By community correspondent Anish Kaul The recession is dragging on and biting hard. People are tightening their purse strings and with millions unemployed the mood of the country is low.

However, how has this affected people from performing one of the most basic acts of human kindness, the act of charity?

Well it appears to have had a mixed effect. Speaking to the manager of an Oxfam shop on New Malden high street who did not wish to be named, the charity has been receiving fewer donations from people, an expected effect of the recession, and that the quality of goods being donated has also fallen since the downturn in the economy.

However the manager also went on to state that there where ‘more shoppers now at Oxfam than before the recession’. This is due to the relatively low prices of the goods at Oxfam in comparison to the usual brands of toy shops and food stores such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s, shops which you can also find on New Malden high street.

So it seems that people are being less charitable in what is a tough time for many people. However there seems to be no hesitation in people to take advantage of the low and more honest prices of a simple charity such as Oxfam, as supermarkets ramp up the prices of consumer goods so that the managing directors can live in comfort, an alien concept to the millions of unemployed, not to mention the starving children in the places that the charities are trying to help.

So to answer the question that was posed in the title of this article, no, sadly this has not been a charitable recession, although you cannot possibly hold people accountable for not giving away their waning wealth.

There is at least hope to be found for these charities and the people that they protect and aid, which can be found in human nature. The fact remains that we, as humans, will always look for a cheaper price, there is nothing wrong with this, in fact there may be some good in it, so the next time you’re on a high street looking for something to buy, why not visit a charity shop? It will be cheaper than most stores on the high street and as you pay your money into the counter of say Oxfam or Barnardos for example, you can be sure that you have made someone, possibly in an African village or maybe even an orphaned child here in Britain, very happy indeed.