Poverty is Pants! (Comic Relief)

Member Name: DMWCarol

Product:	Comic Relief
Date:	09/03/01 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to take part. Donating makes you feel good - and it saves lives!

Disadvantages: It shouldn't be necessary and we shouldn't need them to encourage us to do something - it's sad that we do!

How can you knock an organisation like Comic Relief? It’s the only charity I know of that actually guarantees that every penny they receive in donations goes towards the projects they support – that means absolutely none of it is spent on admin costs which is an achievement in itself!

So far Comic Relief has raised more than £174 million. A phenomenal amount of money! One third of that money is devoted to projects here in the UK and the remaining two thirds is spent in Africa. Over the years Comic Relief cash has helped 43 African countries with projects to educate people about HIV and AIDS, teach women to read, immunise children and help people rebuild their communities after conflict. Here in the UK it has made over 4000 grants which have helped disabled people challenge prejudice and discrimination, supported older people in their fight to get their rights recognised and provided escape routes for women living with domestic violence.

What makes Comic Relief even more amazing is the way it has managed to beat apathy and drum up an incredible amount of popular support. Come March the 16th you will be hard pushed to find anyone who doesn’t know it’s red nose day. Whatever their attitudes to charity normally you’ll find people ‘doing something’ to get involved. You won’t be able to catch a bus or walk down a street without seeing a red nose or finding someone doing something extraordinary in an attempt to raise some money for Comic Relief.

The trick seems to be that this bunch of comedians have made it ‘cool’ to have a conscience. They’ve made it easy to get involved and they seem to be having such a fun time doing it that it draws us in too. They don’t make you feel guilty for having a laugh when there are people suffering; instead they encourage you to enjoy yourself while soothing your conscience with the fact that it’s all in a good cause. It beco
mes easier and more enjoyable to become part of it than to just turn your back or walk past – which is exactly what most people do when faced with a normal collecting tin in the street.

It’s all very well to make comments about the stars using this as a publicity stunt, and maybe they do benefit from it – but does that matter when compared to the £174 million their efforts have raised? How many people would never have coughed up a penny without the hype? And how many stars don’t bother to do anything in spite of the good publicity it would attract? And why do the same famous faces keep on turning up year after year putting more and more time and effort into this same cause? It has to be more than just self-promotion. Let’s face it; we all see the pictures on TV. We all know there’s suffering out there. We all have the ability to spare a little time or money to make a bit of difference – but how many of us do?

Thanks to Comic Relief we can all make a little bit of a difference – it’s almost too easy, just a case of picking up the right items when we’re shopping, dropping our spare change into a collecting tin or wearing a red nose for a few hours. Nothing difficult. And in return we get to feel like we’re part of something really special, something that makes a real difference and is quite literally changing the world for the better. You just have to admire them for that.

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