What does it mean to help?

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What exactly does it mean to help someone?

Coming here i thought i would be able to help countless people just by being around, and ive realized that its just not true. Im not skilled in the right areas to really help, and im not here for long enough to really follow through with anything or start a project etc. Theres a LOT of red tape to cut through if you want to join an NGO, which personally i think is wrong since it means a lot of people will never even get the chance to help out even if they want to. I wanted to work at an orphanage, and that definately didnt work.

Its also difficult to decide who really needs help. Of course everyone needs help at some point in thier lives, but thats not what i mean. The school, for example, already had a teacher, and so i would have been putting that teacher out of work had i began teaching there myself. You cant fix whats not broken, even if it doesnt work perfectly.


The whole thing with The island and the worms is good, but i wont be around to see if what i said will actually be implemented, and who will pull out the rest of the worms. Ideally, one person who lived on the island could have been trained to do the medical stuff and then take over from us. Not enough was done there.

Helping the random travellers is good, its always good. But it doesnt reach a wide number of people at once.

Yesterday we took a one year old baby to the doctor to have a check up. He had a cough and a rash and his mother, who only makes 2 cedi a day ( about 1.4 CAD), could nether afford to take him or get the time off. we got his medication, and in total the whole event cost about thirty cedi, pennies to us but more than a months worth of savings for her if she only eats 1 cedi a day of food. Did i mention she is only 18?
We helped her out a bit more by giving her the money she needs to travel home so she can leave the baby with her mother. ( that is A VERY common thing here, most children are raised by family memebers other than thier biological parents) ...... This makes the difference for her and her baby, but for who else??

The last way i think i want to help is by sponsoring a childs education through the end of secondary school. I know a lot of children here who have potential but not the means to get themselves through school. This is tricky though because you cant give the money directly to hte parents. ITs not that they would intentionally misuse it in most cases, its more that they have other financial stresses too, and some that they feel are more pressing. Nonetheless, im lookin into it. If anyone else is interested let me know and i can arrange for you to be set up with a child here.

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