Small interventions with charity – big impact on society

If you follow my blog you would know I am a big fan of 80/20 – small causes which can create big impact. I am all about using leverage- in the positive sense.

I am also big into doing charity because it is good Karma.

But I think not all charity is created equal. In my opinion if you do charity to solve a problem at the grass root level then in the long run it can have a major impact on the society. Its all about prioritizing how your funds can have the biggest impact.

In India one of the big challenges we face is poverty. So poor people don’t send kids to school because they get additional hands to work, earn money and therefore feed the family.

Since the kids don’t go to school they also spend their life in poverty-stricken situations. This also leads to an increase in crime, drug abuse etc.

A simple solution that was found, was to feed kids in schools so that the kids get one good meal. Now the incentive for the parents to send the kid to the school is not educational but the lunch that the kid will get. On the other hand for the government and society the long term benefits are better, healthier citizens who may eventually come out of poverty and the crime rates will also be lower.

The challenge is how do you feed so many kids. That’s where NGOs come in. They take donations from people like us.

A lot of NGOs do good work. However I support these kind of charities because the small interventions of feeding say 25 kids for a full year, every year will ensure that 10 years from now I know there will be 25 less people who will be on the road living in poverty. The amount needed to feed one wholesome nutritious meal to say 25 kids for a year would be just USD 500 but the long term impact could be so amazing.

Mohnish Pabrai runs a similar program where he helps kids get trained for higher education and sponsors their education. The Grameen Bank founder and Nobel prize winner did a similar thing by giving micro loans to the poor people so they could do their own business.

While all charity is very good, give wherever and whenever you can, however if you can also do some focused charity it can have major long term benefits for society.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

A helper’s high

charity, Habits, Happiness, Human Brain, Karma, mindset

This is a term I learned today while I was reading the book 5 Day Weekend.

I have mentioned in multiple posts earlier how when I am feeling low, I try to see if I can donate something. Even Joe Polish talks about how if you’re feeling depressed – go and help someone. It’s not necessary to do it with money only.

You go to an old age home, or you could go and offer your services to an orphanage etc. When you see the fact that you have something to give and help, it changes your whole body and emotional state.

This phrase immediately struck me because I also feel a high which cancels out my depressive emotions the moment I give to charity.

However I have always felt that there is a Karmic reaction to doing good. When you do good by doing charity it sets in motion a whole set of emotions in your mind.

It improves your self esteem, improves your mood, reduces your stress levels and makes you more calm and peaceful. Since you are on a high by helping someone you also tend to become more grateful.

In the Indian thought process if you are facing a lot of bad luck in your life, then you can slowly start reversing the “bad” part by doing charity, by helping others.

Till next time then, be on a high by helping others and make this world a better place.

Carpe Diem!!!

Good Karma

compounding, Habits, Human Brain

I had been to South Korea alone in the mid-90s. At that time I did not know Korean and when I landed at the airport in Seoul, there were hardly any signs in English. I had to go to a town about 40 miles away. There was only one person at the tourist information center who knew English.

When I showed her the address of the location, she walked me to the bus which would take me in that direction, informed the bus driver about me not knowing English and where he needed to drop me so that I could move forward to my destination. I had absolutely no clue what was transpiring between them but I just had the faith that I would be fine.

After about an hour’s journey, the driver after dropping all the passengers drove on the wrong side of the road to stop in front of a cab. Then he got down, spoke to the driver of the cab and transferred my luggage into the cab and the cab driver took me to the hotel. And none of these people knew English but I reached my hotel completely safe. I won’t meet those people again but I still remember this incident which happened more than 20 years back. I still hope and wish all of them well after so many years.

I have had many such experiences in my life, some which I have shared with you earlier also. The reason I share is that universe has a unique way of giving back when you do good for someone. My father used to say – give and the universe will give back to you multiple times over.

You can call it by many names – it could be called good karma or tithing or plain and simple charity also.

I have been talking about investing (not saving) a portion of your money even before the pay gets into your hands and then let the magic of compounding work for you.

A useful habit to get good karma, is to ensure you donate a certain portion of your income before you get the salary in your hand.

Donating money and seeing someone become happy because of your contribution has a major psychological impact. I get a very happy feeling for the next few days, it seems like the world is such a wonderful place to live in.

Especially with all the negativity around us, whether it is Covid or it is the political messes or the inability to get vaccination moving systematically in countries – by giving to charity you tend to feel the world is still a decent place.

One of the key things, if you follow my blog regularly – you would notice is that I lay a lot of stress on spreading positivity. The world has a lot of reason to feel negative. If with my personal experiences, where the world has been of so much help, I can make one person less depressed or one person get a reason to get a smile then it would have served the purpose of this post.

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!