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Donations - home or away?

When today I see the results of appeals made for donations of clothing and money etc. for humanitarian help abroad it reminds me of the 1960s/70s when I was a social worker. In the midst of an icy winter one elderly lady was suffering from the cold as she had no blankets and slept in her day-clothes and her old coat. She refused the offer of temporary accommodation in residential care as she did not want to leave her home. A geriatric health visitor and I both put what coins we had in the gas meter to make sure she had heating I went to a local charity who were usually so helpful. They had nothing because there had been a disaster in a foreign country and everything had gone to that appeal. I was short of money so gave her the blankets from my bed. I was young and fit then so until I could save enough to replace my bedding I slept with newspapers between the sheets. It was not the first time that I wondered why when I saw so much poverty and despair on our own doorstep that appeals for help abroad got so much better results ?


Created By on 11/09/2015

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asicit
29th Dec 2015 09:12:50
0
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I am sick to the teeth of "begging adverts" on TV. Every day ad after ad is beamed on television asking for donations. Take the Bill Nighy advert for example. How much money has been paid to Television companies for these ads when the money paid should have been directly to the recipients. A disgrace really
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nettap
27th Dec 2015 17:47:04
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My heart bleeds for the people of northern Britain, who have been and still are being overwhelmed by floods.

Foreign aid from the UK is running at approximately £1billion sterling per month. I feel very strongly that charity begins at home and that we should suspend ALL foreign aid, and use the money instead to help our kith and kin in the flood areas to recover. Once this is done the government should then switch to using the money for flood defences. Then and only then should we continue the foreign aid, but only by 50% of the current amount. The other 50% could be used on the NHS, police, education, etc. in the UK.

This would mean that we were still streets ahead of other countries in foreign aid donations.
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vee
18th Dec 2015 12:48:37
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Considering the vast amounts of money that have been donated and continued Aid given to these countries, little seems to have changed.

Have we made those people lazy and dependent on our handouts so that effort is no longer needed !

They seemed to manage well enough before we started our 'do gooding'
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nettap
8th Dec 2015 22:03:06
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A young man recently called on me for donations for children abroad. I told him there were plenty of children in England who needed help. We donate more than enough to foreign children by paying child allowance abroad to EU citizens working here. Yet another reason to get out of the EU. It appears that Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden are beginning to understand our views.
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Tricia99
12th Sep 2015 11:23:29 (Last activity: 18th Oct 2015 23:01:43)
1
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We should be helping our own people,sometimes you need to put our country first
Response from lindz64 made on 18th Oct 2015 23:01:43
Very true Tricia, but now it is getting worse every day. Who knows where the extra 20,000 immigrants are going to be housed at the expense of our elderly
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lindz64
18th Oct 2015 22:58:18
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What a lovely person you are to give up your own blankets. I'd just say that nothing seems to have changed over the years does it and yes, charity should begin at home. After all, our elderly have paid into the system for years, that, to me, is the injustice
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mikerobbie
12th Sep 2015 10:52:08 (Last activity: 13th Sep 2015 10:40:28)
1
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i believe that charity begins at home there are a lot of very poor people in our country and donations should be focussed on them
Response from Cessie made on 13th Sep 2015 10:40:28
When I lost my husband suddenly 4 yrs ago we lived in a tied flat & I was given notice to quit. I went to the council & asked for help now I was not after benefits just somewhere that I could afford to pay the rent,I have never claimed a penny in my life. I was given very short shrift and told so many days after receiving the eviction notice I should contact them and if necessary they would find me a B&B my local councillor contacted them on my behalf & said I & my husband had been an asset to the town & surely they could see their way into finding me somewhere as he new they had recently given a home to a foreign family that had been living with family in Dartford he was told that 10% of homes have to be given to outsiders!!! I was distraught & finished up on antidipressants. My problem was I didn't have money but I didn't owe any either I had always kept my head above water.I finished up in rented property that had damp ect but I could not afford anything better. I am afraid I have now swallowed my pride moved into a better property and shortly will be applying for benefits.
Charity should begin at home but I am afraid it does not.
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