Warning! A fist raiser

What would you do if you could fix everyone’s problems? Where would you start and how would you about it? Would you meet individuals one by one or would you swing a wand and let it touch all? Would you start with your family, then friends or go straight to the child on the street?

The paradox that I have come to know and love about Uganda is the numerous needs versus the constant request for more. Naturally, each feeds off the other and are sometimes hard to distinguish. Everywhere we go it seems there is someone to help while at the same time someone who is asking for more. I walk through my community and I find someone I can assist to carry something, however, while in route randomly a child will say, “You give me a 100.” We go to a school to pay fees for an OVC, and someone pulls us aside and asks us to support 20 other children. We give a school a brand new improved cook stove, they ask us for a bigger one. We visit orphan caretakers to assist with income generating projects, they also ask for healthcare. We give out over a hundred wash basins, jerry cans, blankets and tshirts, but then others want another bottle of water.

Explaining this is sensitive, I don’t blame them for needing or asking. It exposes the struggle this world has- the search for true assistance and battle for a stable perspective. Need, with no beginning and no end, is the foundation for progress and the fuel for destruction.

I have no solution to this paradox, but perhaps a strategy.
Many of you, I feel touched to say, have asked what you can do to help the lovely people here. The obvious answer is money. Not that money can fix everything, but giving it to people who know what to do with it can repair a lot of things. However, if you are like me, money is a resource that pales in comparison to capability and compassion. I have been thinking a lot about this. I still don’t think I will give a sufficient answer but I thought of a few things:

-this is an unusual request, but, I want to tell you to teach yourself and raise your children to be wise, generous, loving individuals who value being educated by the world. Realize that you can start with your own little world around you, cultivate that feeling of charity, and use it to grow out. I have many dear acquaintances who consistently amaze me with their different passions and the ways they find to help others. Do I recommend everyone should take a few months and go volunteer somewhere completely different from what they know-yes. Do I think this is feasible or plausible for everyone- no. So find what you can do in your family and in your community. And do it now. Don’t make it a resolution, make it a habit.

-Consumerism is inherit in our lives but it doesn’t have to be done unconsciously, capitalism is hip on humanitarianism right now. Take advantage. Find businesses and products that operate consciously and give a little back, however small

-Be clever. Use your hobbies, use groups, use your old stuff, use your healthy bodies- identify a need, make a plan, do it. Just because an organization’s website doesn’t have it on their list of “what you can do”, propose an idea to them.

-Obviously, there are also plenty of sites where you can find an organization to give to or volunteer with. http://www.idealist.org/ http://www.kiva.org/ http://www.national.unitedway.org/
If you are inspired by the work my organization KORD is doing, I will happily give you information on how you can give.