As we think about the poor, the abused, the helpless. what can our compassion accomplish for them?
A lot. It takes just a few minutes with the news to know the needs in the slums, the refugee camps, the AIDs orphans. No individual can solve the world's needs. But perhaps we could do something.
Here are some ideas.
1. Donate boxes of food that you no longer want. You can have food drives for the needy or physically take the food to the poor people that you would like to help. Some good choices of food to donate is canned foods, noodles, beans, and any other dried foods that will last a long time and don't need refrigerated.
2. Give out blankets and sheets to the poor people. It is very sad to see a homeless person sleeping on the streets with no blankets. Helping them will make a big difference. You can also donate blankets and linens to thrift stores and good will.
3. Rummage through your clothes and your children's old clothes and give them away. Donating clothes really does help the poor people. This will really make a difference to those in need of clothes. Winter clothes are really in need this time of year. Coats, scarfs, gloves and hats are also a great gift to give to the poor people.
4. Sort through your children's toys and donate them to the needy. Books of all types are also a recommended donation item to give to poor people. Giving charity such as money is a good thing to do if you have any to spare. Make sure you choose the right people or organization to donate to.
12 tips for teens on how to help the poor and needy
What can you, a teenager who doesn't have a lot of money or resources, do to help the poor and needy?
More than you think. Most young adults are blessed with the creativity and intelligence to find ways to help others despite limited resources. Here are some tips that can perhaps start the creative process:
1. Give a portion of your allowance each week to a poor and needy person or a cause in support of them
How much is your allowance or your salary from your part-time job? Not much, you might say. The great thing about giving though is that in about 99 percent of cases, you are not restricted to how much you can give to help the poor and needy. That means for instance, instead of dishing out a dollar a day for a can of soda from the vending machine at school or work, maybe you can save this money two days of the week. Then give this money to the Zakat and Sadaqa committee of your mosque, a poor person you know in your neighborhood, a local soup kitchen or to a worthy cause abroad.
2. Encourage your parents to pay Zakat
Zakat is something too many Muslims neglect. If you are eligible to give Zakat, you must pay. If you aren't eligible, ask your parents about Zakat and if they pay, how and to whom. If they do not give Zakat, respectfully and politely emphasize to them the importance of this necessary pillar of Islam and encourage them to start paying it. Use wisdom and beautiful preaching.
3. Encourage a family Sadaqa (charity) project
Get the whole family to pitch in at least once a month to a worthy cause by organizing a family Sadaqa project. Call a family meeting (if you've never had one of these, this is a great time to start) and discuss your idea. Then come to an agreement on how everyone can help the poor. Whether it's contributing a set amount a week as a group with Dad giving the money to the Masjid after Friday prayers or setting up a box somewhere in the house where family members can privately donate, you all decide.
4. Talk about it in your youth group
What are the first steps in finding solutions to problems? Dua (supplication) then brainstorming and discussion.
At your next youth group meeting, put the difficulties of the poor and needy in your community on the agenda. Simply discuss and brainstorm. You don't have to come up with a plan all at once. But discussing this will start the process and keep it in people's minds.
If you don't have a youth group, get your friends together. Instead of having the usual hang out time one day, substitute this with a formal meeting. Now you have a youth group that can do this exercise.
5. Visit a poor part of town
How many big cities have "poor quarters"? Almost every single one. Sometimes, we need to see the reality of poverty right in front of us to really believe it's there, especially if we live in a financially well-off part of a city.
Go with your youth group to visit these areas. You don't have to necessarily bring money or food for them (although that wouldn't be a bad idea). Talk to the people, if they are willing to be approached, about living conditions and how they ended up there. Prepare yourself for an eye-opening experience.
6. Do a class presentation on poverty
Stumped about what to do for a school assignment? Why not talk about the plight of the poor in your community. Do your research thoroughly. Get statistics on poverty, real stories from books and perhaps even video- or audiotaped interviews of the poor and homeless. Show the human face of poverty. Follow the presentation up with a class collection for the poor.
7. Don't just collect money
There are plenty of basic necessities that people have to meet. Some people can't afford new shoes. So hold a shoe drive. Others cannot afford clothing. Hold a clothing drive. Collect the material, arrange for cars, vans or trucks to transport it to where it's needed, then make sure the material is properly distributed.
8. Write about poverty in your school paper
Have you got a knack for writing? Then write about poverty in your school newspaper. Educate your student body not just with words, but photos too, if possible. If you've visited a poor part of the city (see tips above), then you have plenty of material and personal material to write about.
9. Write about Zakat and Sadaqa in your Masjid newsletter
Does your Masjid have a newsletter? If so, dedicate the next issue to the topic of Zakat and Sadaqa and how they help the poor and the needy. You can interview an Imam to get the basics straight. You can also include various charitable causes readers can give their money to locally to help the poor and needy.
If you don't have a Muslim youth newsletter, maybe this can be your premiere edition.
10. Put the information on a website
If you put the above-mentioned newsletter or at least some of the articles online, you’ll probably have more young people reading it than if you limited the information to print only.
11. Collect money in your group
After your next group meeting, pass around a box to collect donations for the poor and needy. Better yet, make this a weekly practice. Make one person responsible for collecting the money and sending it off after consulting everyone on which cause it should be sent for.
12. Organize a youth seminar on poverty
Get a youth-friendly Imam or speaker to come and talk about how Islam has successfully fought against poverty in the past and can continue to do so in the present.
More Ideas
“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
—Mother Teresa
General Donation
A donation to our general fund goes to where the greatest need is at the moment. Your gift allows us to provide immediate relief when there is a crisis and to supply vital services to the people in the countries in which we serve.
Donate to a Good Charity
The most basic thing to help get rid of poverty is donate to a charity that follows the same aim as you, there are loads but choose a charity you can trust. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it should be something significant. Give up gourmet coffee and give the money to a homeless outreach. Drive less to save gas. Carpool. Stop the special trips to the store. Walk where you can. Give the money you saved to a soup kitchen. It can be the money you spend on chocolates, it can be the money that you spend on console games. Every little counts, remember that.
Set up a Group
Set up a group that helps people in poverty. Start or contribute to a fund raiser for the poor. Get involved with a community center.
Monthly Giving Clubs
Monthly giving clubs offer the convenience of setting up automatic monthly donations and allow you to direct your funds to the program that you choose.
Understand Reality
You must have a feel of poverty, for example, go without food or be on an extended fast. Not just a food fast. No TV, radio, newspapers, car, or the purchase of anything new. Shop at thrift stores. Give all the money you saved to a good charity.
Understand
We are the most intelligent creatures in the world but why are we so foolish enough to leave our own blood without no food, no shelter, no education and no respect. If we are supposed to be intelligent then be intelligent and make everyone the same. "When you see a person who has been given more than you in money and beauty, look to those, who have been given less."
Gift Catalog
Choosing a meaningful gift for someone who has everything can be a challenge. Why not delight your loved one with a gift given to the poor in his or her honor?
Current Appeals
Make a one-time donation or a regular monthly contribution toward a meaningful, noble needed cause.
Champions For The Poor
Put your passion into action by creating a personal page for your own Food For The Poor fundraising effort!
Orphan Sponsorship
You can sponsor a child who needs your help!
Planned Giving
Our planned gifts are reciprocal gifts, returning benefits that can reduce your taxes, increase your retirement income and address your family’s financial obligations — all while ministering to the needs of the poor.
Radio
Food for the Poor raises money through partnerships with many local radio stations. See if your city has a participating station.
BY NEED
Feeding
Imagine seeing your children slowly starving… and having nothing to feed them… Your gift today will bring lifesaving food to hungry children and their families.
Housing
For the poorest of the poor, “home” might be little more than a few sticks, mud, and scraps of plastic or metal. Your gift for housing will help provide a family with a safe, basic home and restore their human dignity.
Water
Clean, safe drinking water is essential for life. In developing countries, access to safe drinking water can be limited, often resulting in serious illnesses and death. Your gift will help provide lifesaving water to those lacking clean drinking water and sanitation.
Medical Care
In developing countries, hospitals and clinics often lack the most basic equipment and supplies to treat patients. Doctors and nurses often stand by helplessly, unable to administer lifesaving aid. Your gift can help provide items ranging from basic anti-diarrhea medicine to advanced medical equipment.
Education
Unlike in the United States, education in developing countries is not free. Parents must pay for uniforms, books, school supplies and other necessities. Children too poor to attend school are often sent to work on the streets, and so a lack of education reinforces the vicious cycle of poverty. Your gift for education can help break that cycle and will benefit a child for a lifetime.
Micro-Enterprise Development
Often, poor families are trapped in poverty because they have no viable means of earning income. What better way to help improve lives than to give a village the means to sustain itself economically? Your gift for a self-sustaining project will have a profound and lasting impact on the lives of those you help.
Tips
Look at those children. Don't you feel any sympathy for them? What if those children were yours, wouldn't you expect others to help you?
A lot. It takes just a few minutes with the news to know the needs in the slums, the refugee camps, the AIDs orphans. No individual can solve the world's needs. But perhaps we could do something.
Here are some ideas.
1. Donate boxes of food that you no longer want. You can have food drives for the needy or physically take the food to the poor people that you would like to help. Some good choices of food to donate is canned foods, noodles, beans, and any other dried foods that will last a long time and don't need refrigerated.
2. Give out blankets and sheets to the poor people. It is very sad to see a homeless person sleeping on the streets with no blankets. Helping them will make a big difference. You can also donate blankets and linens to thrift stores and good will.
3. Rummage through your clothes and your children's old clothes and give them away. Donating clothes really does help the poor people. This will really make a difference to those in need of clothes. Winter clothes are really in need this time of year. Coats, scarfs, gloves and hats are also a great gift to give to the poor people.
4. Sort through your children's toys and donate them to the needy. Books of all types are also a recommended donation item to give to poor people. Giving charity such as money is a good thing to do if you have any to spare. Make sure you choose the right people or organization to donate to.
12 tips for teens on how to help the poor and needy
What can you, a teenager who doesn't have a lot of money or resources, do to help the poor and needy?
More than you think. Most young adults are blessed with the creativity and intelligence to find ways to help others despite limited resources. Here are some tips that can perhaps start the creative process:
1. Give a portion of your allowance each week to a poor and needy person or a cause in support of them
How much is your allowance or your salary from your part-time job? Not much, you might say. The great thing about giving though is that in about 99 percent of cases, you are not restricted to how much you can give to help the poor and needy. That means for instance, instead of dishing out a dollar a day for a can of soda from the vending machine at school or work, maybe you can save this money two days of the week. Then give this money to the Zakat and Sadaqa committee of your mosque, a poor person you know in your neighborhood, a local soup kitchen or to a worthy cause abroad.
2. Encourage your parents to pay Zakat
Zakat is something too many Muslims neglect. If you are eligible to give Zakat, you must pay. If you aren't eligible, ask your parents about Zakat and if they pay, how and to whom. If they do not give Zakat, respectfully and politely emphasize to them the importance of this necessary pillar of Islam and encourage them to start paying it. Use wisdom and beautiful preaching.
3. Encourage a family Sadaqa (charity) project
Get the whole family to pitch in at least once a month to a worthy cause by organizing a family Sadaqa project. Call a family meeting (if you've never had one of these, this is a great time to start) and discuss your idea. Then come to an agreement on how everyone can help the poor. Whether it's contributing a set amount a week as a group with Dad giving the money to the Masjid after Friday prayers or setting up a box somewhere in the house where family members can privately donate, you all decide.
4. Talk about it in your youth group
What are the first steps in finding solutions to problems? Dua (supplication) then brainstorming and discussion.
At your next youth group meeting, put the difficulties of the poor and needy in your community on the agenda. Simply discuss and brainstorm. You don't have to come up with a plan all at once. But discussing this will start the process and keep it in people's minds.
If you don't have a youth group, get your friends together. Instead of having the usual hang out time one day, substitute this with a formal meeting. Now you have a youth group that can do this exercise.
5. Visit a poor part of town
How many big cities have "poor quarters"? Almost every single one. Sometimes, we need to see the reality of poverty right in front of us to really believe it's there, especially if we live in a financially well-off part of a city.
Go with your youth group to visit these areas. You don't have to necessarily bring money or food for them (although that wouldn't be a bad idea). Talk to the people, if they are willing to be approached, about living conditions and how they ended up there. Prepare yourself for an eye-opening experience.
6. Do a class presentation on poverty
Stumped about what to do for a school assignment? Why not talk about the plight of the poor in your community. Do your research thoroughly. Get statistics on poverty, real stories from books and perhaps even video- or audiotaped interviews of the poor and homeless. Show the human face of poverty. Follow the presentation up with a class collection for the poor.
7. Don't just collect money
There are plenty of basic necessities that people have to meet. Some people can't afford new shoes. So hold a shoe drive. Others cannot afford clothing. Hold a clothing drive. Collect the material, arrange for cars, vans or trucks to transport it to where it's needed, then make sure the material is properly distributed.
8. Write about poverty in your school paper
Have you got a knack for writing? Then write about poverty in your school newspaper. Educate your student body not just with words, but photos too, if possible. If you've visited a poor part of the city (see tips above), then you have plenty of material and personal material to write about.
9. Write about Zakat and Sadaqa in your Masjid newsletter
Does your Masjid have a newsletter? If so, dedicate the next issue to the topic of Zakat and Sadaqa and how they help the poor and the needy. You can interview an Imam to get the basics straight. You can also include various charitable causes readers can give their money to locally to help the poor and needy.
If you don't have a Muslim youth newsletter, maybe this can be your premiere edition.
10. Put the information on a website
If you put the above-mentioned newsletter or at least some of the articles online, you’ll probably have more young people reading it than if you limited the information to print only.
11. Collect money in your group
After your next group meeting, pass around a box to collect donations for the poor and needy. Better yet, make this a weekly practice. Make one person responsible for collecting the money and sending it off after consulting everyone on which cause it should be sent for.
12. Organize a youth seminar on poverty
Get a youth-friendly Imam or speaker to come and talk about how Islam has successfully fought against poverty in the past and can continue to do so in the present.
More Ideas
“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
—Mother Teresa
General Donation
A donation to our general fund goes to where the greatest need is at the moment. Your gift allows us to provide immediate relief when there is a crisis and to supply vital services to the people in the countries in which we serve.
Donate to a Good Charity
The most basic thing to help get rid of poverty is donate to a charity that follows the same aim as you, there are loads but choose a charity you can trust. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it should be something significant. Give up gourmet coffee and give the money to a homeless outreach. Drive less to save gas. Carpool. Stop the special trips to the store. Walk where you can. Give the money you saved to a soup kitchen. It can be the money you spend on chocolates, it can be the money that you spend on console games. Every little counts, remember that.
Set up a Group
Set up a group that helps people in poverty. Start or contribute to a fund raiser for the poor. Get involved with a community center.
Monthly Giving Clubs
Monthly giving clubs offer the convenience of setting up automatic monthly donations and allow you to direct your funds to the program that you choose.
Understand Reality
You must have a feel of poverty, for example, go without food or be on an extended fast. Not just a food fast. No TV, radio, newspapers, car, or the purchase of anything new. Shop at thrift stores. Give all the money you saved to a good charity.
Understand
We are the most intelligent creatures in the world but why are we so foolish enough to leave our own blood without no food, no shelter, no education and no respect. If we are supposed to be intelligent then be intelligent and make everyone the same. "When you see a person who has been given more than you in money and beauty, look to those, who have been given less."
Gift Catalog
Choosing a meaningful gift for someone who has everything can be a challenge. Why not delight your loved one with a gift given to the poor in his or her honor?
Current Appeals
Make a one-time donation or a regular monthly contribution toward a meaningful, noble needed cause.
Champions For The Poor
Put your passion into action by creating a personal page for your own Food For The Poor fundraising effort!
Orphan Sponsorship
You can sponsor a child who needs your help!
Planned Giving
Our planned gifts are reciprocal gifts, returning benefits that can reduce your taxes, increase your retirement income and address your family’s financial obligations — all while ministering to the needs of the poor.
Radio
Food for the Poor raises money through partnerships with many local radio stations. See if your city has a participating station.
BY NEED
Feeding
Imagine seeing your children slowly starving… and having nothing to feed them… Your gift today will bring lifesaving food to hungry children and their families.
Housing
For the poorest of the poor, “home” might be little more than a few sticks, mud, and scraps of plastic or metal. Your gift for housing will help provide a family with a safe, basic home and restore their human dignity.
Water
Clean, safe drinking water is essential for life. In developing countries, access to safe drinking water can be limited, often resulting in serious illnesses and death. Your gift will help provide lifesaving water to those lacking clean drinking water and sanitation.
Medical Care
In developing countries, hospitals and clinics often lack the most basic equipment and supplies to treat patients. Doctors and nurses often stand by helplessly, unable to administer lifesaving aid. Your gift can help provide items ranging from basic anti-diarrhea medicine to advanced medical equipment.
Education
Unlike in the United States, education in developing countries is not free. Parents must pay for uniforms, books, school supplies and other necessities. Children too poor to attend school are often sent to work on the streets, and so a lack of education reinforces the vicious cycle of poverty. Your gift for education can help break that cycle and will benefit a child for a lifetime.
Micro-Enterprise Development
Often, poor families are trapped in poverty because they have no viable means of earning income. What better way to help improve lives than to give a village the means to sustain itself economically? Your gift for a self-sustaining project will have a profound and lasting impact on the lives of those you help.
Tips
- Read your holy book and turn to the page where it says about poverty. Look at what it says and follow it.
- Donate whatever you can.
- Do a good deed and help people in poverty.
- Think how can you eat your next meal when your family is starving in poverty.
- Be prepared to lose many comforts in your life.
- Get a good education so your views are heard more.
- Have the will to solve the problem.
- If you can donate the price of one fast food meal per week, that amounts to more than $250 per year.
- If you "Get outside yourself" you will have more reason to contribute and more satisfaction in life.
Look at those children. Don't you feel any sympathy for them? What if those children were yours, wouldn't you expect others to help you?
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