charity

What a great surprise. Walking into the office and discovering new chairs. I mean nice new computer chairs and not the dingy ones that we have been using for the past... umm... x amount of years (I don't even know how long we've had them for!). Well, I work for a Christian non-profit organisation, so we don't have a lot of money in the first place, let alone to spend it on furniture. The old chairs we had did serve its purpose - provided somewhere to sit. But weren't necessarily comfortable. And the best thing - they had been donated by Raewyn, our fantastic office secretary (part-time only too!) She donated all four of them, brought them in when the rest of us were not in the office (we have a very small office), lugged them up the stairs, and assembled them, all ready for us to sit on.

And she made some comment about charity. Is being charitable about giving away stuff that you won't use anymore but feel it a waste to chuck out? Shouldn't it be giving something that is worthy for yourself to use - something new! (I'm not saying giving away old stuff is bad. But it is common for people to give away old stuff that is often almost falling apart in the hope that someone else can salvage some use out of them, and so that they don't feel guilty about dumping it in the tip). Non-profit organisations are usual the recipients of such charity. No doubt, they are usually grateful, but don't they deserve better?

I think I will check the quality of the used items I give away from now on, so I don't 'dump' them on others (and try to give away new stuff sometimes).