Gibraltar - Role Model in Community awareness and charitable giving

Community awareness is very important, as people should be aware of the society and it’s surroundings especially in the place they live. It is good to take notice of any problems or issues within the community and not just go about your own life looking after only yourself and the people you know personally. There may be others who are in need and worse off than you, so you could be in a position to help them.

If everyone pulls together as a community then it can be so much easier to solve a problem. It also takes much less time and effort compared to just one or two individuals. Many organisations set up community projects and encourage the public to give their time and help to it, in order to create a better community awareness and improve the lives of those who are less fortunate.

Perhaps there are no facilities for young people within a neighbourhood, and so crime may be higher. To solve this, some residents may decide to take action and work with the council or similar, to plan on building a youth centre to encourage teenagers to go there instead of hanging around on the streets. People don’t have to do this, but many choose to help others out and take control of the situation themselves.

Community awareness in Gibraltar is a very good example. The Bonita Trust have set up a We Care project to try and encourage children to get involved with community care social work. The incentives for them are that they can receive personal rewards whilst also helping local charities. The organisation hopes to change the minds of today’s youth and make charity giving important to them. They teach that doing good deeds helps contribute to a happy and fulfilled life and a positive frame of mind, so you can feel that you are really making a difference to someone else’s situation. For every good deed that the children do, they earn points which they can turn into donations to help a Gibraltar based charity of their choice. Perhaps they may decide to help an elderly person with their weekly grocery shopping, wash other’s cars for them or encourage people to start recycling.

Many young people have been encouraged to take part in charitable giving in Gibraltar and it is becoming more and more popular amongst them. They can either give them time and help to someone in need, or choose to fundraise for a charity of their choice. For example, some of the local organisations which have received help from projects like We Care include Breast Cancer Support, Down’s Syndrome Support Group, Women in Need and Pathway Through Pain.