As Begin Bom Ohisa was sitting under a tree in a South Sudanese market, a little girl in rags came and stood beside him. When he asked her how she was, she said, "I am hungry." He learnt that her mother was in hospital and that she and her three brothers had not eaten properly for weeks; when he saw where they lived, he burst into tears. He and his family gave them food, money and new clothes.

Begin Bom Ohisa works for CARE, a registered charity that fights poverty around the world. But when he wrote an article about the girl he helped, it appeared under the headline, "It's not about charity, it's about shared humanity."

Many would say that this was a false distinctionA claim that things are different when they are fundamentally the same.. Sympathy for our fellow humans is precisely what inspires us to acts of charity. But "charity" is a word people today often try to avoid. A lot of charities prefer to describe themselves as "non-governmental organisations" (NGOs) or "not-for-profits" - even though these are vague terms that could equally apply to a darts team.

One reason put forward by Simon O'Connell of Mercy CorpsAn international aid organisation originally founded to help refugees in Cambodia. is that "charity" simply suggests handing out money, whereas the work he is involved in is much more complicated. It ranges from helping refugees in Uganda share farmland with locals to setting up micro-financeA way of lending small amounts of money to poor people, rather than the large amounts the banks generally deal in. programmes.

Others claim that it is patronising to act in a charitable way: they believe that those who give help are presenting themselves as superior to those who receive it. Recent complaints about "white savioursIn 2019 the TV presenter Stacey Dooley was criticised for posting a photo of herself holding a Ugandan baby while campaigning for Comic Relief. Her critics said that attention should have been focused on African people instead." are a case in point.

Meanwhile, people in need of assistance often feel ashamed about it. They think that they ought to be able to stand on their own two feet, even if they have had terrible disadvantages or had to contend with bad luck.

Marcus Rashford is trying to alter this attitude. "I feel like at times people think they are being looked down on if they ask for help," he told a TV interviewer yesterday, "and I think in this generation [...] that is something that should change.

"You should feel free if you want to ask for help for anything. Hold your head up high, and if you need help, go and get help."

After successfully campaigning to have free school meals provided to children during the summer holidays, Rashford has now formed a task force with some of Britain's biggest supermarkets, businesses and charities - Sainsbury's, Tesco and Kellogg's among them - to reduce food poverty.

He is asking the government to extend the free meals scheme to help a further 1.5 million needy children and to provide more food and activities for them in the holidays. He also wants Healthy StartA scheme to provide young children and pregnant women with milk, fruit, vegetables and vitamins. vouchers given to more people, and their value to be increased.

Some say, yes: charity is mainly about rich people easing their consciences by giving money they can easily spare to the less fortunate. It has inescapable associations with Lady BountifulA character in George Farquhar's 18th-century play The Beaux' Stratagem. She gives to the poor so that she can impress people with her wealth and generosity. and robs the people who receive it of their self-respect. Government hand-outs make people work-shy; it is much better to help them stand on their own two feet by providing them with jobs or short-term loans.

Others argue that charity is one of the greatest of all human virtues, and everyone should respect and practise it. People should certainly be encouraged to help themselves, but not everyone is able to. Sharing wealth is an acknowledgement that some are luckier than others, and we should be happy to give or receive according to our circumstances. You never know when the roles might be reversed.