What to do and how to help…when you don’t know what to do or how to help.

Kathmandu, Nepal in 2015…and perhaps the only photo of me in a face mask.

During this time, many of us feel overwhelmed by the enormity of need. We see hospital shortages, families at risk, a financial crisis looming, and worst of all, lives lost. Unless we are a medical professional on the frontlines (much gratitude to you all), we are self-quarantined at home with our family and food rations, trying to manage our own anxiety and keep up with news.

Many of us want to help but feel helpless. We are human, after all, and the human reaction to hurt is to try to stop the pain. Staying home will flatten the curve, but is that enough? In the midst of a global pandemic, do we really want to just sit on the couch?

I have faced a similar predicament before. My humanitarian work focuses on poverty not pandemics, but the same questions still arise. I am one small person fighting an enormity of need. There are 3 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty. SO MUCH NEED. What can I do? How can I help?

Here’s the solution: REVERSE YOUR MINDSET.

Instead of focusing on the vastness of the problem, think small. Don’t try to tackle the largest goal, but take on the smallest goal possible. Replace the desire to help everyone with the desire to only help only one person.

Repeat after me: “I only want to help one person.”

Start there. Do it. Help one person. You’ll find this is fairly easy. You can probably do it in the next 20 minutes. You’ll feel accomplished and useful. You’ll want to do it again. So, you’ll reach out to help a second person. And a third. And so on.

When I interview most nonprofit leaders, their story begins a similar way. They helped one individual, then met someone else in a similar situation, so they helped them too. Then someone else. Then someone else. This snowballs into creating an impact much larger than they could have imagined.

Now, with your new goal of only helping one person, what can you do? Who can you help? A few ideas:

1. Offer to edit or design a resume for a friend who has lost their job
2. Text your neighbor and offer your help. Change your language from asking IF they have a need (Do you need anything?) to WHAT they need (I’m going on a grocery run, what do you need?)
3. Write a thank you note to a medical worker and leave it on their doorstep
4. Cook a meal for a single parent and drop it on their doorstep
5. Gift one of your favorite books to a friend and drop it on their doorstep
6. Call a senior living home and ask what supplies are needed
7. If you are healthy, please donate blood to the Red Cross
8. Train colleagues in Zoom, Trello, Photoshop, or digital skills you have
9. Buy gift cards from small businesses to keep them afloat
10. If you’d like to donate monetarily, please check out:

💚 GiveDirectly helps families in the U.S. impacted by COVID-19

💚 Good Girl Come Back delivers catered meals to Detroit ER staff

💚 Fuel Our Frontlines assembles “Fuel Bags” for Detroit doctors and nurses. My friend Kaitlyn recognized the need to uplift spirits of those fighting coronavirus in hospitals. She drove to Costco and spoke to the manager who gifted $500 in donations. Fuel Our Frontlines now has over $3,000 in donations. Bravo to Kaitlyn for taking the first step.

Kaitlyn stocking up “Fuel our Frontlines” bags. Thanks Costco!

Stay positive. Stay healthy. Remember, start by helping just one person. You can do that…and who knows where it will lead.

With love,

~Mallory