Charity Begins at Home
Pragati, a jovial and responsible citizen wanted to bring about a change in society. Untidiness in the streets, increasing pollution, smoking at public places, poverty, child labor, etc. bothered her much. She wanted to make a difference but had no idea where to start.
Suddenly, one day while sitting alone and brooding over the matter, she remembered her school teacher’s lesson, ‘Charity begins at home.’ It gave her the boost to think differently and she eventually realized that to bring about a change in society, each individual has to change and contribute.
Charity begins at home, but it must cross the boundaries and reach out to people. As a German proverb says; Charity sees the need, not the cause. This gives us the boost to think and act differently to bring about a change in society.
Let us See What Steps She Took to Succeed in Her Endeavor
- She made it a point to keep not only her home clean but its surroundings also neat and tidy. Seeing this, her neighbors and in turn even their friends and family were inspired to keep their locality tidy.
- She launched awareness campaigns in her street and colony for children by organizing various competitions and programs to make them aware of the evils that have become part of our daily lives and ways to eradicate them.
- She made it a point to help the house-maid in the daily chores of the house. Remember, those who work for you are humans too. She became more considerate in giving work to her house-maid. She gave her half day off or lesser work to do on days her children had exams or an emergency at her home or if the maid was not well.
- She tried to educate children and people around about the ill-effects of burning plastics and poly-packs. She told them how harmful gases like Carbon-monoxide (CO) released by burning plastics are deadly for human-beings and how they harm the environment by causing holes in the Ozone layer, thereby allowing UV rays into the Earth’s atmosphere that cause skin diseases and even cancer.
- She encouraged the re-use and re-cycling of paper, plastic, etc.
- She asked her kids and neighbors to plant more trees.
- She started teaching children who were destitute at her home.
- She also added periodic blood donation to the nearest blood-bank to her routine life-style.
- She donated old books to the nearest public library.
- She also started donating old clothes and feeding stray animals. She made it her duty to stop others from abusing animals in any way.
- To eradicate social evils like corruption, as a first step she stopped offering bribes to anybody for getting her work done.
- To stop child labor, she asked her family and friends to be vigilant against this crime and also started sponsoring the education and proper upbringing of her house-maid’s child.
Conclusion – Charity Begins at Home
Realize that man is the building block of society. Each and every individual is responsible for the good and evil prevailing around. Most of the times we teach children what is written in their books but seldom encourage them to follow the teachings in practice. Mere mugging up text for clearing the exams is sheer wastage of knowledge.
Understand the difference between literacy and education. Education means knowledge and its practical application in life. Remember, charity begins at home. If every individual changes for the good, we can together bring about a change.
The right way to cultivate the charitable habit is to start living one’s kith and kin and gradually extend that to those outside the family. Such a person can love and sympathize with all those who deserve it. Only that sort of mentality can be called really charitable so, Charity begins at home.
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