Dowries

Abstract

Social philanthropy can take two forms. The first consists of a programme of social rehabilitation spread over a period of months, or even years. The second is by means of outright relief, financial or in kind. The most suitable form of assistance varies from case to case and is determined by the social, physical and economic circumstances of the person in distress. Generally speaking, social rehabilitation is necessary when the victims of poverty or misfortune have already reached an advanced state of moral and physical degeneration. Assistance, usually of an institutional nature, helps them to regain their former position in society. Outright relief is directed at the causes of poverty at a stage when medical, financial or domestic assistance can prevent a person from slipping into endemic poverty or chronic illness. Such temporary relief can tide a family over the death of the breadwinner, sudden illness insufficiently serious to merit hospital treatment, the collapse of a home or the blight of a crop. It takes the form of alms, medical supplies and clothing.