Carol’s Column

Hello! Give a thought for the desperate

It's already starting: the Christmas celebrations, the parties, the Christmas discounts in shops. Yes, the Season of Goodwill is about seven weeks early, which, I suppose, isn't a bad thing if it makes people feel generous towards each other.

That said, I wish the goodwill could stretch a hell of a lot further.

For instance, when I see queues of pensioners standing for hours in inclement weather - it's either too hot or it's raining and miserable - I wish there was a better way for them to get the small amount of money accruing to them each month. It's bad enough that 70, 80 and 90-year-olds get meagre sums of money (when they do receive them), on which they can barely exist for a month.

But to make them wait endlessly, usually on empty stomachs, shows a particular lack of goodwill in anyone's language.

Then there are the street kids out there; the ones who won't have warm loving homes during the coming months, the ones who won't have great expectations of Father Christmas.

I guess they won't be enjoying stuffed chickens and Christmas pudding and they won't find stockings filled with wishes.

Probably, if they did have a dream, they'd ask for a family, for parents who cared, for a home. Perhaps they'd just ask for clean clothes, bedding, and food. And there is sadness in realising that perhaps some would ask for endless supplies of glue so that they could sniff their nightmares away.

A few weeks ago, I visited a place called Beautiful Gate Children's Home on the Cape Flats. Surrounded mainly by shacks and squatters' dwellings, Beautiful Gate is a remarkable place, a haven for HIV-positive children who have nowhere else to go.

Either they are orphans because their parents have died of Aids, or they've been abandoned, or, for many reasons (all of them desperate), their parents (usually single parents) are unable to keep them.

The children living at Beautiful Gate are HIV-positive or have full-blown Aids. From the new-born infants to the five-year olds, these tiny mites are virtually doomed before they have begun to live.

But visit this amazing place and you will see these wonderful little people smiling and mischievous, playing as only children do.

And when you see those who are caring for them open their arms wide and give them so much love, you know that in these impoverished surroundings, the Season of Goodwill has never been absent.

Then think of those less fortunate children, the ones living in violence-ravished KwaZulu-Natal. Think of the parentless families, where the head of the family is an 11-year-old boy or a 12-year-old girl.

Those whose parents have died of Aids and who, in many cases, are HIV-positive themselves.

Worthy causes often make people uncomfortable, but the truth is that each and every day, there are so many worthy and necessary causes that do need the support of everyone who can help.

Again, that said, perhaps it will be truly meaningful if, instead of the traditional parties and booze-ups that the end of the year brings, a portion of that money be set aside for the orphans in Natal, the pensioners standing in queues, the street children, the kids of Beautiful Gate and the many other wonderful organisations doing their bit.

It's good to celebrate, to have fun, to let rip. But it's better to do so when you know that you've enabled a whole lot of less fortunate people share in the festivities.

The joy is that not only does it make you feel good, but it makes somebody else feel good too.

I thought I'd mention these things now that the Season of Goodwill is approaching.

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