourite thing - log onto the internet!

And remember the money does come back to them and if they want to they can take it back for themselves and buy the iTunes voucher they always dreamed of, or they can re-lend it to another person of their choice.

I think it's a great way to introduce children to charitable giving, to give them a sense of being part of one large world and learn that as individuals they can make a difference to someone very far away.

The fact that they can have the money in the end if they want it makes it different to your standard 'goat' or 'mosquito net' gift.  But maybe they will re-lend it so that it really can be the gift that keeps on giving.

Have a look:

 

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A small act of kindness

Every so often a 'story' comes through my facebook timeline.  This morning's was about a policewomen that had brought someone their groceries instead of arresting them for shop lifting and so the story grew into a small number of public donations and a job offer.  It was a nice, happy day thing.

I noticed over 1 million people had 'liked' it and 200,000 had left 'wow, that's awesome comments'.  Why do we feel the need to 'like' these stories?  Well, I guess it's nice to show that we do actually like a bit of good news or a happy ending but I'm a little worried that there is more to it.  Do we 'like' these things because clicking feels like an action?  Do we think we have actually done something positive to the world by that action?

I wonder how many people float through life without giving anything back?  Yes, I know life is hard/busy/challenging/we don't owe anyone anything but

we live in one world. Go stand up in space and look down at the world and see it, imagine watching one group of people struggling whilst others, busy like ants, ignore it.  It seems odd to me.

I know it's hard to make a difference to the entire world but small stones make large ripples.

Often making a difference benefits ourselves as much as the people we try to help.  I suspect most marathon runners for charity and sponsored bike riders have an element of 'it's good for me', 'it keeps me fit', 'I feel great when I achieve a challenge' going on in there.

I've definitely always said I get as much out of Guiding for me personally as I put in.  Well, I mostly say that, there are some days when I wonder why I do it, but on balance I'm tipping the scales with a big win for me.

But there is something in between clicking 'like' and achieving nothing and running a marathon.  There are simple acts of kindness like offering to push an old person's shopping trolley to the car for them, stopping to pick up the dropped glove of a child when mum hasn't noticed or has her hands full and giving it back, waving at a kiddy on a bus who loves to be waved back at and taking 2 seconds of 'child entertainment' pressure off its mum, picking up a bit of litter and putting it in the bin.

 I think 'like' clicks are like water skaters. They are there on the surface of the water, manically moving around but the water hardly moves at all, there are no ripples, the skaters don't even break the surface.

But even small stones break the surface and create ripples.  Small acts of kindness are like small stones.  What are you going to do today? 

There's an irony in this post that if you G+'d it or 'liked' it in some manner, I would be rather pleased.  Ahhhh irony, the mantle by which I live!

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