What can I do?

There are, and I fear, always will be people in need. This feels frustrating to me when I choose to think about it. So many people need help; starving people in so many countries all over the world, people dying for reasons that others don't die from to the same extent anymore (influenzas, pneumonias, diptheria, malaria, AIDS, lack of fresh water etc.), people exposed to natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis). The great need is overwhelming, and sometimes makes me feel that there is no use donating money at all, I can't do anything. It can also feel very impersonal to donate money to a big organisation, that in turn help the third part. And I sometimes worry if my money actually reaches the people I want to help. It is for these reasons (and probably some others, out of reach at the moment due to extensive denial) I sometimes can choose to simply ignore a cry for help. I choose not to listen to it, think about something else, think about what my little contribution really can do, think about the many others that also need the money, think that I should not be subjected to these messages about people dying, suffering and needing my help, why should I feel guilty for not donating my money, I need my money myself, I have earned them myself, my money are mine, so many others more rich don't help as much, and so on. It is so easy to use one/a few of those reasons not to care, and simply repress all thoughts about the misery others endure.

You shouldn't feel guilty for not donating money to others, I don't most of the time. But sometimes it is nice to try to do something for others. Of course everybody has a few coins to spare, most people at least. You can of course choose to buy something else for that money instead, something that might seem futile in the context, but none the less, you are absolutely entitled to choose what you do with your own money, no guilt attached. All I want to say is that at least try to listen to the cries for help media transmitts to you, don't block it off instantly. Don't be afraid, it won't harm you to donate a small amount once, it does not mean you have to do it all of the time. I feel it can be so hard and sad for me to try to understand the situation some less fortune people go through. But realistically, people are dying, suffering, starving on this very same planet I live on, and no amount of thought repression will ever change that. Money collections should not be associated with so much guilt! Please see it as an opportunity instead. An opportunity, when you see fit, to do as much as you are able to. You are a very tiny part of the earth's population, what you do is completely insignificant in that context. You can't on your own change the world, but what you can do is actually to do just that. Do what you are able to.

This was part of my very own and personally designed 'what I can do right now'. I can blog about not to fear money donations, and to see it as an opportunity instead. Maybe my blogging won't give e.g. the freezing people in Pakistan tents to last them through the winter, but just the chance (that someone donates something) is totally worth it. I can also donate some money myself, not much, but I can definitely spare 10 euro this month. Again these 10 euro might not give a Pakistani family food for even a day, but the hope that it might reach them, and let them live another day, is totally worth my little contribution. I can buy the magazine sold by homeless on the streets, maybe it can help change their predicament. And as usual my sweet Tomás in Mexico will get his monthly 20 euros, enabling him to go to school, and his parents to improve the nutrition and general family situation by learning a trade. It might not change anything, maybe Tomás' future children will be as poor and miserable as his life was before I started donating money to him. Maybe his parents won't be able to learn a trade, or even if they do, maybe they won't be able to make a living out of it anyway. But just the chances that my (for me) small contribution might change his and his family's situation, is totally worth it. It is a great opportunity for me to donate money, it gives me hope that maybe something can be better for someone, someday, perhaps. And that is enough for me.