The Giving Challenge
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
-Dalai Lama
The times we live in now are challenging.
Maybe these are not challenging times for you personally.
But take a look around you.
The grim news is that there are going to be worse times around the corner waiting to slap us.
Someone you know somewhere will lose something.
And all of us will lose something.
If not our lives, if not our jobs, we all will lose the lives we lead today.
At least for a while.
The more privileged among us may lie to ourselves that nothing really has changed and will continue to live our lives.
But the truth is that all of us will lose something.
Then there are those who will lose everything.
They are real people and not mere statistics. They should not be. We should not let them become such. Because these are actual people with names and job descriptions who are making the lives we live today possible.
The fact remains though that many of us who are reading this will be able to do at least something to help those who will lose everything.
We can give to the frontline workers who stack our grocery store shelves, who clear our garbage cans & sweep our streets, who keep our essential utilities such as electricity, heat, water, and internet running.
We can give to those restaurant workers who feed our stomachs and our souls.
We can give to the healthcare professionals who are saving the lives of someone we know right now and perhaps will save our own lives one day.
For those living in countries like India, we can give some food and water to the many mute and helpless animals straying on the streets, because they have completely lost their only source of food and water.
We can give to those who would give under normal circumstances but can’t right now and are waiting for a friendly push to be asked.
We can give to those recently unemployed and show them the possibility of a future in their eyes.
And most importantly, we can give to the nomads lost in an alien land, to the homeless and hungry, leading a life caused by an accident of birth, for it could have been us if only the roll of dice had picked their lives to be ours instead.
It doesn’t matter what we give.
Even if we give a little something of what we have and what we can, it could be someone else’s everything at that moment.
So, let us give.
I am sure there are many wonderful people, all around the world, who are doing great services, by coordinating these giving efforts during these challenging times.
I am sharing a few sources/initiatives where either my friends are directly or indirectly involved, or I feel particularly inspired by the work of those involved with the efforts. If you have your own source for giving, please go right ahead.
- Yashar Ali’s GoFundMe — Helping unemployed hourly wage earners who have lost it all. (USA)
- CMC Vellore — Helping poor patients manage their medical costs. (India)
- BITSAA — Feeding the poor in need. (India)
- CMC Ludhiana PPEs for Healthcare workers — A fund to provide essential protective gear for those who are risking their lives, as the supplies aren’t adequate as yet. (India)
- Bangalore Kidney Foundation — Help with dialysis costs for poor patients in hardships resulting from the lockdown. If you are outside India and want to donate to this fund, please use this link here. (India)
- FeedingIndia — Food assistance for the daily wage earners affected by the current crisis. (India)
- Feeding street Dogs — A dear friend is working with a group of 40 volunteers and all they ask for is anyone living in Banglore or any city for that matter to spare 15 minutes a day. (If you want more details, leave a comment below and I will be happy to share some additional information on how you can easily make a dog’s day.) (India)
The bottomline is to know that there are people in need. And soon, there will be more people in need. More than ever.
If we have something left to give today, let’s just give. The only giving challenge in our minds today should be whom to give in times like these. For tomorrow when we have less to give than what we have today, we will at least feel happy that we gave today during these challenging times, when it really mattered.
