The Salvation Army Charity - Speech or Presentation Example

It is a pleasure to talk to you, the members of The Salvation Army, who are doing commendable work for the under privileged in the society. We are well aware of the support extended to you by the Bundaberg Skills Centre and the Bundaberg City Council, including local sponsors. We are also aware of the benevolent work being done by the Charity in the rehabilitation of the juvenile delinquents, specially the drug, and the alcohol addicts. At the outset, I would like to share my views on what charity means to me. Charity is not donating something because we do not need it ourselves. Charity is not making someone dependent on our donations. Charity is to give something that is precious to us, something that would hurt us, something that would be of immense help to the other person. Charity is to give of our love, time, and attention for the upliftment of an individual or a community. Charity is to help others to grow into responsible citizens; charity is to make them independent. Our community here consists mainly of the aboriginals, which lacks in formal education. Dealing with aborigines is by no means as easy task. We have to face many barriers – barriers due to social or cultural background, gender discrimination or rural settings. As such, the need in this community is not merely financial aid but charity in various forms. The native people, while simple at heart, are deprived of love and care. We have to face resistance at every stage but fortunately, our patience and commitment has seen us through the major hurdles. We, as social workers, deem it fit to first extend a feeling of belongingness to these people. We had to instill confidence in them that we are a part of them. Through our experience, we know that love and attention can work wonders with such people. They respond positively to such emotions and are willing to cooperate for their development. We know your Charity provides emotional and spiritual guidance through positive lifestyle techniques. These help to improve the self-esteem of these people. A social worker, works for the society, works through the society and works in the society. We all are in some form or the other, dependent on each other. In our community, the social workers take up small assignments and go from one home to the other. We try to spend time with them in their own environment, which has helped immensely to instill a sense of confidence in them about our aims and goals. We collect donations and regularly organize health check up camps. We specially try to provide corrective nutrition to the infants and the nursing mothers. Being in the Charity, you must be well aware of the rehabilitation necessary with the aboriginals. Due to lack of family bonding, the adolescents tend to go astray and take to illicit liquor and drugs. This further pushes the community in the dark. One of our main aims is to bring these people out of this dungeon and into the light. I would not just divert their mind for a while and feel comfortable that they are out of this. I would prefer to uproot the disease so that it never attacks them again. They should be motivated to knowingly give up such killer habits. For this, awareness programs and campaigns are necessary. In fact, even to organize such campaigns, if they are involved, it would double the benefit. We need to highlight the chain effect of such habits, which are a curse to the community. At this juncture I would like to highlight the project that we undertook to reinstate children who had fallen out of the school system due to various reasons. Instead of sending them back to the same school, in the same environment, we started a separate wing for such children. Here they are taught to take up projects to suit their talents and mental framework. This audio-visual presentation will highlight some of the ways in which we try to rehabilitate people. We start our journey through a garden where adolescents are trained in gardening. This would help them to earn a living either by opening up a nursery of their own or taking care of landscaping of others’ gardens. You can see the joy on their face and the interest with which they go about learning. We encourage participation by asking them to make suggestions at every stage. We now come indoors where we segregated some children who showed eagerness to study. We set up a small computer center where we teach the children ourselves. We take them in batches and you can see the children enthusiastic as they seek answers to their numerous questions. Nevertheless, we lack facilities at this centre and I know we can do with some more computers and trainers too. In this room you can now see women being trained in nursing the babies and basic hygiene. We felt if mothers are trained, they could instill these values in the children right from the beginning. This would give the children a head start, as we all know the advantages of catching them young. This room here is the health clinic where the community doctor sees patients thrice a week. We realize this is insufficient but our hands are tied due to paucity of funds and lack of trained physicians. Here, in this enclosure, we handle small groups and train them in numeracy and literacy. We teach them to interpret and analyze issues; we encourage them to find solutions to the problems. Our aim is to make them realize their own potential through different situations. This in brief is an overview of what we have been doing but by no means a picture of what our vision is. As a social work student, I am willing to work hand in hand with you for the growth and development of these people. While formal education upto a certain level can be provided, but according to me, vocational training would benefit the community much more. With the help of the government and other organizations, we try to make these people independent over a period through employment-oriented training programs. There are a lot of seniors here in our community who have worked through their lifetime only to end up as destitute. Some have even become mentally challenged due to age. As such, a caring and safe environment would be of immense help. We request The Salvation Army to start a residential facility for these elders. We, on our part would contribute by spending quality time with them to, by helping them to carry on their daily activities on their own. What they need is proper health care and the feeling that they are not alone. The second area where we lack is counseling for the youth. As I mentioned earlier about rehabilitation, we being students are not taken seriously when we try to counsel them on this issue. Perhaps, under the banner of The Salvation Army we could motivate them to attend the counseling sessions. We have to prevent them from disengaging from education and schooling. We have to eradicate this evil from its roots and not merely for some time. This causes anger and frustration in them and they need support in behavior and anger management. We are willing to give of our time but we lack the financial resources to hire trained staff and run educational programs. Apart from these, I am willing to offer my services as a volunteer at your counseling sessions. I specially have some background in pastoral care and would be willing to counsel people who seek pastoral care in times of grief and crises. I am also willing to help at your at your retail outlets. The aboriginals have a high rate of school dropouts or even many who do not enroll till they are over ten year olds. I seem to have immense patience with children. Hence, I would like to utilize this gift to serve the humanity. The youth need their minds to be engaged in an activity, which appeals to them. I know you have been offered the interim management of the local Youth Refuge. I am confident of being able to help on this project. I hope I have been able to give you a clear picture of how we endeavor to serve the community. In fact, I would say it is a service to the self, because it helps in our own development. The Salvation Army does unparallel work all over and our contribution may be negligible. Nevertheless, a little drop of water makes a mighty ocean, so if we could all contribute, however small it may be, this community, this nation and then this world would definitely be a better place. At the end of the day, each of us would be contented souls. Thank you very much for the patient hearing and I do look forward to an association with you. Thank you. Read More