October 30th, 2011 
siviwe The other day while waiting at a traffic light I saw an old woman begging for money for food. Everyone was ignoring her, like I usually do. I don’t know what was different about that morning, but I decided that I would give her some money. I hooted to get her attention and then asked her to come to the car. I gave her either a R10 or R20 note, I don’t remember which. She looked grateful then went back to the side of the road with her board and continued begging.
My initial reaction is one that many of us have after we give beggars money; we are somewhat offended when they then continue to the next car or person. This fuels many people’s view that it’s best to give beggars food, and not money, as they’ll go and drink the money away. While I did away with that view a while ago, and simply focus on the fact that I have given; what they do with the money thereafter is really their business. I give to them to help them. If they choose that the help they need is with a drink, after the money hits their hand it’s theirs.
Anyway, it dawned on me as I felt this betrayal that it was also a stupid view to hold. Let’s say for argument’s sake that I gave her R20. Yes she can use the money to go buy bread and milk, and maybe a little polony but what happens after that? How many of us live on that little money? How many of us spend more than 10 times that DRINKING on one night of the weekend? And yes, even if R20 is enough for one meal (maybe even three), what happens after that? What happens the next day, the rest of the week and month?
So I’ve dropped the silly belief that my R2, R5, R10, or R20 is going to magically change someone’s life for the best and that they should then run home and live happily ever after. They are there (I assume) because they have nowhere else to go, and (I assume) have exhausted all other avenues. Just thinking about the indignity of having to beg people for their small change, and being treated primarily with contempt, I imagine it would take my life completely falling apart for me to accept that as the course of action.
As annoying as it is to have people begging you for money at every street corner, I have now worked out that it is no reason to be upset with them. It reminds me of something I was told when I attended some meditation course (yes, shut it); that we are so self centred in the way we view the world. We look at people at traffic lights begging, and we get upset that they are there, messing with our suburbs, making us feel bad and unsafe. We feel victimised by these people, and forget that they too are victims of a different set of circumstances.
Going back to minuscule amounts of money, there is a non-profit organization called the Loaves And Fishes Network (LAFN) that my friend Brendan is chairman of. Their aim is to assist children affected by poverty, violence and AIDS. They do really fantastic work, and earlier this year won the award for the best early childhood development programme in the country. Amazing, wouldn’t you say? Yet they are struggling with money, and have been struggling with money for a while now.
They had a campaign, which is still on-going, where they worked out that if they got R40 a month from people around the Buffalo City area, they’d be able to break even. I’ve since found out that this R40 is not an arbitrary figure, but is what it costs them to provide services to one child per month. I’m sure it sounds ridiculous even to you reading it. Government is not supporting them (while acknowledging their great work, and with awards), not enough people are supporting them or supporting them enough; and they have financial difficulties. Once again, it just sounds, seems, and is ridiculous.
If you’re reading this, you’re far more privileged than the kids and families that LAFN helps. I am sure you can spare R40 a month to help them out. Please check out the LAFN website to see what they do, and donate via paypal. You can also request the debit order form by emailing info@lafn.co.za. You can spare R40/month to assist them. I am convinced that if more people knew about LAFN and what they do, they would get more than the help they need, and could assist even more children and families.
For my part, I’m going to sacrifice one Friday night’s drinking a month and up my debit order to that amount. I challenge you to do the same.
