💛 From Care to Hope

Celebrating Kindness through Charity

Every September 5, the world observes the International Day of Charity, a day inspired by the legacy of Mother Teresa and rooted in the belief that generosity has the power to transform lives. Too often, however, charity is reduced to transaction, something we “give away” to those who “lack.” While giving matters, we at Love Before ALL (LBA) believe true charity is not about handouts, it is about connection, presence, and justice-centered love.

Charity at its best is not pity. It is SOLIDARITY. It is the recognition that we are bound together by care, and that the nourishment of one strengthens the nourishment of all. A recent post by a dad with a sick child sharing his ability to pay all hospital bills without “handout” demonstrates how we have validated systems that equate one’s ability to pay to a child’s life. While we celebrate this family’s privilege, we also encourage deeper reflection around systems who prioritize privilege over life.

Moving from Transaction to Transformation

In our blog “Unpaid, Undervalued, but Never Unseen”, we lifted up the quiet, unrecognized labor of women and caregivers who hold families and communities together. Their work reminds us that the deepest acts of charity are often not public or performative; they are relational, built on consistency, generosity, and love in action. When charity is understood as transformation rather than transaction, it expands:

• From donation to mutual aid.

• From charity as an event to charity as a daily practice of presence.

• From helping those in need to building systems that meet needs collectively and sustainably.

This is what we at LBA call structural love; embedding generosity into the way our communities function so that kindness is systemic, not occasional.

Generosity as Justice in Action

The International Day of Charity is not simply about individual kindness, it is also about calling governments, organizations, and institutions to accountability. In “Bound by Love, Moved by Solidarity”, we reminded our readers that charity without justice reinforces imbalance. True generosity means addressing why people are made vulnerable in the first place.

This requires us to ask:

• Why are so many families resource insecure in one of the wealthiest nations in the world?

• Why do caregivers, who sustain communities, remain unpaid and undervalued?

• Why do systems reward extraction rather than generosity?

Charity rooted in justice disrupts these questions. It shifts us from charity as temporary relief toward charity as structural repair. It is charity that doesn’t simply soothe pain, it reimagines the systems that caused it.

Practicing Charity as Connection

This September, let us practice charity that leads to hope; charity that heals isolation and strengthens collective well-being. Here are a few ways to embody charity as connection:

🥘 Share Nourishment

Host a community meal, potluck, or food distribution where everyone gives and receives. Food has always been a bridge and feeding bodies reminds us of our shared humanity.

🤝 Practice Mutual Aid

Pool resources with neighbors, faith groups, or colleagues to cover utility bills, rent, or health expenses for those in need. Mutual aid ensures care circulates, rather than trickles down.

📖 Tell Stories of Generosity

Invite your community to share stories of kindness, moments when they gave or received care. Storytelling strengthens belonging and normalizes generosity as a cultural value.

🌱 Build Sustainable Systems of Giving

Encourage your workplace, nonprofit, or faith community to integrate ongoing wellness funds, volunteer hours, or care stipends so charity is embedded and not seasonal.

From Care to Hope

At Love Before ALL, we believe charity at its best is an invitation into a deeper relationship, a call to see ourselves in one another. When we give with presence, when we share without superiority, when we build systems that reflect love as strategy, charity moves us from care to hope.

On this International Day of Charity, may we remember the legacy of Mother Teresa and also the legacies in our own communities; the aunties who cook extra meals, the neighbors who check in on elders, the grassroots organizers who ensure no family goes unseen.

Their kindness is not small, it is the blueprint for a world where charity is no longer needed because justice, care, and love are already abundant. Until that day, may our giving be relational, intentional, and rooted in hope.

💛 With gratitude and courage,

Your Curious Cultural Architect