Charitable Endeavours

Recently struck with major (it's subjective!) disappointment, I've felt the strong need to do something fulfilling. I came to the conclusion that donating money to a few humanitarian causes might suit this desire of mines. Through this, I am hoping to curb the urge to indulge my materialistic impulses, saving me from splurging on items that will have an ignorant impact on my happiness and also to restore my perspective and return me to a state of gratefulness for all that I have.

There's this verse in the Qur'an that resonates with me as I write this post.
3: 92 By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend (benevolently) out of what you love; and whatever thing you spend, Allah surely knows it. 

May the Lord accept my intentions and meager contributions. Ameen.

In searching for which organizations to donate to, I found it extremely difficult to narrow the list down to a few causes. There are an enormous number of charities focusing on international and domestic issues, healthcare, education, disaster relief, etc and it is near impossible to reduce causes to a manageable figure! Hopefully we'll all get the chance to contribute to as many organizations as we can during our lifetime :-) In the meantime, I think I've found a few organizations which I have never donated to that fit my donating needs and hopes. 

1- Nothing But Nets, is a global, grassroots campaign to raise awareness and funding to combat malaria, one of the largest killers of children in Africa. Nets cost $10 a piece.

Here are some harsh realities about malaria: 
Fact: Malaria is preventable, but causes more than 200 million illnesses each year and kills nearly 1 million of those who become infected.
Fact: Ninety percent of deaths caused by malaria occur in Africa, where the disease is a leading killer of children.
Fact: Every 45 seconds a child in Africa dies from malaria.

2- Free the Children, is an organization that aims to free children from poverty and exploitation and free young people from the notion that they are powerless to affect positive change in the world.  

Free the Children offers donors the option of contributing to a number of different projects and it displays what various financial contributions can actually help with. For example, for $25, you can help plant 10 trees in a school- which helps to "stop erosion of land, provides shade, reduces our environmental footprint and contributes to healthy ecosystems." And for $50 dollars, you can provide a goat for a family. With a $100 dollar contribution, you can help to provide a family with access to clean water. If these price points don`t match up to your means, you could always just contribute what you can. No donation is too small or too large.

Let this saying by Confucius guide your charitable endeavours. 
``He who wished to secure the good of others, has already secured his own``

-Noor