Spotlight: Give and be rich

There is a growing awareness in the Omani community on the importance of ‘giving’ to individuals, community and givers themselves.

Volunteering in different social activities and different kinds of donations are on the rise. These donations come not only from the wealthy categories but also the middle income people. Recent studies have focused on giving, revealing its importance in scientific, psychological and social dimensions, rather than limiting it as a religious or philosophical concept.

It has turned out to be one of the most important options recommended in order to achieve a noticeable improvement in the lives of individuals and societies, as an effective method of providing many things that everyone craves in this era, like comfort, happiness, psychological improvement, increasing income and growing business.

Many experienced people vow that those who donate money for charity purposes make significantly more of it than those who do not. They demonstrate that the relationship between the level of wealth and giving does not go in one direction: The more a person gets rich, the more his charitable giving increases; it also goes in the opposite direction, which means the more a person pays for charitable giving, the more he/she becomes richer.

Amal al Abri, a volunteer and director of a charitable organisation in Al Amerat, says, “Giving is not only limited to financial contribution, but the matter also extends to charitable volunteering such as time, effort, knowledge, education, hygiene, and even blood donation.

“There are wealthy people who prefer to donate money, furniture, clothes or electronic devices. To help facilitate the distribution of items, collecting them and collecting data of needy families, volunteers are required. There are many people who show their willingness to work as volunteers.

“The people who have contributed their efforts as volunteers express their happiness in helping people. Many distressed people come to us wishing to do any volunteer work, saying that this might relive them and make them feel happy. There are also many sick people who donate money for the sake of recovery,” she added.

Science proves that certain areas of the donor’s brain releases amounts of “dopamine”, hormone responsible for feeling happy and relaxed.

Scientific studies confirm the occurrence of clear changes in the activity of the brain and its association with the feeling of the donor significantly improves comfort and helps overcoming psychological crises, which in turn leads to major changes in the life of donor and improves his physical and emotional health state.

A donor speaking of his experience says, “I was diagnosed with psychological disorder and was treated with many medicines through the stages of my life. I never realised that donating ‘the source of my distress’ (money), will be my ‘reason for recovery’. I started donating money because I felt that in my pursuit to make money, I forgot to give a part of it to the poor. When I did, I felt extremely comfortable.”