Admit it, you're pretty lucky. You're reading this article, which means you have an Internet connection. With that, presumably, you have a roof over your head and food on the table. Sometimes, it's hard to think of the privilege we carry with the life we have here in the United States. We shut down when our social media apps are flooded with graphic images of what goes on overseas. The posts are sandwiched between someone's latest selfie and a recipe. Their lives are becoming normalized on our screens.
We often skip videos on our timeline of a child in Palestine or Syria, the Rohingya crisis, the hurricanes, malnutrition in Yemen, and police brutality because they're too much for us to handle — because in that moment, we're on social media for entertainment, and that person's life is too heavy for us to take part in.
Although it hurts us to see these images, our community has become too desensitized to them. It's a norm to find these stories on our timeline and just skip past them. We could feel so much pain, but then what? Do we carry it into our day-to-day lives? What is this doing to our hearts? How do we help without hurting ourselves in the process?
Volunteering: Here’s how it can help.
Aids in the recovery
Relief programs send humanitarian assistance to those directly affected by trauma. Volunteering doesn’t cost you any money — just your time. You can provide food or you can be the one to provide them an education. People’s lives begin to change for the better, and you are the reason for it.