Do we care ?

Every year, we donate (my parents and I) around Rs. 35,000 to this Indian organization SAMPARC, basically thus paying for the annual educational expenses for three orphan children. Last time in India, I had the privilege of going and seeing for myself what they did. I went and met one of these three children, a 10 year old girl, Pinky. As I left, I told Pinky that I’d be back soon. Perhaps in another week or two before I left for Dubai. She looked at me – wide eyed, and teary. She said,” Could you sit with me for two minutes? I wish to say something to you.” I went up to her and listened for the next two minutes where the kid told me the story of her life. “My parents left me here when I was 6, because I was a girl and they couldn’t afford me anymore. I had one previous guardian family who paid for my expenses, but I never saw them. But you are different. You know how? You care.”

So, do we care ??

I was reading the other day the two most important concerns the Earth faces in the coming few years. The article said, that apart from disease, the two main concerns the world faced, were, “Hunger. Children.”

First to cuisine first, shall we? Well seriously, how many of us here know what hunger really is? Ah, that growl in your stomach when you haven’t had anything since lunch today, is it? Think again.
1 person dies due to hunger related causes every 5 seconds.
5 seconds is nothing but a small pause in our lives.
1 person dies. Why? He’s hungry.

So, do we care?

I was told this amazing thing by a lady when she said,” The amount of food that a person wastes on an average in the U.A.E. is almost double the amount of food a poor African family of four gets to eat during the course of their day.” Well, of course you’d ask, “Does my not wasting food actually help that family in Africa?” No, it doesn’t. But the simple thing is that most of us fail to realize the value of food. And that is the fact that troubles me; we don’t care.

Second, children. Every one in three humans on Earth today, is a child. That makes it, around 2.2 billion children. Another interesting number with regards to children, of course is 1.1 billion. These are the number which lives in poverty. That’s exactly every second child in the world, who doesn’t get food to eat, and water to drink.
And yet, we the “caring” people do nothing. Do we not see these children, these men women who suffer? Most of us here come from “developing” countries where the pitiful state of affairs is seen on the streets.

So can we do something? And please, give me something more than pulling out a wad of cash and throwing it and feeling good about how you’re helping.
It’s an irony, that we people who have money, think of money as the single thing as life’s purpose. And those, poor children who perhaps live on around 5 Dirhams a day, all they need, is a bit of you. our love. All they need is a little bit of you. And you. And you.
For us to show them that we care. That someone cares.

Years ago, I learnt, you were taught, that we as humans ought to care. Today most of you teach your children about caring. And yet, what we do simply isn’t enough. It’s a frightening fact that among the children of today who will be the people of tomorrow, half of them don’t even know what care means. Heck, half of them don’t know what food and water mean.

When I left SAMPARC for that day, I remember very vividly that girl Pinky. She was looking at me with a gleam in her eyes. Her eyes filled with hope. Hope – that perhaps for the first time in her life, someone cared if she was alive or dead.

We’ve all taken this word, “care” for granted all these years. Go ahead and speak to a person who knows not what a meal is. Go ahead and speak to a child who knows not what a parent is. Maybe then you’ll know what care is.

And till then, I ask you, do we care?