…several times in my life, I have experienced overwhelming moments when I have felt that I have so much and need to give back to my family, my church and my community…
…several times, I have written in my journals about the same feelings and mulled over the realities of achieving my lifelong dreams – eradicate poverty, illiteracy and provide better health care opportunities for the under-served populations of the world…
..through divine intervention and an inner prompting that I followed, I ended up in India again after 10 years of being gone, only to realize that this is the place where I could make all those dreams come true – what better place in the world than India that has all those three major issues to contend with!!!
Living in a country that exists daily in a world that is a mixture of these three issues alongside the progression of globalism is a very ironic state to be in. Recently, I have been drawn more to these societal things that affect the basic human rights and dignity and it is hard for me to not remember my dreams, as they are soon becoming the mental images that flash through my mind when I lie awake in bed, unable to fall asleep.
SO I DECIDED THAT I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
I am beginning to research the possibilities of building a free health care center to help those underprivileged who are in the poverty stricken areas receive free testing and medical treatment, educating the masses about AIDS/HIV and the prevention of the disease, conducting and promoting classes to the adolescents and the young adults on the importance of safe sex, drug abuse and prevention, abortions, pregnancies, and a whole lot of other issues that are not publicly addressed for fear of social stigma and abandonment by the community and family.
This fear also prevents the people from coming forward to accept free treatment – they want to remain anonymous so they can still have jobs, or their family will still include them.
In thinking more and more about this, I began to see how this could help me fulfill some dreams that have haunted me from a very early age. These lifelong goals came about because of personal experience in poverty and seeing family and friends and neighborhoods around me struggle and sometimes succumb to alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide due to shame, abortions, poverty that prevents further education and therefore no future…
I had made up my mind a very long time ago that I was going to be different. I was very observant as a child and I still am and I knew that I did not want the same life that everyone submits to in India. I was going to be different!!!
I was going to be somebody – a somebody whom everyone would know and it would allow me to achieve these dreams that have been stopped from progressing into reality because of society and family limitations.
I strongly feel that the time has come in my life to make those dreams a reality and given the talents and capabilities that I have been blessed with and with the help of so many others who fight for the same causes, these dreams can become a reality…
In doing some preliminary research, startling statistics tell me that I am on the right track….
I am going to write some more about this as I progress in my research and will keep this blog updated with the results…
I hope that those who read this will, as Stephen R. Covey says, “Find your own voice and help others find theirs.”
Dear Somebody, you already ARE somebody. 🙂 I admire your drive to help provide the kindness of care to those who cannot presently afford it. Reminds me of Mother Teresa (darn it though, I wanted to use her birth name in order to really impress you :-)) Anyway, I'm reminded of the world-traveling author/speaker's anecdote of how he ONCE gave away free copies of one of his books to a given audience. Afterwards the shock of seeing how many of them were not actually taken or properly given back galvanized him to never do it again — mostly because it broke principle. He said that had he merely charged a dollar his desire to be charitable would have more or less been achieved without the such offensive wastefulness and ingratitude.
It bears mentioning merely for the fact that your proposed free clinic may do better to charge the indigent even the tiniest pittance rather than nothing.
Don't shoot the messenger. 🙂 Godspeed.
Dear Somebody, you already ARE somebody. 🙂 I admire your drive to help provide the kindness of care to those who cannot presently afford it. Reminds me of Mother Teresa (darn it though, I wanted to use her birth name in order to really impress you :-)) Anyway, I'm reminded of the world-traveling author/speaker's anecdote of how he ONCE gave away free copies of one of his books to a given audience. Afterwards the shock of seeing how many of them were not actually taken or properly given back galvanized him to never do it again — mostly because it broke principle. He said that had he merely charged a dollar his desire to be charitable would have more or less been achieved without the such offensive wastefulness and ingratitude.
It bears mentioning merely for the fact that your proposed free clinic may do better to charge the indigent even the tiniest pittance rather than nothing.
Don't shoot the messenger. 🙂 Godspeed.