Can you lend a helping hand to local people struggling this winter? Photo: Raimix.
It’s cold, isn’t it? The winds off the Brindabellas are icy and snow isn’t far away. It’s almost dark as we drive home or ride the bus in our puffer jackets.
Except if you don’t have a home. Or a warm jacket, or a hot meal waiting for you.
So as the end of financial year rolls around and you’re doing the maths for your tax return, what’s your calculation on how many Canberrans live in poverty? 10,000? 25,000? Maybe even 30,000?
It’s more than that. About 40,000 people in this city live right on the edge, in ongoing need – and about a quarter of them are children.
They’re cold. Their kids are hungry. They’re struggling to keep a roof over their heads, or maybe they’ve lost that battle and are facing this week’s minus four degree nights in an old car.
The ACT has the highest rate of persistent homelessness in Australia, and recent research shows there are no rentals at all in Canberra under $400 per week.
And honestly? I would rather you donate to your neighbours in this big country town than add it to the ATO’s revenue. Pay your taxes, do the right thing – but use the extra to give someone a hand.
There’s no easier way of reducing tax than donating to charity. You could support some incredible organisations working on the frontlines.
I spoke recently to Marluce from the Doris women’s refuge. Last year, Hands Across Canberra and the Snow Foundation funded a program they’re running for migrant women escaping domestic violence.
These women have absolutely nobody to support them – no families, no community, no jobs, no education access. Their migration status is uncertain, they face losing kids who were born here, many of them don’t speak English well or at all.
Or there’s Eloise from ACT Pet Crisis Support, who runs the Tiny Vet Clinic, a mobile unit caring for the companion animals that make life bearable for people otherwise isolated, vulnerable, and often unwell. The funding she received from this community has helped treat more than 500 animals.
There are dogs and cats, the occasional birds, rabbits and even a guinea pig giving their owners love because you helped.
Canberrans are very generous people. Our giving funds the Vinnies night patrol, Helping ACT, all the suburban food pantries springing up across the city.
Seventy-five per cent of us have volunteered at some time over the past year – a nation-leading percentage. This is a community that constantly steps up and cares, although 85 per cent of the giving goes to charities located elsewhere.
As CEO of Hands Across Canberra, I hope you’ll give where you live, to fund charities such as Doris, ACT Pet Crisis Support and others that make a meaningful difference here at home. Or donate to Hands Across Canberra, the easiest way to boost funds that go to 350 local charities.
This year as you’re wondering what to do, lend a hand to your neighbours. Because the number of Canberrans living in poverty should be zero.
Genevieve Jacobs is the CEO of Hands Across Canberra, the ACT’s community foundation
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