Caring Soul today on 26th March 2022 resumes its initiative to help the less fortunate with a visit to Joy Garden and Rahmat old folks home in Semenyih.
The founders delivered some groceries to these two homes as well as made out cash donations to them on behalf of some friends who have entrusted them with this mission. Several days earlier on March 21, a visit was also made to Persatuan Insan Istimewa Cheras . Some cash donation was made to help them with their handicapped home of 42 children.
Caring Soul had been helping this home for more than 10 years now and was pleased to see its progress. The fact that the home recently succeeded in obtaining a tax free status for donations is a reflection that the home is run genuinely. ( NB : Caring Soul's founders are particularly concerned with dubious charity outfits with ulterior motives to enrich themselves )
Caring Soul had learned tremendously over the 12 years of voluntary and charity work. Helping the less fortunate requires the mental resilience of doing it consistently. It also requires deeper thoughts in how to make cash donations stretch a little more for them.
Many charity homes are not very good at managing their their cash flow well, resulting in spending on some unnecessary items, especially so when they are flushed with cash donations during good times. As such, it is wise to pace out the cash donations to them over a period so as to reduce the chances of them spending on items that can be avoided.
From past experiences, it is also saddening and sometimes shocking to see huge amount of donated items that have gone way passed their expiry dates. Stacks and stacks of rice were left idle until they were infested with rice weevils. Canned foods were way passed their expiry dates and tonnes of other items went to waste.
It was quite a tricky situation at that time - on the one hand good Samaritans heaped the homes with items without consulting them. On the other hand, the homes cannot reject the items for fear that they will lose the good will of the donors.
Therefore, it is always prudent to ask what the home needs so that more value can be derived from the initiative. Incidentally, many homes will also have a list of items updated on their whiteboard from time to time.
Lately, Caring Soul has also been quite active in promoting and circulating charity messages around which is quite a deviation from one of his Caring Philosophy statement of maintaining a low profile in its charity and voluntary work.
This sudden change in stance is because tiring times like this requires more publicity as it is getting more and more difficult for homes to obtain donation. They are truly struggling. A little more publicity will help trigger the kind thoughts of friends who are capable of helping them.
Caring Soul will revert to its low profile regime once the charity homes are back on their feet with more donors. Meantime, thanks so much for your time in reading this. Let’s give some thoughts to the less fortunate and bless them with our prayers.
Take care and stay safe.