By Karen Stiller
Being a creative and somewhat silly person, I occasionally engage in “willy-nilly” cheque-writing. That is to say, if a cheque needs to be written, I simply write it—and hope for the best.
This is changing now that Canada has slid into recession. Some days, I verge on being obsessive about checking our account balance. And I am now very aware of our line of credit and how its “amount owing” too often exceeds any other number in our lives.
As a freelance writer, I am hustling for work more than ever. I want assurance that money is coming down the pipeline even as it flows out in a never-ending stream of pizza lunches, new goalie sticks and Wii Super-Mario-whatever-it-is.
Us and Them
To my shame, I have even (once, only once) wondered if it was a good financial idea for our very average Canadian family to sponsor three children overseas. I quickly set that thought aside and prayed for forgiveness when I considered how well-off we really are compared to the vast majority of the world.
I know one of our sponsored children in Uganda lives in a mud hut with her mother. I know that this child certainly does not have a schedule jam-packed with one enriching activity after another that leaves her begging to just have a Saturday afternoon at home.
I know that she and her little family are part of the world’s poorest population, a population that will be impacted even more dramatically by the global economic crisis than me, my friends, my family or even my entire town, smack-dab as it is in the middle of General Motors lay-off country.
Soaring Food Costs
I know that there are another 100 million people in the world who need food aid today that did not need it a mere six months ago. Wheat prices doubled. Food in general has risen in cost by 45% since 2006, according to the United Nations Food Index. For me, that means I don’t buy green grapes unless they are on sale. I don’t even want to imagine what it means for our sponsored children and their families.
Countries where the poorest of the poor live will probably cut back on what little spending they currently do?cutting spending on things like education and health care. I really hope that our own government, and others like it, will not cut back on development.
Getting Past the Panic
Panicky people like me might do more than just consider cutting back on their charitable giving, they might actually do it.
Let’s not though, okay? I’m going to work really, really hard to tighten our family’s big old belt in a million other ways first—and try to remember that a financial crisis to me is probably an utter disaster to someone else.
Learn more about World Vision Child Sponsorship.
