The Best Way To Help, How To Donate.

 An ongoing crisis.

Our local fire departments have asked for donations of food and hygene items for the people of Ukraine. They are to be collected tomorrow at the local hall and with that in mind I went through our larder to find items I can donate.

Canned goods, dried goods and of course some dried lentils are at the moment filling two big bags waiting to be donated. But then someone got me thinking about what the best way to donate is. Goods or cash?

I went home to check it out online and some of the arguments presented make sense. Donating food items that then still have to be transported and sorted takes up a lot of time, effort, paperwork and logistics and shockingly enough, apparently 50 % of items from donation drives for catastrophes end up in landfills.

It boggles the mind to think of it but then in a strange way it makes sense. Wouldn't it be far easier to donate money to an aid organization who then can use it on site? They have so much experience gathered throughout their years of helping.

It would also be easier on the climate. Transporting stuff for thousands of kilometers isn't very environmentally sound, much better to donate the cash and buy the necessary items close to where they are needed. Less wastage too I should imagine.

After all it is more important to give the people what they need as opposed to appeasing my sense of compassion because to be honest, it was more a  case of me feeling good collecting food items off our shelves. There are going to be many more times where my compassion is needed, not just at the  beginning when it is fresh on everyone's minds. The sad thing is that most of us will start to forget about all this suffering once it loses its breaking news luster...

Biggi