Helping wisely
Poverty, homelessness is not a choice. In order to stop handling the problem more or less efficiently in order to solve it, you need wise support – wise helping, i.e. well thought-over, adequate to specific and current needs, not short-term, but comprehensive and long-term. Wise support is also support that respects the dignity of the person being helped, does not incapacitate them, strengthens self-determination and involves them in the process of deciding on the shape of the undertaken assistance activities. Helping in such a way so that the help does not bear the signs of violence, so that it does not perpetuate a difficult situation.
Time – the best gift
Why do we help? We help because we feel empathy, because we have struggled with similar problems, because someone once has helped us and we want to "repay the debt", because we invest in the future with the hope that one day someone will help us, because we relieve remorse, because we feel better when we help, because we feel needed, because the good comes back to you, because... There are many reasons. It does not matter which reason is yours. It matters that you are not indifferent, that you do not get used to seeing people in need. "It doesn't matter if it is PLN 2, PLN 5" – as one of the people experiencing homelessness describes – "The time you give me, the conversation count." So much and so little.
A little is enough
Why help? Because perhaps we have more faith in success and less baggage of negative experiences. Because sometimes our being interested is enough to rekindle hope for change. Because the person in need ceases to be invisible. Because perhaps we have resources (time, ideas, money, friends, determination) that the other person does not have. Because sometimes a little is enough for a person in a difficult situation to take an effective fight to change their situation. Because perhaps they need a companion who would be with them and restore their faith in meaning and success.
Hundreds of families still need help – Noble Gift
Source: Dr Małgorzata Kostrzyńska, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Lodz
Edit: Promotion Centre, University of Lodz