Goodwill means - Helping each other 2021
Mandela Month inspires Goodwill
This month is all about helping people maintain a healthy and active life and giving one’s time and resources to assist those in our society who are in the greatest need. No one expected COVID-19 to be around this long. It has taken a toll on everyone, whether directly or indirectly, and it has affected our daily lives for more than a year now. Under all this stress, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and frustrated, which in turn can affect everyone around you. Helping each other with acts of goodwill or words of encouragement can make a real difference, especially now that the third wave of Covid 19 has started to take its toll on our physical and mental resources.
The spirit that lies at the heart of such words and actions will no doubt capture the attention of the people around us and will hopefully also inspire them to commit themselves to performing similar acts of goodwill.
As the ultimate, selfless public servant, Madiba declared: “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
How to Help Others
Even in the toughest of times, you can help people and give them support through your actions. Whether it’s a death in the family, a sudden loss of a job or helping an ill loved one, you can show support to those in need by giving your time, helping connect them with the right resources and showing simple human kindness.
Most people feel the need to help others when they can. It’s one of the things that binds us all and makes us human. We all know the health of a community means looking after the wellbeing of everyone.
How To Help Kids
Kids go through so much, in these times, more than ever. They have problems with bullying, divorcing parents, the stress of school, peer pressure and many other issues. The main way you can support kids is by giving them time. Offering them your full, uninterrupted attention is one of the greatest things you can do. With kids, you don’t need to have all the answers. Instead, you need to listen.
How To Help Adults
With adults, the variety of “tough times” spans the breadth of human experience. In many cases, listening to their issues and helping them find the right resources can provide the help they need. Examples include counselling, help lines, and organizations that support those who are experiencing poverty, drug addiction, divorce and other adult issues. Letting people know about the resources they have can help them get through tough times.
Tips to Help Others During the Coronavirus Pandemic
We all share a common deep desire to help and support others, be they family members, members of our community, or fellow humans across the globe. We understand that for most (if not all) of us, the novel coronavirus feels uncertain and scary. But in spite of those feelings, many of us have still been moved to ask, “How can I help?”
1. Check on your neighbours
Call or text your neighbours (especially elderly neighbours) to make sure they’re doing okay. Ask if there is anything that they need (be it a box of tissues or a cup of sugar). If you have what they’re looking for, offer to leave it outside their front door so that they can pick it up without coming in direct contact with you. It sounds extreme, but this is actually a great (and safe) way to make sure that your more vulnerable neighbours have what they need.
If you feel comfortable going out, consider knocking on the door of any elderly neighbours and chatting through a screen door or window just to offer a bit of comfort and reassurance.
2. Explore ways to connect and volunteer virtually
You can find a lot of new platforms, tools, and apps for connecting with people and getting the job done virtually. There is a need to maintain person-to-person connection in any (safe) way that we can.
3. Make a donation
Millions of non-profit professionals all over the world are working to continue to deliver services and implement programmes, uninterrupted. And that’s going to be really, really difficult.
And so, if you have the resources, consider donating to your favourite organization. Whether they’re on the front lines of the fight to quell the coronavirus, or their mission is entirely unrelated to the current crisis, your money will make a big difference.
4. Be a leader
If you’re in a position of professional authority and you have the decision-making power to allow your team to work from home (and programmatically, your organization can operate virtually), make it happen.
Even if you don’t consider your employees to be particularly high risk, making the call to work from home sends an important message to your team and to the sector by letting others know that you and your team are ready to do your civic duty by staying off of public transportation, out of hospitals, and just generally out of the way.
5. Remember those who are still out there on the front lines
Though it may be hard to imagine, at some point, the pandemic will subside, and we'll be able to slowly get back to our lives. And once we're on the other side of this crisis, we're going to have a whole lot of people to thank. Grocery store clerks, domestic workers, nurses and doctors, police officers and fire fighters, the people who work at the laundromat, sanitation workers, delivery people, teachers who taught our kids virtually, and the list goes on.
We may not be able to do much right now, but we can certainly get a head start on finding ways to show our gratitude.
Take some time over the next days and weeks to consider how you might show your appreciation to even one of these people.
Take care of yourself!
As they say, secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others. In other words, self-care is incredibly important at a time like this, and ensuring that you’re making safe and smart choices is a civic duty of the utmost importance. So, for some, doing your part will simply mean taking care of yourself. And that’s okay!
