Life is Short:Do Your Part

As i was thinking about ideas for the second post of this blog names of different countries were swarming in my head, should i focus on education or healthcare, or maybe infant mortality? I enjoy reading the comments that my classmates have posted about my posts thus far, because different inputs allow me to rethink my ideas and thoughts. This in turn,allowed me to come up with week's blog.

You might be thinking to yourself, how can i give my part and assist in helping these children? Well, there are a few ways to do this that does not involve thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours a week planning.Today I will be listing and discussing a few ideas that i have personally done and some others that may be useful in the future.

1. Notecards/ Letters

For my Senior project in high school I had a class of 8th grade students gather the week before Thanksgiving break and write letters that would(hopefully) be received by students overseas. The students wrote about what they were grateful for and what they hoped the children would be blessed with in the coming months.Some students wrote that thy hope the students would be able to become whoever they wanted to become, or the chance to travel the world. even the chance to escape terror and live in peace.As i was walking around the room and watching these students poor out their hearts on paper that may or may not be received by these children, it brought tears to my eyes. These students had only seen a short video and done some activities and they were already passionate about making an impact. Writing letters or becoming pen pals with a child living overseas in dangerous areas, can be the easiest and most selfless way or making a child's day or year, and doing your part in helping.

2.Fundraiser

Fundraising takes more time and effort but it can be a very successful venture.Many churches and schools have pasta fundraisers to raise money for a specific cause.This idea could certainly be duplicated and can bring in large amounts of funds to certain organizations such as UNICEF or Charity organization. If pasta is not your forte, baked goods or auctions could also be just as effective.

3.Care Packages

This is another form of charity that i have had experience in when doing my Senior Project. As extra credit that went towards their class, I had the eight grade students collect body care necessities such as toothpaste and soap to give to the Lutheran World Relief which sends different forms of care packages to impoverished nations, many times ripped by war. By donating and getting involved in the LWR(Lutheran World Relief), you have the choice to organize care packages that range from quilts to school supplies. They have some strict guidelines and you have to live close to a drop off station but this could be a good way to get large amounts of people involved at once and increase donations

4.Freerice.com

Many of you have probably had experience with this website.It's an extremely easy and quick way to give back for those who don't have much time to organize and plan. Free Rice is a website that has two goals "Provide education to everyone for free" and, "help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free". You simply login in and create an account and then answer different trivia questions ranging from math to English. Each correct answer to a questions is equivalent to a certain amount of rice. Simple,yet just as effective to give back and increase your support.


I realize that many people do not have hours of time a week to give back, and it may not be on the top of your list of importance, but any small amount of support and volunteering can make a large difference in the end. We are only given one life to live and only a short amount of time to make the most out of it. Our life would be more fulfilling if we spent  more time helping others escape certain burdens in their lives, rather than increasing our burdens with materialistic matters.