distributedlife

I turned 30 today.

I’m not really fussed about the ‘big day’; but I read in a book called “Red Dust” by Ma Jain that Confucius said “a man must take up a cause” (or similar; I can’t find the quote online easily and the book is up in Canberra still).

I’m still not sure what my cause is; I’ve been winnowing down the list to what I truly care about and I’ll decide when I’m ready.

One thing I am becoming more passionate about is helping the underprivileged. I personally don’t like giving large sums of dollars to charities for ambiguous reasons and while services like givewell help, it’s my belief that people are more likely to give if the see a tangible benefit. This isn’t always possible; but when you say it costs only $12 to educate a girl in north Pakistan or Afganistan for an entire year, I know that think in my head. That is so little money relatie to my current income, it is easy for me to give that right now.

Ideally I would like more charities that can provide such benefit definitions to do so; but this isn’t always possible and in some cases inappropriate. I believe that sponsoring a child has been for a long time giving directly to the community where the child lives because of the issues around helping just one child in a villiage.

So this year instead of asking for gifts; my family still does gifts for birthdays I’ve asked that from now on; if they must spend money in my name they do so on one of these charities. I’ll expand these as time goes by.

Pratham. To donate use this link as they don’t have an online donation service of their own.

- $28 AUD – Supports one child in an urban indian area for one year

- $25 AUD – Supports ten children in a rural indian area for one year

- $56 AUD – Supports 25 children in a rural indian area for one year

Fred Hollows Foundation

- $25 to restore someone’s sight

Stop Tuberculosis

- $20 for one full treatment of tuberculosis

Malaria Net

- $5 for a single Malaria Net

Perhaps this year; you could ask those who buy gifts for you to do the same. If know of a charity that I should include here; let me know. Maybe it can be built into a fully fledged service one day.