We came home from taraweeh prayers at the mosque this evening and put our children to bed. It's a weekend and that means they're all camped out in our bedroom. Even with perfectly comfy beds in their own rooms (full of toys and books and clothes), they still like to camp out in their sleeping bags all around our bed on the weekends. Honestly, I don't mind it one bit. It's comforting to lay down and look around just before closing my eyes and seeing my children peacefully sleeping.
All is well. We are so blessed. Alhamdulillah (Thank you God).
After everyone was tucked in I came down to update my FirstGiving.com site's "Ramadan Running 4 Relief" campaign. While looking for news about orphans in India on Google (I'm trying to learn more about their plight each day) I ran across some images. Here is one of them:
And then I came across this one:
I had to walk back up stairs. I stood in the doorway of my bedroom and looked in on my family. I stood there for a minute just looking at my children and my wife and I felt the need to bow my head and thank God and to pray for the millions of children in India (and throughout the world) who are suffering from homelessness, hunger and disease. And that's exactly what I did, because in that moment there was nothing else I could do.
This is not to say that the condition of these children is hopeless, nor does it mean that I feel absolved of my responsibility to these children with one small prayer. I've seen the suffering and now I have a responsibility to act.
I found a wonderful blog that chronicles a fellow American's ten day trip to India to visit orphanages run by The Miracle Foundation. His name is Kevin Brelsford and his blog - Making a Difference with the Miracle Foundation - has many photos of orphans in India living much healthier, safer and decent lives with the help of The Miracle Foundation (based in Austin, TX). This group is doing good work for a small number of very needy and vulnerable children, so I'm doing my part to help them with their work (that's what this year's "Ramadan Running 4 Relief" campaign is about).
Helping The Miracle Foundation to help some of the 25 to 30 million orphans in India is meaningful because each and every human life they save is invaluable. As wonderful as their work's results are, however, the reality is that The Miracle Foundation is merely - barely - scratching the surface.
On the other hand, India has the capacity - if it wanted to make it a priority - to save all of its orphaned children. Similarly, the world's leaders have the resources - if they could muster the will to work for a common goal - to eradicate world hunger and to safeguard all children.
Obviously those with the power to solve these problems are not motivated or enlighted to make the changes needed on their own. Left alone, they lack the will put an end to the suffering. People - you and I - have a responsibility to push them to make the right policy decisions and to support them when they make good choices.
In Ramadan I do handful charity work, and I believe the things I do make a difference. Feeding a hungry person, even if it is just one meal, has made that hungry person's life a little better. Lest I get too self-absorbed with my Ramadan good deeds though, I try to stay grounded by asking myself: "Did I just do that for me or for the hungry person?" When I'm honest with myself, often the answer is that I did it to feel good.
If I really wanted to do something to address problems like hunger and homeslessness, then I would commit to bringing about change on a broader scale. Perhaps I need to do more than just help a handful of folks. But how?
Feeding a hungry person is relatively easy because the benefits - to the person giving the charity and to the person receiving it - are almost instantaneous. Trying to develop better policies and to then implement those policies in order to bring about system-wide changes is a slow process. It's hard to see results in the short (or even in the intermediate term).
I think this is why it's easier to convince most folks to give money to feed hungry children than it is to get them involved in an advocacy campaign aimed at policy changes that address the core problems underlying child hunger (and granted, it's also hard to come to an agreement on what are those core problems).
But hard as it is to get motivated to work for sustainable, long-term solutions to these heart-wrenching problems (like orphans in India), it is a Muslim's duty to do so. If all we do is feed and shelter orphans without, at the same time, working to reduce the number of children who become orphans, then we've lost faith in God.
I believe God can do anything, that God intends to challenge us in this world and in the end, with God anything is possible. If I were to put my faith and my beliefs into action, I would be able to work for a change that I may not see with my own eyes but pursue it passionately nonetheless knowing that relief for those in need is going to happen. That, to me, is part of having faith in the Unseen.
If you are as moved by the images of children eating garbage off the ground and sleeping on filthy streets as I am, then be thankful that you have compassion in your heart. You are lucky. Many people are very hard-hearted about the poor. Be grateful that your heart is shielded by compassion. Compassion is a shield that protects our hearts from becoming hard and cold from fear and from desperation.
However, genuine and heartfelt though our tears may be, when we see a child living alone on the streets, our feelings of compassion alone will not ease that child's suffering. Our compassion has to lead us to action. That action has to help address the immediate problem of sheltering and feeding the children, but it also has to include the much harder and far less (immediately) gratifying task of trying to bring about long term changes as well.
So, tonight, please look at these pictures of real children living in utter desperation. Next, look at your own children sleeping in relative comfort, and then commit yourself to making a real difference in the short term and in the long term.

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