The Humanity Project

Those are the words many of us ask ourselves at times like this: “How can I help?” Perhaps after the earthquake in Haiti or the tsunami in Japan. Now it’s the horrible humanitarian crisis in Somalia that makes us say those same words: “How can I help?” The Humanity Project thinks the real answers may go beyond the obvious thing, which is to donate money. We encourage such donations, of course. They add drops to the bucket of international relief flowing to Somalia and the nearby refugee camps in Kenya — and as we’ve written in this space before, our “drop in the bucket” is important. We have come across a reputable relief agency if you’d like to give, by the way. The American Refugee Committee has been working on the ground for several months already, long before most other groups. And they have been found trustworthy by no less than the FBI. To donate through the ARC, go to their website:  http://www.arcrelief.org  You also can copy and paste that link on to your own Twitter and Facebook pages, encouraging friends to donate. But, well, what else can I do? What can any of us do to help desperate people half a world away? Quite frankly, I think there’s a limited amount any of us can do to help Somalia or any place else during such massive crises. But there’s something any of us can do that may add a different kind of drop to the bucket. We simply can care about those people. We can help make sure they’re not forgotten. What does that do to assist them? For one thing, public discussion of the issue keeps pressure on our elected representatives to support continuing American aid for the refugees. Our caring helps create a “buzz,” to use that marketing word in an unusual context. The more of us who post refugee photos in our blogs and Facebook or Twitter comments about Somalia, the more that buzz stays alive. We can encourage media coverage of Somalia through online comments about news stories. We also can just feel grateful for our own good lives and remind our friends to be grateful too when there’s such a terrible crisis happening, which helps to elevate us all as human beings. And perhaps in turn stimulates greater interest in Somalia by your friends. Etc., etc. I don’t think we truly can know all the positive repercussions that may result from some of these efforts. But if we all add our drop, as best we can, we’re doing something to at least try to answer our question: “How can I help?”

Tags: American Refugee Committee, human values, Humanity Project, Somali refugees, Somalia, teaching human values, The Humanity Project

This entry was posted by Bob Knotts on Friday, August 12th, 2011 at 7:46 am and is filed under Sharing, Volunteering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.