Help Me Support

by SocialVibe

From a writer’s point of view there is something very wrong about this widget.

That is, unless I really mean to ask all of you to think of hunger and poverty as the new good.  Which I don’t.

What I do want you to check out is the new support-your-charity widget at my homepage’s bottom-right corner.  ”Hunger and Poverty” is a conduit that lets you (with the help of sponsors) donate to organizations that either give clean water or food to those who most need them.

A major factor in my decision were what readers said on the Comments Section of  my recent posts.

I think it’s a clever way to help in one’s spare time.  Next to directly giving cash or volunteering oneself.

If you click on that widget, you will help organizations like:

The World Food Programme, an agency under the umbrella organization of the United Nations.  Given that only 1 out of 6 people in the world can eat regularly, the WFP’s main mission is to fight hunger, supply food during disasters and help build communities through the security that food can bring.  In the Philippines, WFP is most active in the conflict areas of the south.

Charity: Water is a non-profit organization that provides safe and clean drinking water to people in developing countries. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and diseases worldwide.  Charity: Water digs deep wells in far-flung areas at $4K-$12K each.  Donations go 100% to project costs.

I do believe that happy eating means sharing happily, too.  So thank you.

 

Cooked Food; Clean Water

In the aftermath of the storm Ondoy (Ketsana), it became apparent that the usual help by well-meaning individuals and monolithic corporations was a bit lacking in sensitivity.

Because, although the evacuees appreciated the canned goods, noodles and sacks of rice, the damage of the floods to them and their homes were such that they didn’t have the most basic cutlery, cookeries or firestarters to handle such seemingly practical goods.

The media on ground zero kept repeating what evacuees needed: 1) COOKED food and 2) CLEAN water.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought that it was raising ‘simple’ to a whole new level.  While evacuations in the city do happen because of regular typhoons and flooding, survival before this meant scrounging for food with the assurance that you had a container to put that food into first before eating it.  Hot preferably.  And when faced with any type of can without a can opener, to skillfully open it with the alternatives of a knife, fork or spoon.  If all else failed, the fourth option of borrowing from someone in the immediate vicinity is often rewarding.

NONE OF THE ABOVE wasn’t included in the multiple choice.

It’s hard to imagine what it feels to be in that kind of situation.  But if you’re a relief worker, organization or just an individual helping out, you have to try.   If only to know what’s best to give from limited resources.

I wonder, if faced with a choice, would it be better to procure cooked food OR clean water?