We see them everyday in every major city in the world. As we drive to work they are there at the entrances and exits to freeways, signs around their neck asking for a handout. We studiously ignore them and in fact it has become a skill to not make eye contact though sometimes we just cant help ourselves. We may comment to our fellow passengers that the person is too young to be homeless, that they should get a job and make a decent living. We feel self righteous saying these things but as the number of homeless people continues to increase we know inside that there has to be something we can do about helping the homeless and especially homeless families.
Because what we many times do not see, except in third world countries are the children of the homeless. They are living in cardboard boxes under the freeway overpasses and huddling for warmth around kerosene fires. These children are the true victims of the current economic crisis and the numbers of children who are homeless and beneath the poverty line is staggering in this, the riches country in the world. It is one thing to deny help to a homeless man and quite another to ignore the plight of these innocent children. They are caught in the political crossfire and as states battle with budget deficits, the first things to be eliminated are the social programs such as welfare and child aid.
We cannot allow ourselves to become so hard hearted as a society, as a people, that we ignore the plight of these innocents. The only way to helping the homeless is to establish organizations that will depend on grants and funding from the government. Private institutions, as charitable as they are, will never replace funding from the general public. It is our duty to continue helping the homeless in this country.
Helping the homeless will cure many ills that befall out society. First of all we can battle disease. Homeless people are many times more prone to getting and spreading communicable diseases than people in the general population. Homeless children are at even higher risk since they do not know how to properly clean themselves and have no facilities to do so were they so trained and inclined.
We need to establish caring and working homeless rescue shelters where homeless people can safely live and be cared for in an intensive, holistic and long term way. We cant just give them a meal or two, clean them up and send them back out to face the rigors of the street. In order to help homeless people we need to educate them, give them jobs, provide medicine and health services for them and treat them as if they were members of our families, which they are. Helping the homeless is our duty.
We are all part of the human race yet sometimes it seems that the most privileged among us are the most hard hearted and uncaring. If everyone would just look into their hearts and give a little each day, or each week, or even each month, the problem would be solved in no time. Homeless agencies are understaffed, under funded and over worked.
Volunteer some of your time to helping the homeless in your community if you do not have the money. Any little help will go a long way.