Raptoring for a good cause

THERE’S a famous proverb that says charity begins at home. It essentially means you should always look out for you and yours before taking care of everyone else.

It’s an uncomfortable truth but it is what it is. Any normal human being will always take care of those within their sphere before venturing out and seeking others in need. I’m most certainly guilty of this and a few quick fixes to get rid of the remorse that goes with it. Once a month I donate (via debit order) to a faceless charity that provides meals to those less fortunate, even though this action doesn’t correlate with how I feel about charity in general.

I’ve read many studies on the topic and the one thing that always bothers me is the percentage of donations that reach those who need help. Locally, there’s little in terms of research but a well-informed (anonymous) source informed me that around 40% of donations go towards admin costs. So, for every R1 you donate, only 60 cents actually reaches the person who needs it.

Then there’s the so-called Band-aid effect. Quite often charity tends to focus on a quick-fix for a problem, rather than taking a long, hard look to find where the issue came from in the first place.

Rally to Read is a prime example of taking a broader look at a problem and how it might be fixed.

And this particular quandary is huge. Scandalous, even. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (published in 2017) found