What does love mean to you? For most, love is something we experience with those in our orbit: partners, children, parents, and friends. But what about a love great than that? What about the love of humanity? The Huffington Post wrote: “Love is when what you want is never important. But what the other person needs and wants is always paramount.”
How many of us have sincerely thought about the needs of others around the world? When you think about how many people need help worldwide, it is easy to feel a paralysis or indifference. The sheer number of people who need help are overwhelming. Some of us even experience compassion fatigue. Overexposure to tragic news stories and images thanks to constant news cycles can lead to apathy. However, to make this world a better place, you need to think beyond your own fatigue. Focus on how you can bring about social change.
The great Martin Luther King Jr. said: “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Now more than ever, we need to commit to long-term humanitarian aid. The way most organizations give humanitarian aid is a “Band-Aid” approach that may have worked for shorter periods of conflict and crises. According to Paul Spiegel, a former senior official at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the humanitarian system was not designed to address the types of complex conflicts that are happening at present.
We see this ourselves with the ongoing humanitarian crises places like Syria, India, and Afghanistan. People need long-term programs that will help them. Zakat Foundation of America is working globally to provide the needy and vulnerable with programs that help uplift them for the long-term. From our Refugee Empowerment Program to our Livelihoods Program, we are working to give people the essentials they need to only live but thrive.
Won’t you join us on this day of love? Make a gift today.