Today's challenge: write about a day in the life of someone who is poor – but here is the twist - make it a good day.
There are none so blind as those who will not see! And there are none so poor as those who do not appreciate what they have!
A Somali woman carried her starving baby son into a refugee camp just over the border in Ethiopia. The camp was built to house 90,000 refugees and there are now over 430,000 starving people there, hopelessly seeking help. The volunteers who met her at the edge of the camp had no time to do more than allocate the woman a plastic mattress in a UN-issue tent, issue her a ration pack and water, and attach an IV full of saline solution, nutrients and antibiotics to her skeletal baby son, before the volunteers left for the next triage case. Rotary, Red Cross, Medecins sans Frontieres and UN staff mingled on the site, helping wherever they could, trying to deal with the flood of critical cases arriving by the minute. Back in the bare tent, the Somali mother gazed down at her son, now protected from the sun, and watched the life-giving fluid flow into him. After a while, when his condition had visibly improved, she thought: "He will live: This is a good day!"
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Comments: 41
poor governance of a failed state more than drought.
The hope is real and brought by people of compassion
to do something to help, rather than whine in spite
from the side-lines. Inmate you name yourself:
Either do something to make the world better,
or get out of the way of those who do.
Thanks for submitting to
The Surreal Circus.
Being part of the disaster response,
that means everything to those we save.
If you want to help, donate what you can to
Medecins sans Frontieres, Rotary or Red Cross.
You could also contact Childfund and adopt a child:
For $50 a month you can feed, house and educate
a kid in the Third World. My adopted daughter
is Maria Louisa Mogul of the Phillipines, and
she is 16 this year, supported financially
and emotionally since she was one.
This is the most satisfying thing you can do
to make a diference in the World:
One child at a time.
renamed so they are allowed to help children in anti-Christian countries.
Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!
I appreciate you bringing attention to the situation in Somalia and the avenues that people can use to help. This is precisely what I hoped to see by issuing the writing challenge.
Mare~
Thanks so much for helping in big ways. Sometimes, it's hard to give, when we know much of the aid is swallowed up in political corruption. The Rotary diverts right around that and goes to the heart of the problem. I remember your Afghan school. Now you're helping in Africa. It seems so much happens to the same people over and over again. Good to see someone who keeps helping way after the media attention dies off. As one who remembers how much so little helped out, it's wonderful to see so much helping so many. Not all, but way more than I can help and way longer then I can afford. Thanks.
I've just replied to the latest negativity
from our newest Gather Inmate,
so thanks for the positive message.
Rotary has deployed 7000 shelter boxes
in Somalia in the last month:
that is 7000 families with a tent,
water purification system and cooking facilities
to do something with the UN corn and rice.
As for Inmate - I figure you're smart enough to know, only she listens to herself. ;)
I support Shelterbox Australia, but the contents of the packs should be fairly similar.
If I send them just my money, it won't pay for 1% of one. If I go together with friends, we might be able to pay for a whole one. (Hey, we blog because we can't work. lol) If they spread the news on their blogs...well, I'll never know how far this will go, but the more people help, the more people we can help. Thanks again.
It is everything they need exept Food. Rotary found that the UN was delivering rice, flour and corn to people who had no means to prepare it as food.
People are still living in our tents in Haiti, two years on.
but all I tried to say was that in the face of overwhelming famine,
you can't save everyone, but it is everything fo those you save.
It is always right to try to help, regardless of your politics or station.
"Today's challenge: write about a day in the life of someone who is poor – but here is the twist - make it a good day," I thought "Some would say this is in really bad taste; who are we to imagine poor people having a good day?"
Then I thought of the man walking along a beach after a storm, picking up starfish that have been cast up on the beach and tossing them back into the sea. Another walker stops and says "There must be a hundred thousand starfish stranded by this storm: why bother? Nothing you can do can make a difference!"
The first man tosses another starfish into the sea and replied
"I made a difference for that one!"
So that is what I decided to write about: an appalling human disaster brought upon the people of Somalia by their refusal to live in peace with each other and work together: The drought wouldn't in itself cause a famine in a properly governed country. The humanitarian disaster in Somalia seems hopeless, but my service club along with the UN and other NGO's keeps on trying to save the world, one person at a time.
And thanks too, to Lynn, for her defence of my position, and for also taking action to help. Tough times in our own country should inspire us to show more compassion to those who are even worse off in other countries, and to her credit, she does.
It won't kill me that I don't have an IPhone, IPod or IPad!