Donations and charity aren't my strong suit, and I'm very honest and comfortable saying that. Many people might judge me, and I think they do, when I say I don't usually help people here, but I've witnessed a lot of bad and wrong things happening to those who receive money. I used to help people more, giving alms here and there, but with the same amount of time I've lived, experience has come, and with it I've seen and heard so many stories, so many things, that I stopped doing that. Charity is complicated these days.
There was a time when I worked at bus terminals as a transport inspector, and there was always someone asking for money. Beggars, people who came with photos of their children saying they had cancer, and all sorts of other stories. Well, I would help once in a while, but when I started to learn the stories, many took that money to buy drugs, alcoholic beverages, and many others I saw leaving the terminal in luxury vehicles. So how can they not have money for X thing, but leave in expensive cars? Back then, there was no Uber or anything like that.
Therefore, I gradually stopped helping, not out of malice, but because I think it's wrong to keep giving alms to these people who deceive us; it only makes them continue deceiving us, thinking that nobody noticed. So, I stopped helping. I like to help people close to me, acquaintances; I help them without problems. Of course, they might also be deceiving me, but then, as I like to say, "it's between them and God." Their conscience decides whether they will suffer for acting in bad faith towards me or not. People are complicated at their core.
I think the best way to help is to donate your money to a church that is holding some kind of charity event or something similar, regulated NGOs that have a good track record of using the money received, and do a lot of research, research everything and everyone to see which projects are really reliable to help, and that way you come in as an investor and the people responsible for the project do the work on the front lines, since they will probably have more experience and Efficiency in helping people.
I don't know if it usually happens, but it's probably always good to follow these people who do charity work on social media, to see if the work is actually being done, to request proof or websites that show transparency in how the money was used. After all, if we are sponsoring this help, we want it to be well used, to go where it should really go. Now, one thing has changed me quite a bit, which is Hive. Here, I can say that I often help one person or another with a donation to HBD or HIVE, because I'm touched when they make a post showing that they are involved in some social project.
I always carefully analyze the post, the author's reputation, all of that, and if I see it as something serious, why not help? It's much easier for me to donate HBD and help that way than to go out into the streets myself and try to do something I don't have much of a vocation for. Of course, I don't worry about whether people will actually use this money for charity or not; I prefer to believe that its use will be correct and thus, the objective of this charity will truly be achieved. People's consciences are a complicated thing to keep watch over, so I always hope that they will do what is right.
