Charities through the ages

We chose the title 'Charities Through the Ages' because it represented well the concept of our project, that is to say the evolution of charities in France and in the United Kingdom from their creation to nowadays. The aim was to show that the notion of poverty and the creation of poverty are linked to and defined by the socio-economic context in which they evolve. The poster presents all that through the flags - the French flag and the Union Jack are mixed together - and through photographs whose meaning are striking. Each photograph represents an important aspect of our projects and show the changes between charities and poverty in the past and nowadays. We tried to see if there were any differences between how charities are considered in both countries, and how they came to be. What did it mean to be poor centuries ago? What are the new forms of poverty and what does it mean to be poor now? Does it have the same connotations? We also tried to see in which country charity and the act of giving were the most popular and why. We came to the conclusions that the actual economic context has created a new kind of poor, and thus has raised demand for charities and dons. Now people can work and still be poor and in need. British charities are very different from French ones. The British society is more concerned and involved, and the concept of the 'charity shop' to raise money is completely unknown in France. The most famous charity in the UK, Comic Relief, has become a kind of British institution since it's creation in 1985. On the contrary, the roots of charities in France are more recent, and French society is not as involved as the British one. However, there is a French equivalent to the British Comic Relief, and it is Les Restos du coeur (Restaurants of the Heart) whose aim is to cover the basic need of poor people and to tackle poverty in France. Finally, even if the concepts of charity and fundraising are very different in France and in Britain, it nevertheless denounces an economic system that does not work any more, and a society that becomes more and more individual.