How to Help

I've just read "No et moi" ("No and me"), a book about a young girl who doesn't want to accept things as they are, and tries to make a difference in a homeless girl's life.

Where I live, there aren't a lot of visibly homeless people, but there are definitely more people with cardboard signs asking for help. Not very many (maybe three or four?), but I don't remember any about five years ago.

I don't like seeing them on the street, partly because I'd like everyone to have a safe and comfortable home, but also because I feel guilty when I see them, and I don't like feeling guilty!

I think that I should help them, but (being honest here), often I can't be bothered, and I know that really helping them would mean giving lots of time and energy, and I'm not committed to doing that.

When I was at university, I went to a local group that works with homeless people, and asked if I could help with street kids. They wisely said that my skills might be better used somewhere else, so I ended up helping out in their office so that someone else could use the time that I freed up to provide valuable help for Samoan people. THAT was a good way to help.

I still help that organisation by helping a little bit with their second hand bookfair, which is their main fundraiser for the year, but I could do more.

I'd love to think that I could be part of a supportive community welcoming people into their homes when they don't have one, but I'm not even very good at welcoming my friends into my home!

I told myself a few years ago that I would help people begging on the street by giving them the contact details for the Downtown Community Ministry. That's a great idea, but even then I'm sometimes too scared/lazy to do that.

I guess I'm just suffering from middle class guilt, aware of how much it costs to really do something about it, and not sure that I want to pay that price.