It's Better to Give

Peace Corp Volunteer Michael Solano with students at St. Denis

There are a lot of charities out there in the world. It takes money to do anything. There used to be a time when money wasn’t more important than having a skill or a commodity to trade. While there are many things we are capable of doing with our hands, it’s sometimes even impossible to do the simplest of things without the proper tools.

Those who’ve followed my blogs for any amount of time know that I’m not an activist in any sense. I only endorse those projects, books, music, games, or causes that I feel a personal passion. I’ve worked really hard to build this platform and I refuse to allow it to become a wasteland.

I’m a giver, and most of the time my support is done quietly. For nearly 18 years I supported a child in a 3rd world country, I’ve supported various missions, medical research, shelters, food distribution centers, programs at nursing facilities, etc. I’m not saying these things now for myself, only that I’m not new to the world of giving or working quietly in a volunteer service. I fully understand the value of the selfless act. I also understand and believe in the concept that if we want good things to happen in our lives, we need to sow some good into someone else’ life. Karma, sowing and reaping, whatever phrase or philosophy you want to apply, will always come back full circle. Who you are isn’t about what you do when you have the world at your feet or if everyone is watching you, but what you choose often to do with the last piece of bread you have as you stand in the shadows.

This morning I share a new cause, a new project, a new opportunity. It’s not something that will change the world or start a new movement like the latest Ice Bucket Challenge, but to the students of St. Denis it will make all the difference in the world. Giving to this cause will not offer any spotlight, you won’t receive a nice video message, you won’t get to do a crazy stunt, you won’t need to make a video, and you won’t even get a chance to tag a few of your friends. However, you can take those same concepts and apply them to this cause. I DARE you to send this to a few of your friends, to give them the same chance. I loved the Ice Bucket Challenge. It made my heart smile to see the world giving, no matter the inspiration.

The cause: There’s this little, insignificant school in Lesotho, South Africa that needs a kitchen. The staff and students at St. Denis prepare all their meals outside in three big pots, in the wind, the rain, the cold, the heat, etc. They don’t need millions for research, they just need a few thousand dollars for the equipment and materials to build a simple kitchen. Check out this video my good friend and Peace Corps volunteer and teacher, Michael Solano, made.



http://www.gofundme.com/ews3qk

Give what you can, even if all you can give is just a few dollars, because you’re down to your last piece of bread. For those who can give a lot, do what you can. If several of us could give a little, we can make the lives of these beautiful students just a tad better. No, we can’t solve all their problems with one opportunity, with one project, but it will make those who are out there every day, just a little bit more sanitary, a little more comfortable, and a little brighter.

Till next time,

~Gracious Giver

Turning a Blind Eye

This morning I engaged in a heavy discussion with a dear friend of mine who currently lives and works in a third world country for the Peace Corps.  There is a practice there where the young men of this village go through a 6-month initiation school to learn how to be a man and herd animals.  They are then sent out into the hills to put what they’ve been taught into practice.  As they go, they often ‘abduct’ a young girl from the village, take her to the mountains, gang rape her,  and then one of the boys (whichever the one has enough money/cows) will marry her.  They give the family an agreed upon price of cow/livestock/money in exchange for their daughter.  

My friend told me the story of a young girl who had been washing clothes by the river with the other women from the village when a group of herd boys on horses snatched up the young girl and took her into the mountains.  No one did anything because it’s the accepted practice in that remote and uneducated area.  My heart breaks for that young girl, not only for what she had to endure in those mountains, but for the life she will now have to live, married to one of her rapist, never given the choice or freedom to fall in love, be respected as a woman.  I understand the purpose of the practice – to exert dominion in order to control. It’s what all animals do. Men have been doing it since the beginning.

There’s something inside me that weeps and gets angry every time I hear stories like this.  Perhaps it’s because of my western upbringing, having been raised in a free society and know the taste of freedom.  It’s not that I don’t understand these people are just following their ingrained and long traditions.  But, do they have no soul?  Regardless of their ignorance of western civilization, our laws, and culture, there is an inner consciousness that knows when you hurt another human being that what you’re doing is wrong.

It would be easy for me to place the blame squarely on the ignorance of these young men or the culture in which they live, but it wouldn’t be fair or accurate to lay it only at their feet.  The only time that there has been a societal or cultural change in the treatment of women has occurred is when the women of that culture decided to make a change.  We contend with what we allow.  While the girl being raped has no choice in that activity, what she does from that point forward is her choice.  She either accepts it, or she fights back.  I’m not naïve and know that fighting back may cost her life.  I also know that change doesn’t happen with one battle over night, but several battles over generations.

While for some of us – the days of Hagar, Leah, Abigale and Tamar are over, for others that’s the reality of the day.  What an odd world we live, where paradise and purgatory occupy the same place.  I weep for the young girls who’ve ever experienced this type of brutality.  I also weep for the young men who were pressured or taught to engage in such activities in order to prove their manhood.  I weep for the society that accepts such practices, and I weep for a world who turns a blind eye.

Till next time,
~T.L. Gray