Giving Back

With the donation this week of more than twenty thousand dollars to the National Community Foundation, the Bay Gardens group has upped the ante. The group has demonstrated how much can be achieved by a simple creative idea that pools the resources of a community, asking very little of each individual but resulting in something truly amazing that can transform a society. The challenge has now been issued to other individuals, corporate citizens and government agencies to find innovative ways to achieve the seemingly insurmountable obstacle that sometimes confront the country.
The National Community Foundation itself is such an initiative. The National Insurance Corporation’s creative solution to a nagging societal want, has proven indeed to be a step in the right direction. Over the past seven years the organisation has continued to move in the right direction, seeking other imaginative ways to produce the badly needed funds to assist the hundreds that cannot afford education, medical care, or character building recreational activities.
There has always been that awareness of communal responsibility among Saint Lucians. The gradual change of the social structure has demanded a more ordered approach to dealing with needy persons in the country. Unfortunately the past few years has seen a decline in participation in non-profit organisations.
The troupe of volunteers that have committed to the Cricket World Cup proves that there is still hope. Some may put the eagerness to volunteer down to the massive scope of the event and the need for the island to put on its best face for the world, however it underscores a point made during the NCF’s AGM that tourist want to contribute to the destinations they visit, they just do not know how. Saint Lucians too may want to contribute to their island, to do something to make the country a better place to live in; they too, may simply not know how to do so.
Like the Bay Garden’s group, it is now up to other organisations to find ways to increase their contribution to society, not by straining their tight resources even further, but by simply finding innovative ways to pool the resources of the community. By continually educating the public, holding membership drives and publicising their meetings as well as their activities, these organisations may find they can attract enough individuals of the right calibre to rebuild the philanthropic movement in Saint Lucia.
Bay Gardens did it not by reinventing the wheel but by merely caring enough to take the risk, to try something different. It is up to each individual to care enough to find ways to contribute to nation building through volunteering for activities at one’s child’s school, donating time to institutions for the old and underprivileged, joining a service group, or making a monetary contribution to a worthy cause. Saint Lucians have shown their willingness to be their brothers’ keepers; the community must now take that effort to a higher level and ensure it encompasses as much of the community as possible. Saint Lucians may not each be able to contribute twenty-thousand dollars to charity, however if each person spares a dollar or an hour per day, per week or even per month, the cumulative effect will be considerable and life changing.

M.F.