The blog about the good

It's great if your life is in perfect order, your dreams come true and you're basking in happiness. But it's time to discuss some things that should be everybody's business.

Today's topic is charity. Yes, it's as old as the hills, but the world we live in doesn't change much either. We won't talk about it at length, just touch on the high points. Sadly, for many people the ideas of charity are still deeply rooted in the common stereotype; this stereotype can be roughly summed up in an equation 'charity = large sums of money'. This is extremely misleading, since in lots and lots of situation no amount of money can affect the outcome.

http://academmedia.com/

We've been pondering a lot on what would be the best way to phrase our question: “What's the purpose of charity?” or “Why do people do charity work?”. In the end it turned out that both questions are worth asking. One of the developers from Academ Media team gave us answers.

“According to the traditional understanding, charity is any help you don't get compensation for. But every action has its own reasons, and charity work isn't an exception. Some people come to help because they adhere to the moral rules along these lines – 'you must help those around you'. Other people do it to fill the void inside – that is, frankly speaking, to draw some comfort from helping. For this kind of workers charity is a way of self-affirmation. On the other hand, there are also those who use charity for self-expression – they're fulfilled and have something they want to share with others. Unfortunately, the concepts of self-affirmation and self-expression often get mixed up. The former boils down to compensating for one's issues. The latter gives an answer to the question: “What am I living for?”.

In charity I found my own answer to this question. You know, it really helps to develop a taste for life, to head off to work with gusto. Every morning the thought of it makes me go through a long workout regimen – if I don't keep my body in a good shape, I won't be able to carry on doing what I want. Which is to juggle my job and charity work as well as I can manage. It's very important to really live these hours, to not let it become a chore.

Where to get energy and strength from... they'll come along the way, since you'll have a powerful source of motivation: putting a smile on children's faces. Each smile is a small success that's worth all your hard work and the effort you put in honing your skills.

Now I'd like to talk numbers. There's one hospital clowns association that has 160 volunteers working on a constant basis. These people live and work in a town with the population of 50 000. This speaks volumes.

Traumatology, surgery, hematology... I have gone through over 1200 hospital wards, meaning over 3000 kids know me as a clown with a simple nickname.”

#academmedia #charity #children #help #truestory