Charity starts at home

Charity starts at home - and with home I mean the people that are around you every day.

I know there were floods in the Cape Flats, but I never go there and therefore I can't do anything for them.

What I can do, is help my maid and other poor people in my immediate surroundings.

When I have old clothes I give it to my maid. She lives in a very poor area and there they swop things out. So even if she can't use it, she can swop it with a friend for something else.

I knitted my husband the most beautiful sleeping socks years ago, but since he hasn't worn it for the whole 10 years, I decided to surprise my maid with nice warm sleeping socks.

If you get a bonus - don't you think your maid also deserves one? R200 or 400 won't make you that much poorer but will make her extremely richer. Just think of all the food she can buy with that over the holidays.

When your maid doesn't have enough money to buy formula milk for her granddaughter, just go buy a can! It cost me R160, which isn't a real big amount that I will miss in the bigger scheme of things - but it means healthy milk for a toddler who really needs it (because her mother is using tik).

I also bought her knitting needles and wool (R110) to start knitting a blanket.

I thought it was terrible when I found out how people using tik will steal their own family's things, even clothes, to sell it for a bag of tik.

Never give money to drug or alcohol users. Rather give food or let them clean your garden for food and old clothes, etc.

My point is - you probably get a salary of 1000s of Rands - therefore you can use R100 or R200 to make a big difference in somebody else's life.

Go do it TODAY or think today of a way that you can do good in somebody's life with a small amount of money. Surprise someone with a little extra.

(I don't think my husband will be so happy with me because all my little gifts/charity actually adds up to a lot. That is why a woman has her OWN money, separate from her husband, so that she can make decisions like this!)