I had two very deep conversations today, one with a person doing her masters degree in social work and the other with a close friend visiting from China. Something that popped up in both conversations was the realisation that a small amount of money in one person’s life can revolutionise another person’s life.

The Story of the Refugee

With the master student we talked about a refugee she was working with. She got him working at the clinic she was at but the clinic didn’t have enough money for the salary… of R2500 a month.

I said to her that this sounded like an incredibly small amount of money. But she said it would change his life as his current salary is around R200 a month.

Living off such a small amount is unfathomable to me, in both instances. But this man supports a family on that salary. And yet I’ll spent R200 on a meal.

The person in need

My friend from China said she spoke to a woman today who was really distraught. She was being evicted from her home because she couldn’t pay the rent.

It was overdue by 3 months with the total amount due being R300. Meaning this person was going to lose their home as R100 a month was too expensive for them.

My friend gave her some cash and the person replied that it was the first time she had been shown compassion regarding her situation

Small for me, big for them

Finally, this point was touched on in Obama’s lecture today. He said that some people have more money than they know what to do with. And that that money could change many people’s lives.

So it’s seriously time we start thinking about this. How do we correct this inequality?

Image was taken at a social entrepreneurship program called Siyaya that I used to run

Blog: 253/365

Song of the day: Dinka – Elements (EDX 5un5hine remix)