Charity Collectors

Hello Splodgies! 

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday- I'm working on my Feminism pt 2 post that I'll hopefully have up at the weekend.

Today I was stopped in the street by some people who were collecting signatures and donations for a charity- normally I'm really irritated by this sort of thing because I feel like they're trying to guilt trip me into donating to whatever cause they are there for. 

But these people were super nice for a change! And I know what you're thinking "they were only nice to try and get you to donate" but strait off the bat they asked me how old I was and apparently you have to be 26 to donate to their particular cause (they were looking for volunteers/donators to go around communities helping elderly people maintain their independence by bringing their shopping, helping explain and fill in forms from the government etc) but they still stopped and chatted to me for a decent length of time considering it was windy and had started to rain. 

It turned out that the girl there had gone to uni in Lancaster, and we had a chat about Lancaster related things, and the guy there was from London- and we had a chat about not sounding like the place you are from. 

Far too often I feel bad for ignoring these people who are out looking for people to make donations to charities, and I either ignore them (I usually have my headphones on if I'm out by myself, or if I'm with someone I can quickly, if briefly, make it look as though we are involved in some deep discussion rather than talking about what is the best shape of pasta. It's not farfalle.) or I lie about my age so I don't have to talk to them- this happens particularly with charities for war veterans. I have a number of moral quandaries with regards to charities for veterans- as I feel like it should be the government who finance the rehabilitation and aftercare of soldiers, it being them that made them require rehab or aftercare in the first place. But enough of that. 

Either way I often feel like the tactics of street charity people are... unfair. Particularly to people who genuinely cannot afford to donate- I'm working at minimum wage right now and can just about look after myself ok, but would love to be regularly donating to charity if I could afford it. It seems to me that some of the ways that charity collectors are instructed to gain people's attention can be tantamount to street harassment. Which is sad really. Nobody likes to be harassed! Though on the flip side, I'm pretty sure that many of the people who's job it is to be a street collector are tired of being ignored completely or having people say rude things to them. Often, I have overheard members of the public swearing at charity collectors- and it's only their job! Give them a break! 

These folk were super nice though. If anyone is interested in looking at the work the charity do, you can look at their website here www.independantage.org.

Today, this is me: 

See you tomorrow!

-Rosa

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