Is it Really ‘Helping’?
I learned a lot about the various ways that people ‘help’ while I was away. On one particular day, we visited a day hospital for AIDS babies. While called a hospital, this was really nothing more than a row of beds, a place for mothers to sit with their babies who have no chance of survival. It was heartbreaking to see these babies and to know that nothing could be done for them. This hospital affected all of us, and we started discussing what we could do when we got home. It was suggested by one of the Ambassadors that we could send money for paint for the walls, to make the hospital brighter inside. I came to understand that this kind of ‘help’ gives us the quick fix that we are all looking for. It doesn’t mean that are hearts aren’t in the right place, on the contrary, but it does mean that we are searching for the quick answer so that we can live our lives satisfied that we have done something, made a difference in someone else’s life, without considering whether what we did was of any help at all.
What really needs to be done to fix this hospital is to fix the reason it’s there in the first place. The AIDS epidemic is getting
worse all the time, and something needs to be done to stop it. The drugs are there, but the pharmaceutical companies have the market so under control that it is impossible for ‘home brand’ medicines to be made available at a fraction of the cost.
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