You may start by doing something small. What do you have to give ? Time, material, knowledge, loving kindness, laughter. Who do you want to help? Could you be merely looking to massage your own ego? Be careful there. Would throwing a lavish party for a bunch of disadvantaged folks be that beneficial? Are you familiar with the concept of over-compensation? It is caused by the crippling inability to handle any overwhelming emotion of pity. The fact is, to be of any real help, we need to toughen up in order to deliver a compassionate hand that gives aptly. In helping effectively, we need to understand the wisdom behind it. Are we willing to be inconvenienced when we give others’ help? Does helping another always have to be fun? You may start by helping with simple things that could still be enjoyable, but do not overdo it with something you lack the commitment and ability to upkeep. If you are not willing to level with the underprivileged in their natural surroundings, chances are you will lack the complete understanding to deliver good help. It would not be considered good help if you introduced an upper-class lifestyle to another who has trouble with a hungry stomach or a decent shelter, if you are not able to change their lives completely.

Avoid giving materially, that is actually the easiest form of helping. Look at poor rich children who lack parental attention, all they get are their material wants met. If you want to give materially, start by looking at your recipients living conditions. What is lacking in their daily lives and what could they be struggling with that could do with your help? Will a mere experience of a grand party improve their lives? Can we afford to give them a long-term meal ticket? What about helping them elevate themselves to the next level of the Maslow hierarchy? Do we have what it takes to provide these minorities a vocational employment? Can we give them free education? There is nothing wrong to aim at such things, most importantly, we aspire.

If you see a sick and hungry stray animal, it would not make any sense of give it a big turkey that would last only a meal. It might be more practical to spread out the cost to bring the animal to be cleaned and treated medically, give shelter and feed it with nutritional food for a longer term.

If you want to help the underprivileged or disadvantaged children, it would be impractical to shower them with toys and fun times if their daily environment leave us lots of room to improve. It might be wiser to improve the living conditions, teach them how to read and instill the values of education so you may teach the child to fish, instead of just giving fish. You can also opt to send someone to school.

If you want to help a poor beggar, it would be wise to know what he/she needs most. Sometimes it is shelter, sometimes it is food, sometimes it is a fresh change of clothes or a bath, usually it is all of the above. Giving money could be impractical because he/she might lack the wisdom and use it for unwholesome activities such as to feed an addiction that they cannot afford. You may lend a hand in prolonging destitution.

If you want to help an old person who is living in a shelter, it might be most effective to extend spiritual comfort, a caring chat, a massage to ease a body pain, some grooming services, if it isn’t possible to bring a person who would put laughter back in his/her life. Often these folks do not get to see their own kin so frequently and may be hurting from it. A lavish party would not do anything and could cause bitterness or frustration.

How about a little insect? Is it worthy of our help? Perhaps by suppressing the urge to kill it, is the greatest act of compassion. If a snail was lost, you could bring it back to its’ natural habitat. If an ant was in your way, you could use a paper to transport it to an outdoor spot where it could disturb nobody. If you lack talent in rearing fish, do not own an aquarium.

How else can you help?

What about giving your time? Time is the most important commodity. People often throw money to help because they are not able to give their time. Our challenge is to give time and spend those time in the most effective manner possible. We may also help by using our resources, knowledge, skills, influence and et cetera. Sometimes if you can help by making an introduction to the right person who can help, and getting the person interested to help. You could use your skills in troubleshooting to solve some daily issues for someone lacking the knowledge. You could help by writing letters, making phone calls, providing transport or shelter, repairing things, coaching someone how to do something useful, suggesting improvements and giving aid to achieve them, helping clean, drawing out structure where there is chaos, supplying a steady supply of rice/sugar/flour, taking care of monthly utility bills, offering your leadership… et cetera.

To be honest, if we really wanted to help, there are many ways to help another without the talk of money or materialistic means. We do what we can, it boils down to how much effort we want to put into this calling. Look first into the the basic and practical needs of the recipient and be mindful to help with a simple motivation to improve another life. Rejoice that we are in the position to offer another life some help and realize that it is a blessing when someone comes to you for help.

Helping Angels do not have any tax exemption activities. We do not welcome politicking, commercial marketing or religious evangelism. There are no fund raising activities, neither do we handle any type of material donation. We only help by pointing you in the right direction towards undiscovered corner of society that is in need of some basic practical help. In fact, we need your help to alert us to homes, shelters and welfares that are not getting much support from the general public (due to lack of PR activities).

If you are not able to give time, please browse into our classifieds to see who needs what, and go directly to help. We do not play any middle-men roles except to investigate issues and encourage people to help in the most direct ways possible.

Who else needs help?

Sometimes people who need help does not even know it or are too proud to admit it. We could look within and see aspects of ourselves that we are defensive about receiving help. Our pride tend to get in the way of improvements. We could help ourselves by overcoming the ugly pride, discard our arrogance and adopt humility in learning. That is probably the best way to bring positivity into our own life, by changing ourselves without expecting others to change. Quietly throw away your bad qualities and be disciplined about installing new ones. Think of yourself as a computer that you could put in new programs. Improve yourself spiritually, and learn how to be attracted to the healthy stuff. Practice goodness and see this practice like balancing your cash flow.

We always should start our charities at home. Start being a helping angel by sorting out your family issues for instance. You could help by being filial to your elders and dutiful to the young. Sometimes unresolved matters at home can be most difficult indeed. It is probably best to start there despite the urge to sweep them under the carpet. If you refuse to tackle your personal matters when you could, and consume all your time into helping outside matters, you are merely indulging in a form of escapism. Sometimes it might be useful to put in the effort at home and then you will be more effective outside in any avenue of help that you may want to offer others. You may opt to do both simultaneously, by starting your charity at home as well as outside.

Practice generosity towards your family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and strangers. It can start with a simple smile or a sincere compliment. You could stifle unreasonable urges to lose your patience with others too. With animals, it could be a conscious choice not to kill it or eat it while it is still alive or to save it from harms way.

We could also help by conserving the environment. Reduce, reuse and recycle. Be learned about environmental issues and install a sustainable lifestyle that will not increase the usage of plastics or unnecessary energy.

Help by bringing improvements to everything you can think of.

JUST IMPROVE!

Thank you for reading!

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