Posts Tagged Helping Others
Stan’s Story
Sep 6
Random Acts Of Kindness
Aug 31
Pakistan’s Mother Teresa
Aug 30
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The aging man in mud-splattered, frayed clothes has barely lowered his body onto the sidewalk when the money starts piling up. Heeding his call for donations for flood victims, Pakistanis of all classes rush to hand over cash to Abdul Sattar Edhi, whose years of dedication to the poor have made him a national icon.
He thanks each donor, some of whom ask to have their photo taken next to him. Four hours later, the crowd remains — and the equivalent of $15,000 is overflowing from a pink basket in front of him.
Edhi has been helping the destitute and sick for more than 60 years, filling the hole left by a state that has largely neglected the welfare of its citizens. Part Mother Teresa, part Gandhi, with a touch of Marx, he is the face of humanitarianism in Pakistan.
hostednews/ap
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is deploying helicopters in Pakistan to feed the victims of deadly floods which the world body’s humanitarian arm estimates has so far affected some 4.5 million people.
The Pakistani Government has offered WFP the use of six helicopters to airlift food to tens of thousands of hungry people people scattered across the Swat Valley in the hard-hit province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province.
“In this scene of devastation, with roads cut [off] and bridges washed away, these helicopters are literally life-savers as they are the only way to get vital food supplies to many thousands of hungry and desperate people,” said the agency’s Executive Director, Josette Sheeran.
un.org
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
He cuts a tiny figure in the vastness of the upland desert, the expanse of scrub and brush and saguaro cactuses and red ragged mountains. He is a red-headed boy with a sunburned nose and sunglasses, and he moves with a step not graceful, nor terribly fast, but steady and determined, his mouth set in a hard line.
The boy, Zachary L. Bonner, has walked nearly 1,950 miles from his home outside Tampa, Fla., to this spot in the desert, and he intends to walk another 500 miles or so to the Pacific Ocean, all to raise money for homeless children.
At 12 years old, he is something of a prodigy among do-gooders. This is the third and longest trek he has organized to raise money for the Little Red Wagon Foundation, the charity he started when he was 6 to help get water to people after Hurricane Charley hit Florida in 2004.
nytimes.com
A laid off paramedic who turned to delivering pizzas to make ends meet is credited with saving the life of a man who went into cardiac arrest just as a pizza was delivered to his door.
Christopher Wuebben, 22, was delivering a pizza late last week to the suburban Denver home of George Linn, when he heard the man’s wife screaming for help, according to Wuebben’s boss, John Keiley.
“Chris told the woman that he was trained in CPR and knew what to do,” Keiley, owner of Johnny’s New York Pizza, said on Tuesday. “He got him on the floor and brought him back to life before the fire department showed up.
montrealgazette.com
Driven to do good deeds
Jul 2
By JEFF STRICKLER, Star Tribune
Many RV drivers are concerned about how many miles they get to the gallon, but Jay Loecken and his family have a different measuring stick: good deeds to the mile.
On April 18, 2008, the family climbed into an RV in Atlanta and started driving around the country, looking for people to help. They haven’t stopped since, in the process visiting 44 states, including a current stop in the Twin Cities.
“My wife and I always dreamed of traveling, but then God showed us that we don’t need to just travel for adventure,” he said. “We travel for a purpose.”
It started with a 2007 mission trip that their church sponsored to Africa, where the family was appalled by the severe poverty.
“The amazing thing was that in the middle of this poverty, they had an incredible sense of community,” Loecken said. “When we came home, we realized that despite all the things we owned, they had something we didn’t.”
startribune.com
Day after day after day, Fern Bloom returned to knock on Dr. Jeffrey Veale’s door at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
When’s it going to be my turn, the Chatsworth woman wanted to know. When can I pay back this incredible gift I’ve just received?
Her husband, Ross, was alive, thanks to the transplant of a kidney donated by a stranger. Now, Fern wanted to return the favor, to be that donor for someone else. Just tell her when.
“No one in the chain backed out — that’s what we were a little worried about,” Dr. Veale said Friday. “Everyone came through.”
dailynews.com
By Dan Elliott – The Associated Press
DENVER — Army Spc. Joseph Sanders was despondent over the breakup of his marriage and feeling alone in the oppressive heat of an Iraqi summer when he turned his rifle on himself and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. His buddy, Spc. Albert Godding, had disabled the rifle by removing the firing pin after Sanders told him he was thinking of killing himself.
It was a singular but welcome victory in the Army’s battle against suicides, which last year claimed the lives of 163 soldiers on active duty and 82 guardsmen and reservists not on active duty.
armytimes.com
Foundation urges volunteers of all ages to host lemonade stands and raise awareness for childhood cancer
WYNNEWOOD, PA – In commemoration of a decade of “standing” for hope, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) is issuing a call to action for volunteers across the country to join the battle against childhood cancer this June. 2010 marks 10 years since cancer patient Alexandra “Alex” Scott held her very first front yard lemonade stand to help doctors find a cure, and while progress has been made, cures and better treatments still need to be found.
alexslemonade.org