Community Club
Charity work has remained a thorny and controversial issue among different and many scholars and philosophers. The side of the bed that one can rest on the matter is an individual decision. However, many philanthropists such as Matt Wage and Peter Singer are stack to the notion that charity donations can make a world a better place. Their understanding and perception of helping the poor are pegged on charity donation models. Despite my love for helping kids and doing charity work, many discerning opinions about charity work throws me into deep thoughts of what model is valid and can lead to the desired results.
I am undertaking my internship at the Community Club. The organization specializes in kids’ activities that include feeding and organizing religious events geared towards helping children to engage in community activities. The Community Club also offers free meals to members of the local community, particularly the poor and malnourished. Notably, the organization is truly a nonprofit organization that helps poor people and works with kids. This organization approaches the community by involving the kids since children are usually the most affected in a society with little or no income. Therefore, concentrating on children and engaging them in numerous activities, including religious functions, is likely to assist a larger vulnerable group in society.
Relating to Singer’s argument to the practices of the Club community organization, it is apparent that the organization is trying to make the world a better place by assisting or changing lives of the vulnerable in the community. Singer acknowledges the direct contribution of an individual in societal affairs. In so doing, the organization is directly applying Singer’s principle of making the world better by providing food directly to the poor and malnourished in society. However, they only offer such assistance once a week; hence, begging the question, how are these targeted poor and hungry in the community get food in the remaining days of the week? Thus, the weekly program of the organization of feeding the poor and malnourished is less effective; consequently justifying the argument of Angus Deaton that the perfect way of assisting the community or making the world a better place is not charity but to provide lasting socioeconomic development to the affected or targeted. Accordingly, the best practices that the Community Club organization ought to undertake is to identify the most vulnerable and support their education so they may remain independent for the rest of their lives.
The current activities of the organization portray its savior mentality. It does things to be seen as the final solution to society’s problems. The Community Club is operating in a community with little income. Most members of the community cannot fetch food for themselves; thus, most charity activities of the organization revolves around donating food, including kitchen soup. They are targeting young children who will grow with the notion that the Community Club is their savior.
The readings, particularly the criticisms of Singer’s work, have changed my notion on charity work immensely. Coupling Flaherty’s work, “No more heroes” with critiques of Daron Acemoglu and Angus Deaton on Singer’s work, it is now apparent to me that the world can be made a better place without charity work. Most importantly, I have learned that most of the charity works are just avenues of creating more problems than solutions. Therefore, the better way of making the world a better place is to fix political issues in the affected societies.