Give back this Christmas

Date : 26 November 2015

For many of us, Christmas is a time for celebration, good food and giving. Unfortunately, all over the world, there are people who don’t get to experience Christmas the traditional way due to poverty. Eveready is proudly South African; and because of this, we also take notice of those who could use a helping hand – especially when it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

With a high unemployment rate, people living on the streets and orphaned children, there are plenty of people in need of some help, food and donations. We would like to encourage all of you to try and give back to the community, people in need and ‘the voiceless’ in some way over this festive season.

But how can we give back this Christmas with it being a time of the year where most people are spending their savings on presents for the family, December holiday trips and festive meals? There are many ways that won’t cost you a lot of money – and some ways that won’t even cost you a cent.

Ideas for giving back that won’t cost you money

If you just don’t have the money to spare over the December/January period, but you still want to make a difference in someone’s life, consider these options that include helping others greatly without spending anything but your time and kindness:

• Work in a soup kitchen for the day. This is something that anybody can do and it really gives you a sense of purpose to dish up a belly-filling meal for someone in need and give it to them. There are plenty of soup kitchens all over South Africa such as the Walmer Soup Kitchen in Port Elizabeth; and MES (which is a feeding programme) situated in Johannesburg, Kempton Park, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
• Donate old clothes and toys to children.Go through your children’s cupboards and put aside clothes and toys that they don’t use anymore. Instead of throwing these away, you can donate them to children’s homes such as SOS Children’s Village, Isithembisu Babies Home and the many other children’s homes situated all over our country.
• Make an animal’s day.It costs you nothing to give a homeless animal some attention. Places like Save A Pet in Port Elizabeth and the Animal Welfare Societies throughout South Africa shelter homeless cats, dogs, bunnies and even donkeys. Take a morning with the family and make a trip up to your nearest animal shelter where you can walk some of the dogs or spend some time playing with the cats. By giving some love to these animals, you’ll be making their day!

Ideas for giving back that will only cost a little

If you have got some money to spare that you would like to use to make a difference to those less fortunate and the voiceless, there are plenty of options that won’t break your wallet. You don’t need millions to make a difference – even if you’re just making a difference to one person’s life, you’re achieving the best.

• When it comes to charities, many times the attention is focused on children and animals, but let’s not forget about the elderly. This festive season, why not bake for your nearest old age home or elderly care centre? Even something as simple as a cake or two, or a couple of batches of cupcakes will go down well. We can guarantee you that that would bring a smile to their faces.
• Take part in the Santa’s Shoebox initiative. This has people decorating and wrapping shoeboxes and filling them with gifts for the specific child whose card they chose. Children all over the country are given their Santa Shoebox filled with Christmas surprises so that they also get something to open on Christmas day. Better yet, if you don’t think you have the time to do this, you can now buy your Santa’s Shoebox online from their website!
• Buy/donate much-needed gifts for the animal shelters. Once again, we cannot leave out those without a voice. If you want to help out an animal shelter this festive season, all of them can always do with some dog and cat food donations, blankets, cat litter, pet toys and more. Give your nearest animal shelter a call to find out what else they need, or simply drop off some of the above-mentioned gifts. It’s always greatly appreciated by them and you can feel better knowing that you’ve helped at least one animal go to sleep on a warm bed with a full tummy.

As you can see, there is so much to do to make a big difference in people’s lives or even just in the life of one person. Some of them don’t cost you anything except for your time; some of them only cost you a small amount of money to contribute towards making a big difference. Let’s all strive to make a difference and be Positively South African in helping our community and those in it.