Category: Helping Others

Mexico City volunteers formed human chains and rescued people trapped in the remains of apartments that collapsed after a massive earthquake. Mexico City’s mayor, Miguel Angel Mancera, said about 40 buildings were destroyed by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck the city in 2017. The earthquake caused at least 230 deaths. 100 of them died in the capital. Dozens of volunteers formed villages on the collapsed apartment grounds and carried tiles out of the area. In another building, volunteers worked together to carry stretchers and helped rescue workers.

Volunteers helped the residents of Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo and repaired the roof damaged by the typhoon. On the first day of the three-day weekend, more than 100 volunteers gathered in Tateyama City. A man wearing a helmet and using a safety rope climbed on the roof, piled up tiles, and spread tarps. The volunteer construction worker was one of many people helping to repair a house whose roof was destroyed by a typhoon. He said they wanted to cover as much roof as possible before it began to rain. A 70-year-old woman living alone said she was worried that another typhoon would leak more rain into her home. She said she was pleased that the volunteers helped.

After finding a missing 2-year-old boy in Oita Prefecture, Haruo Obata, who was called a ‘super volunteer’, was praised for his volunteering spirit and behavior in his hometown of Hiji City, Oita Prefecture. The police had not yet found a clue about the boy’s whereabouts. Obata found him and surprised many people. He said: “I will continue volunteering as long as the body allows”. The various volunteer activities he participated in led people to call him a super volunteer. He is a mountain climbing enthusiast and has been preparing a mountain trail for 30 years at Mount Yufu in Oita Prefecture. The stairs he created allow the climber to climb a steep slope. After the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, Mr. Obata went to Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, one of the most severely affected areas to find photo albums and other memorabilia. They were buried in debris and returned to the owner. After finding a missing boy in Suo-Oshima, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in August, Obata took few breaks before going to volunteers in Hiroshima until the end of August. Obata will eat and sleep in the microvan during volunteer activities. “I want you to take part in the mud work. It takes just an hour. The people affected by the disaster greatly value your work”, he said.

I think that Japan was a country with many natural disasters. We have experienced various disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons. As a result, there are many dead and injured people. I think we have overcome many of these disasters with the help of volunteers. I think there are many people who could not help without the help of volunteers. In addition to natural disasters, I learned that searching for missing people, like Mr. Obata, is one of volunteer activities. I was surprised that volunteer found it even though the police could not find it. I understood the importance of helping others and that someone’s little actions could save a person’s life. I have only participated in volunteers to pick up trash. I will participate in the Olympic Volunteers in 2020, so I will do my best to help people.

After producing a diamond ranking of the six possible solutions to poverty it has been decided that helping others through organizations like Rosies and Vinnies, which help homeless and poor people, is the most helpful and affective action to be taken to fix poverty in our society. There are also many other solutions to poverty, such as volunteering overseas and donating clothes to a charity shop, but in terms of usefulness to ‘restore the balance’, helping others through a nearby organization will be the most successful way to stop and prevent poverty from becoming worse.

There are many ways in which volunteering with organizations like Rosies and Vinnies is able to benefit both the person taking action and the people in need. By helping people who are struggling will give a person a feeling of gratitude and proudness. Another advantage is that one will be able to share skills along with teach others. In addition, helping others somewhere will also project a sense of community and friendship, it will give a person the chance to see how others who have less view life, and it can make a person feel more grateful for what they already have. The action of helping people in person other than donating or creating awareness is more important as volunteering allows people to get out there and make a difference, whereas creating awareness does not make a change, it just spreads ideas. Although organizing time to volunteer may be a lot of commitment, it is all worth it because helping others can create a huge difference in the world or local community.

Giving money away to organizations that help people living in poverty is a very effective idea in which people would be able to restore the balance, but there are a few negatives. Some positive aspects of giving money away to help others is that the donations will go to the children so they can have a better education and create a better school and place to learn. Although these advantages are able to help the poor very much, there are also a number of negatives. One reason why donating money may be a bad idea is that when they are given things or buy things with the money, they then do not have enough money sustain it. One award-winning human rights journalist states: “In 2007, worms were found in the polluted water supply at the village of Abia, next to the Emuru swamp. A badly constructed and poorly maintained shallow well, dug by a charity, was full of soil and animal faeces and was making local people sick”. This can justify that donating money may not be a good idea and can have severe effects on communities to which the money is donated.

The less important actions that could be taken is to start up a school group or donate clothes. Although it is a great thing to be able to teach teens about restoring the balance and how they can help, starting a school group may project the message to help poverty, but creating awareness is not going to fix the issue because nothing is being done. Donating clothes may sound like a wonderful idea, but in reality, it causes a number of difficulties in the world. This is because if the clothes are being put into a dedicated recycling bin, chances are the clothes donated are just the beginning of a long, winding path that can terminate thousands of kilometers and an ocean away.

So, I believe that a supported volunteering with organizations such as Rosies and Vinnies is the most beneficial way in which everyone can restore the balance and create a just world where poverty is not an issue.

There are many poor people in the world. Although the number of poor people is decreasing, it is still one of the global problems. Poverty does not strike all demographics equally. For example, in 2018, 10.6% of men and 12.9% of women lived in poverty in the USA. Along the same lines, the poverty rate for married couples in 2018 was only 4.7%, but the poverty rate for single-parent families with no wife present was 12.7%, and for single-parent families with no husband present was 24.9%.

One teacher from Neepawa, Canada, made a trip to Winnipeg for his students in grades 6 to 8. The students volunteered at the Winnipeg Harvest, and they did everything from portioning to bagging and sorting donations. One student thought that people who were homeless or used shelters and stuff were the only ones who used it. The students met Kerry Weyman, who used the food bank in order to feed her children and now volunteers to help others. After listening to Weyman’s story, the students could get a good understanding of poverty.

If you’re passionate about the environment, you can clean up a local park or school or pond. If you want to help the hungry and homeless, you can give the person a piece of fruit, a bottle of water, or a snack. You can donate used clothing or food to a local organization. If you want to help education in your community, you can donate the books that you don’t use anymore and unused school supplies to your local school or library. If you want to help the elderly in your community, you can help an elderly neighbor remain independent by taking her to run errands. And, of course, you can keep company with local nursing home residents by volunteering to spend time with them, such as playing board games, reading, or just chatting. I think that the more time you spend, the better the quality of the volunteers and the more people you can help.

I think it’s important to join volunteers because there are a lot of people who don’t know about poverty problems or other problems. But we can understand about that if we join volunteers. And we have a lot of volunteers that can make a difference. For example, donate blood, participate in a charity event, get a consultation, do a clean activity, and so on.

Indeed, a powerful typhoon recently passed through Japan a few days ago. Many people died and several people were evacuated from their destroyed houses. I knew that there is a person who is engaged in volunteer activities in carrying out broken furniture, cleaning up dirt. I thought it was very good for the people who were evacuated.

In conclusion, in reality we can do anything, no matter how old we are. Even for a short time, we can become a volunteer and provide help to someone who really needs it.

The two careers I chose for my senior project are Registered Nurse and Mental Health, counselor. The pros of being an RN are a good salary and teamwork. The cons of being an RN are long work shifts, evaluating patient orders, and not always being able to give them the medications or requests that they want. The pros of being a Mental Health Counselor are a good salary, helping others with any sort of mental health issue, and coming up with solutions on how to help and better them. Becoming a Mental Health Counselor would be the best career for me.

Being a Mental Health Counselor would be the best career for me because of the soft skills that are needed to be a counselor. I have taken a speech class that has allowed me to have better communication skills. The speech class that I took has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and communicate better in all kinds of situations. It is important to be able to communicate and comprehend what is going on in order to be a counselor. Being able to communicate well is not only helpful to those who are needing help, but also to yourself.

In order to be a Mental Health Counselor, you need a 4-year bachelor’s degree in psychology, education, or a field that is similar. A year or two of a master’s degree program may also require a 1-year internship. The classes that I have taken to help me become a Mental Health Counselor are psychology, health, and health occupations. I am also currently taking parenting and child development which can help me be a better counselor for children or parents. The information that has been covered in these classes has taught me how people work and that not everyone is the same and handles things the same. I have developed a lot of patience and knowledge about how the human brain works which is beneficial for this job because you are working with people who you must be patient with and understand what they are going through. I have also developed a critical thinking skill that is beneficial for this job because you must think critically in almost all situations you are dealing with or helping others with.

I have always been interested in problem-solving and critical thinking and because those are two of the skills that are required in order to be a Mental Health Counselor, I think this career would be a good job for me. I love helping others and assisting them with their daily challenges. I’ve been through a decent number of traumatic events which means that I can empathize and relate to someone else’s problems and problem-solve to overcome the event or events that are making them go to counseling.

A lot of people look for trust while speaking with their counselors and I feel like I am trustworthy. For one to get the required help that they need, they need to have trust in their counselor, so they feel safe. Everything that is said inside the counseling office is confidential and I think that is an important concept that those attending counseling should know. You want your problems and your story to be confidential.

Something that can get in the way of this job is people not being patient with you or trusting you. That can make your job a lot harder and you must come up with a new way to help them so they can trust you, but you also must be patient with them. I am going to overcome this obstacle by letting them open at their own pace, instead of feeling forced. Being a counselor is not an easy job and requires a variety of soft skills and hard skills. It’s a beneficial career and the steps that are needed in order to pursue this career can be tough and all-around challenging. I like challenges and absolutely love being able to be there for people, so I think being a mental health counselor is the right career for me.

After comparing the career of a mental health counselor and the career of a registered nurse, I have decided that counseling is the best career option for me. The reason I want to pursue a career in counseling is that counselors have a big impact and play an important role in helping others overcome their problems with suggestions and solutions. I have taken classes such as health occupations, health, speech, English, and sociology which are high school classes that most counselors recommend to students who want to have a degree or career in counseling. The big picture of my senior project was finding a career that I think I would do well in pursuing based on my skills and the steps I’ve already taken that can help me pursue this career.

If you enjoy problem-solving, critical thinking, and most importantly, helping others overcome challenges and problems, counseling might be a good career for you. It is important to think ahead and have a plan. This is important because if you don’t have a plan, things can get rocky and you’ll most likely feel lost on what to do and start to give up. Having a plan helps you map out how you want your life to be. Thinking ahead and having a plan has helped me determine if college is what I want to do after high school. This can help me long-term because I have a plan in mind that will help me determine my future.

My responsibility as I’m entering the “adult world” is to have a plan for myself so I’m not lost and just winging my life. Pursuing a career in counseling will complement my skills and assist me in making that transition. I’m going to stand out in this field by going the extra mile to help my clients and make them feel safe and unjudged. I hope to make my clients feel happy and safe and also find out the things bothering them so I can give them advice and suggestions to overcome them. I hope to make an impact on every client so they will recommend me to others and help them in the long run.

Works Cited

1. Cherry, Kendra. “The Classes You Should Take in High School for Majoring in Psychology.” Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 17 Sept. 2019, https://www.verywellmind.com/high-school-classes-for-psychology-majors-2795143.
2. “How to Become a Mental Health Counselor.” Online Counseling Programs, https://onlinecounselingprograms.com/become-a-counselor/counseling-careers/mental-health-counselor/
3. “Counseling Degrees: What You’ll Study in Your School Program.” AllPsychologySchools.com, https://www.allpsychologyschools.com/counseling/degrees
4. Writers, Staff. “Counseling Licensure Requirements in Idaho.” Counselor, Counselor-License.com, 16 Aug. 2019, https://counselor-license.com/state-licensure/idaho/.
5. “How to become a counselor-salary, qualifications and reviews-seek.” Seek https://www.seek.com.au/learning/careers/counsellor/job-description. Accessed 18 November 2019
6. “Mental Health Counseling Job Description.” All Psychology Schools All Star Directories Inc. https://www.allpsychologyschools.com/mental-health-counseling/job-description/ Accessed 18 November 2019
7. “Mental Health Counselor Salary Information” Mental Health Counselor Salary Mental Health Counselor Salary https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/mental-health-counselor/salary Accessed 18 November 2019
8. “What Skills are Needed to be a Therapist” Good Therapy How to become a Therapist https://www.goodtherapy.org/become-a-therapist/skills-needed.html Accessed 18 November 2019
9. ‘How to Become a Counselor” – Salary, Qualifications & Reviews – SEEK.” Seek Career Advice AU, https://www.seek.com.au/learning/careers/counsellor/job-description. Accessed 18 November 2019
10. “Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors: Occupational Outlook Handbook.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 Sept. 2019, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/substance-abuse-behavioral-disorder-and-mental-health-counselors.htm.
11. McKay, Dawn Rosenberg. “Registered Nurse (RN) Job Description: Salary, Skills, & More.” The Balance Careers, The Balance Careers, 18 June 2019, https://www.thebalancecareers.com/registered-nurse-526062#registered-nurse-duties–responsibilities
12. “Registered Nurse Salary Comparison.” All Nursing Schools, https://www.allnursingschools.com/registered-nursing/salary/.
13. “Top 10 Soft Skills for Nurses.” Top 10 Soft Skills for Nurses | Nursing Blog | Lippincott NursingCenter, https://www.nursingcenter.com/ncblog/march-2019/top-10-soft-skills-for-nurses
14. Doyle, Alison. “Best Nursing and Nurse Practitioner Skills for Your Resume.” The Balance Careers, The Balance Careers, 30 Apr. 2019, https://www.thebalancecareers.com/list-of-nursing-skills-2063761
15. “Registered Nurse Salary in Idaho.” Registered Nurse: RN Guide about Nursing Schools and Programs, https://www.topregisterednurse.com/salary/idaho/
16. Sawchuk, Russell. Numbers of Nurses, https://www.learningnurse.org/index.php/library/nurse-numbers.

I still remember the day of this incident. I was thirteen years’ old then. It was pouring heavily, and I had to go to a nearby store to purchase medicines for my grandmother. As it was raining, I pulled on an overcoat and went out. When I reached the main road, the traffic was heavy, and almost every vehicle is moving bumper-to-bumper. At the zebra crossing, I stood for the lights to go, so that I can cross the road. It is then I saw an old man, almost in his nineties, trying to cross the street. He looks emaciated, thin, and poorly nourished. He was completely drenched in the rain and he was shivering. Many people passed by him, but hardly anyone noticed his state and tried to offer help.

Meanwhile, I also found a young boy, who could have been eight or nine years’ old, running with an umbrella to this old man. The boy was tall, thin, blonde, and had beautiful blue eyes. He had a packet in his small hands. When he reached the old man, he offered him help and helped him to cross the road. I was on the same side of the way then. I could see them now together. The boy took the old man to the bottom of the pavement and made him sit in the bus shelter. By then, the old man was shivering and was looking pale. He handed over food to him and got a hot cup of coffee from a nearby coffee shop.

I was awestruck with the gesture of that little boy. That incident changed the whole perspective of how I see my life. The old man there taught me that materialistic things in this world do not last long. It is only the love and relationships that matter. If at all he had some loved ones to care about him, he would not be on roads all alone. On the other hand, the little boy taught me that to offer help, age, money, or time are not hindrances. All it needs is a willing heart to help. This incident reminded me of Mother Teresa’s famous saying that helping hands are better than praying lips and has been also supported by Seda.

From that day, I made myself available to help people in need. I got habituated to small gestures like assisting old people in crossing the road, giving away small portions of my food to people in need, offering my old but wearable clothes and shoes to poor, and keeping a part of my earnings for charity. I feel helping others helps to live a happier and contented life. This incident made me realize that help can be offered even if we do not know an individual in person. The satisfaction I get by helping others cannot be described in words. The incident also encouraged me to join non-profit organizations. Today, I am a proud member of some organizations, which help orphans to have a happy meal, offer education to underprivileged, and help those who are abandoned. After all, we are here to live and let live.

We consider the word ‘No’ predominantly as a symbol of self-respect and discipline, which is right. Most people think it’s a difficult word to vocalize but saying ‘Yes’ is often harder than saying ‘No’ because it’s a verbal devotion to be an active contributor. ‘No’ easily transitions into a slippery slope of plans never fulfilled and good intentions never achieved. It gives the illusion of total empowerment, while it really acts as an excuse.

As I was born in Ngozi, a rural area of Burundi, I spent my childhood seeing people struggling every day to support their families. As an illiterate man, my father struggled for getting to get bank credits to run support his plans. Despite the situation, neighbors and friends showed their generous support incessantly. Giving each other a hand was common to everybody. Empathy was found in every family you would visited. Respecting and helping older people was taught to every kid from a young age. After moving to the capital, Bujumbura, with my family at the age of 7, I found out that everything was totally different on the other side of the world. Saying ‘No’ was an art that most people mastered. An art that was applied anytime someone would come seeking for help or service unless if it comes came with benefits.

Learning English as my third language and adjusting to the ways of the city, I tried to blend in to the new community but one thing I couldn’t embrace was living my life selfishly. I kept the cultivation that my parents gave me and supplied my help to everybody with warmth until I found out that people were exploiting my kindness. After realizing that, I couldn’t help but feel dismayed but let dismay secure me and I decided to boost my self-respect as my friend always advocated me to: I joined the ‘No’ language speakers. By doing so, I made many excuses and the main one was usually ‘No, I have a lot to do’ as I had heard many others say. As time elapsed, my life became tedious because of the absence of new adventures.

However recently, in 2016, I was asked to join the charity club of the high school I attend. Then after giving it a thought, a question snapped in my head: Is this a good enough reason there a reason good enough to say ‘No’? At that moment, I perceived that, from the beginning, every choice I made was based on others’ opinions. It was time for me to give myself the right to choose. I understood that saying ‘yes’ was not about sacrificing all our time to others or feeling pressured to do things we don’t want to do. It was about having the bravery and persuasion to do the things we know we really want to do. Sometimes, they scare us. This realization helped me to gain news experiences. Everything became an adventure and my life became more fun, I discovered what I really liked and what I don’t, my relationships grew stronger, I met new people from different backgrounds, I learned how to find solutions and became less afraid to try new things.

Helping others was my dedication since I was still young. It is just that most of us do it in the wrong way: we focus too much on others that we forget about ourselves. This diminishes our personal achievements and makes us less efficient of at helping others at a projected time.

Lending a helping hand is a gesture of kindness which people show towards needful. We all need help at some point in our life. People generally seek help when they are distressed, depressed, or in some trouble. I received help from my friends plenty of times and helped them too. When we help someone, it makes us feel contented, peaceful, and pleasant, moreover, it also determines our behavior towards others.

If I have to talk about an incident, it would undoubtedly be the time when I was in graduation the first year, I lent a helping hand to a family in the nearby locality. Exactly, I don’t know the person, but I met him at my sister’s school, his daughter studies with my sister, and they were friends. He has 5 members in his family and he was a technician. He is not much educated and he chiefly relied on the small workshop he had to repair electronic equipment. After a devastating earthquake, his workshop was demolished and he had no additional revenue source or capital to rebuild it. One day my sister told me about this unfortunate event that happened with her friend’s family. I was so touched by their tragic story that I decided to help them with whatever help possible. The next day in the morning, I went to their home with my sister. He explained to me what happened and was speaking in a trembling voice. I offered them the snacks and fruits which I bought on the way to their home. I observed the small kids were eating the food voraciously and they had smiles on their cute little faces. I told the whole story to my three best friends when I went to college. Finally, we decided to have the advice of an experienced person, so we went to our class teacher and explained to her about the suffering of the person and his family. The teacher permitted us to help them and provided us with some ideas to raise money for the suffering families from other classes. The students were kind enough to donate, sympathizing with the suffering of that person and his family which we were trying to convey. We collected a good sum of the money, which surpassed my anticipation. We went to the shop and got the rebuilding work of the shop started. We gave the remaining sum of money to the man so that he became able to restart his workshop again and earn bread and butter for his family. I really felt blessed and emotional when the husband and wife prayed for us and gave their blessings to us. My sister thanked me too for helping her friends and family. But the real surprise was the one which I received in my college from the director in front of the whole college. I was given a token of respect and appreciation for coming forward for a noble cause.

That day I realized how enthralling, peaceful, and gratifying it is to lend someone a helping hand. The peace one receives by helping someone needy is beyond explanation.

The homeless population in Nashville is a predominant issue that is affecting the overall quality of life in the state of Tennessee. People experiencing homelessness are in danger because they do not have the proper shelter to live comfortably without the worry of theft, bad weather conditions, health problems, and the threat of being removed from camps by the government. They could be taken away from friends and family without any prior warning and be dumped back out onto the streets without anywhere else to go. What should the government do with these people? Should they let the people live, even though it is technically illegal for them to do so, or should they continue to destroy these camps? People are divided on which strategy is most effective, but the Nashville community cannot continue to let the government be indecisive. Homelessness has significant problems within the community, and society is damaged because of it.

According to the United States Council on Homelessness, “Tennessee had an estimated 7,256 experiencing homelessness on any given day, as reported by Continuums of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)” (usich.gov) which suggests that we have a prevalent issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Around 2,500 of these people are in Nashville (fox17.com). Nashville has more homeless people than any other city in Tennessee. How should we combat homelessness? Do we need to build more houses? Should we focus on sheltering the homeless until they get back on their feet? In Praying with Our Feet, Lindsey Krinks writes of a quote from Clemmie Greenlee, “The people on the streets aren’t homeless. They’re houseless. They’re not [all] lazy. They’re working double shifts at jobs that don’t pay the bills!… you gotta understand that the root cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing and the lack of inadequate wages (Krinks, pg.12, Praying with our Feet, Brazos Press)” she is conveying to the reader that homelessness is not usually due to laziness, but to a lack of metaphorical safety nets for certain people. Someone could work as hard as they can and still end up on the streets because they messed up on one occasion. No matter how much they make, they may not be able to find a decent place to live, or even find transportation to their job.

What can the church do to help combat homelessness? According to Open Table Nashville, 35% of the cause of homelessness is sudden job loss. (OpenTableNashville.org) Most establishments will not hire an employee without a home address. The Christian Church should feel obligated to partner with organizations such as Room in the Inn and Open Table Nashville. Room in the Inn is an organization that allows homeless people a place to stay free of charge when it is too cold to sleep outside. Every night in which the temperature is below twenty-eight degrees, Open Table sends volunteers to drive buses through downtown Nashville to minister to people experiencing homelessness, as well as bring them to the warming shelters as well as overflow shelters opened by the city. If churches encourage their visitors to donate or volunteer, this would greatly help these organizations. If a church is financially able, it can give the city the money to open more warming shelters, allowing more people to stay warm at night. This will surely decrease the amount of friends that are lost in the cold due to the negligence of people who claim to be Christ-followers.

Homelessness is an issue that can be reversed for the average homeless person. However, what about people who are chronically homeless? When people are chronically homeless, it is generally because of a physical or mental disability that makes them unable to do any physical work or labor. This means that they are viewed as essentially worthless by society. Should we just disregard these people? The obvious answer is no. Organizations such as VOA (veterans of America) and the HRW (Housing Rights Watch) are already pushing to protect the disabled homeless population. They are advocating for disabled veterans to receive cheaper housing. When the HRW states, “Homelessness disproportionately affects persons with disabilities. In a vicious circle, disability often leads to homelessness and homelessness, in turn, creates or exacerbates impairments and additional barriers”, (HousingRightsWatch.org) they are explaining how we are discouraging people from serving in our military because we put them into a vicious cycle of chronic homeless after risking their lives for our country. If the Nashville government were to construct a plan where taxes increased just slightly, homeless veterans would have a second chance. People would be more open to a tax increase if it were for those who fought for freedom.

While a national tax raise would be helpful to support veterans, taxes are high enough currently, and this plan would be very difficult to initiate. I believe in the implementation of the Cold Weather Community Response Plan (coldweathernashville.com). This plan will activate when the National Weather Service’s official local forecast is predicted to reach 28 degrees Fahrenheit or below, and the Metro overflow shelter will begin receiving guests when primary community partner shelters reach maximum capacity. (coldweathernashville.com) Metro also believes in this plan, and they have already attempted to give support to organizations who have helped execute this plan such as Open Table Nashville. (OpenTableNashille.org)

When the National Alliance to End Homelessness revealed, “Males are far more likely to experience homelessness than their female counterparts. Out of every 10,000 males, 22 are homeless. For women and girls, that number is 13. Gender disparities are even more evident when the focus is solely on individual adults (the most significant subgroup within homelessness). The overwhelming majority (70 percent) are men.”, (endhomelessness.org) they emphasize that there must be a reason why men are left without housing much more often than women. There are quite a few theories as to why this may be. First, it has to be taken into consideration that traditionally, men are generally more ambitious in their career field and are willing to put more on the line to make lavish amounts of money, but in turn, they are more likely to lose what they have; in a general aspect, women tend to be content with the position they hold in their workplace instead of risking what they have to make more money. Men are more likely to be veterans, and veteran homelessness is a significant problem in Nashville. Men are usually less likely to receive treatment for mental health issues, which can lead to substance abuse, alcoholism, family abuse, etc.

One of the biggest problems the homeless population faces not only nationally, but specifically in southern states such as Tennessee is racial disparity. The Metro Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) declares that despite only being 29.9% of the population, black people make up 63.3% of the homeless population in Nashville. Why is the community of color so disproportionately affected by this problem? So what if race plays a factor? Why should it matter? There are multiple reasons, including inequity in education and lack of access to quality food and recreation in low-income areas where many communities of color live. Also, you must take into consideration that there are still certain individuals who may have a genuine hatred for people of color. Because of subconscious racism, people tend to feel more comfortable with people of their race than people of other races, even without racist intent.

Works Cited:

1. https:www.voa.orgsearch?q=Protecting disabled homeless people

The question I have proposed in this essay is whether we are obligated to help random people if it is in our power to prevent something bad, and if we do not, in general, sacrifice ourselves or injure ourselves.

In his essay ‘Famine, Affluence, and Morality’, Peter Singer states: “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it”. The moral compulsion to help others is our natural instinct as humans, even if they might be strangers. Whatever type of aid that we are giving to help is ‘just’ or ‘right’ as long as it’s helping the situation obviously.

For instance, it was a rainy day in the cold streets of Portland, Maine, and I had been walking home after I just got of the gym. I stopped at the local gas station to pick up something to eat as I was hungry, I grabbed a sandwich, healthy choice of chips and a drink. While I was strolling down the street toward my house, I saw a man walking in the rain with no coat, and who looked a little grungy, almost homeless. I knew as soon as I saw him that I was definitely better than him as I had a place to rest my head and food, etc. I walked over to him and gave the man my jacket, chips, drink, and lastly sandwich, all in that order. I am no means rich but I knew from the instant that I took a glance at the man I was better off than him. I felt obligated to help him as he was in a much worse situation than myself. There was only little that I could possibly do for the man, but sharing and giving him the goods that I had was one of the best options I could have done in that situation. I helped that man for the time being on that day, and it was a good-short term solution.

Howard Zinn said it best: “Small acts when multiplied by millions can transform the world”. This quote by Howard Zinn from the way I interpreted was suggesting that as long as the human race stays on this earth, that all we have to do is ‘try’ within our own power and help situations we see that we can actually help. This would definitely make the world a better place for the human population. On a micro-scale, the small instances that we see in our everyday life where we don’t take action and we probably could would make a huge difference. On a macro-level, if everyone did this, then every small action would be multiplied, and then the total of actions will be therefore greater in the end and a more significant impact would have been made. It’s the ripple effect. The picture that is being portrayed is that as long as our life isn’t being put into devastating situations such as harming, or threatening, we have a ‘moral’ obligation to help out others.

The main question presented by Peter Singer contains ‘morality’; it’s defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior”. Morals are based on someone’s perspective and how that person sees the world, so if this statement is true, then a person can argue that his/her morals or upbringing doesn’t really lineup or conform to those of others, thus seeing no moral obligation to genuinely help others. To rebuttal that argument, there are so many threatening things in this world that we live in every day. It is of the utmost importance that our help is required. Therefore, we cannot just sit back and be a bystander to all of the things that are happening around us and just let everything unfold by itself and not have any influence on some outcomes that we can control.

Caring about other people and their feelings can turn out to be a really good situation or a bad situation. It can be a great situation because you can end up helping the person and making them feel better, but it can be a bad situation because you can end up getting in their business and they start to dislike you. Even though you are doing a good deed and thinking that you are helping that person out with their situation, you could be hurting them at the same time. When I try to help someone, I try to do it like helping people in need, which is a great characteristic of being caring.

I am convinced that helping people in need is a great characteristic of being caring. You cannot be a loving individual if you are just out to improve yourself. Serving different people means serving both those friends and family members who want help in their lives, and also help out less privileged people in the neighborhood or still give you may not know that well who need assistance. Keep watch for people who want help and get a successful way to get involved if you need to be more compassionate. It is also mean to take care is to put more effort into teaching about how different people are feeling the next time that you try to help somebody or talk to them make sure that you are giving them a warm welcome and making sure that you care about them. In addition, when talking to somebody that you do not know or no start out small and with small questions. This can help them understand where you are coming from.

I am a firm believer that helping people is the choice that we make to actually see ourselves out. It is also the best choice to help improve ourselves mentally. When we help someone, it can make a big difference in their life, no matter how small or how big, it is worth more than anything else in the world. Helping people is one of the most significant happiness tools that we must learn throughout our lives. Making in time effort and strength to help different people has a dramatic effect on the general level of emotional happiness and its consequences are long-lasting. In addition, you will provide various people with the help they need.