New York, NY. Rain Love on Manila reached out to the Philippine Consulate in New York this week to seek for help in hosting a temporary drop-off venue, so that it would be easier for donors to access. However, our group and initiative were met with disappointment. Because we are operating on our own initiative, they have advised us to simply help in other means, like join a "fun run" which will happen in the next few months. Anyway, it was a government directive that specified that the items we chose to ask for - the used (but clean) clothes - are not allowed to be donated.
It makes one wonder about the concept of help, need and giving. A person in need deserves help. Those who have the capacity to help, should. Because life sometimes puts you in situations where you may be in and out of need. You help any way you can. You can give anyway you can. But you can never give what you don't have. You should not promise what you cannot deliver. On the other hand, if you are in need, you welcome whatever help you can get. But if you are lending the help to the one in need, then those people are the ones who have the right to decide what they need.
A person who has no dry clothes on his or her back would probably want something to wear. A clean pre-owned shirt is better than no shirt or a dirty one. If one has money and clothes to spare, it seems more logical to buy the needy sustenance, while giving them their own clothes, instead of buying them new threads. There is a greater symbol to passing to the other what you have used to cover yourself. "When I was hungry, you gave me food to eat. When I was naked, you clothed me."
To all those who want to help out our fellowmen, give what you can, and give what will be necessary for people to restore not just their strength, but their self-worth. Donate things that you would want someone to give you when you are the one without the clothes, without food, without shelter. Give with your heart, and nothing will be turned away.
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