Saturday, September 18, 2010

Don't Worry - Be Happy

How generous would you say you are?
Ever heard of the "World Giving Index"? This measures charitable behaviour globally in three different ways: giving money, giving time and giving help. It's produced by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), and New Zealand and Australia have topped the list!
We're all in this together - so share.On the other side of the world, Malta was found to be the country with the largest percentage of the population (83%) giving money, while the people of Turkmenistan are the most generous with their time, with 61% having given time to charity.
CAF recognises that "charity" means more than just financial donations: if that was the sole measure of charity, the wealthiest nations would obviously appear most charitable. So the "World Giving Index" reflects the diversity of charitable behaviour, bypasses cultural/regional differences, and highlights how generous people can be - even when money is short.
Giving money to charity ranges from 4% in Lithuania to 83% in Malta. Volunteering ranges from 2% in Cambodia to 61% in Turkmenistan. Each country has its own way to give: for example, in Liberia less than one tenth (8%) of the population give money to charity every month, but over ¾ of them (76%) help a stranger every month, more than any other country in the world.
Overall, 20% of the world’s population had volunteered time in the last month, 30% had given money to charity, and 45% had helped a stranger.
The study also found that being happy is more of an influence on giving money to charity, than being wealthy.

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