From Small Ideas Come Big Things

I have regular little charity donations set up all year - monthly instalments to animal charities mainly. With them leaving my bank account regularly, I barely think about them, which really, I should. Part of the point of donating to charity is being mindful that others need help, and I should think more about that instead of shoving it to the back of my mind, checked off my to-do list like the laundry or weekly shopping.

So, a few times a year, I like to make active donations to other charities - something important to me that I’ve thought about and made a conscious decision to do. I often donate on Rosh Hashanah and Purim. After all, one of the four mitzvot of Purim is to give to charity, so what better time to choose?

Normally, I choose something close to me - last Purim, it was a very important dog charity in Thailand (www.happydoggo.com). At Rosh Hashanah, I chose Magen David Adom (https://afmda.org), needing to help Israel in some way.

This Purim, the world has felt too big, the problems too many, and I was floundering with an idea of who and how to help. Now that I’m part of our little community, I put my thoughts out there and was instantly given a wonderful suggestion - www.aquabox.org. Firstly, they’re a little charity right here in Derbyshire, but they help people in water crises worldwide. This crisis can affect displaced people who’ve lost everything due to forest fires in LA, people in drought-stricken countries, and people living through wars - including Gazans. Like me, you’ve probably never heard of this charity, but isn’t that just proof that one little voice in a tiny corner of the world can make the biggest difference? I’d recommend reading their website.

One AquaBox is just £130 and can filter one litre per minute, producing up to half a million litres of clean drinking water over its working life.

I could have just made my donation and moved on, but I am part of a community now, and my lone voice can make a difference too. So, with that in mind, I put the offer out there - would anyone like to join me? I was happy to receive donations and make one larger contribution on behalf of the group. A little bit of time and effort and encouraging friends to ‘get your Purim mitzvah here’ was all it took. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn’t - but even one extra donation would be nice.

It worked.

As I type this, we’ve raised enough to purchase one family filter/aid box (see pic), which is just wonderful and more than I hoped for!