About Practicing Good Deeds

You don't have to travel around the globe to find people who need your help. You don't have to risk your life crossing battle fields to reach people who need your help. And you don't have to refuse the thought of aid in general because of that article you read uncovering the sinister practices of the humanitarian organization X giving you the flat excuse no longer to donate.

It was a good friend of mine who cleared his winter wardrobe out not knowing where to bring the warm jackets. Facing his dilemma I got an idea: why not taking his package of clothing together with some stuff I can set aside and searching the most direct way to deliver all that to the deserving poor?

All I needed was to investigate a bit in the city I was staying at that time. Very fast I got the adress of a hostel for the homeless in the Southeast of the town. (The name of the city is irrelevant because it can be every city, every town, every village in the world.) A last look around what I could spare and a big bag full with winter jackets, winter boots, scarfs, warm gloves was packed and ready.

The hostel for the homeless was easy to find but nevertheless a discrete place, drop-in center for those human beings registered under failed existences searching a warm bed for one night during an unusual cold European winter. The guy at the reception was indecisive about my appearance until I showed him the bag full of clothes for his 'clients'. In the first moment he couldn't believe the out-of-the-blue donation but during the unpacking his face brightened, relaxed more and more, he started an informing conversation and I learned at least two more than interesting facts:

The first one is that private initiatives and donations are sadly still rare. Time to change that. By just doing it. The second one is an often overseen fact - many of the homeless need besides upper clothing also underwear. If your boxer shorts aren't too worn out just collect and donate them. Sounds not only simple, it is simple.

I left the hostel for the homeless with the priceless feeling of having done something good. Not like a pathfinder trivia, more from the pragmatic aspect. And of course from the aspect of humanness. For straight direct help you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes the solution lies in simplicity.