My new book—Reach Out, Reach In—is here!
In early 2021, I spent time helping my neighbors sign up for their Covid vaccines. Many eligible people did not have access to computers or the skills required. I was not sure how I could help at first, so I asked people.
When you listen, you can try to understand and learn along the way. When you see or hear of someone in need, recognize that you hold the power to help them. Your offer of kindness is the most valuable piece.
There is always blue sky behind the clouds.
Helping other people doesn’t have to be complicated or bureaucratic.
It can be the very simple action of looking at someone and taking the time to say,
How are you doing today?
Those human connections are so necessary to taking the next step: asking someone what they need or asking them for help if you need it.
Immigrant Communities in Oregon Affected by Fires
I felt overwhelmed by all of the tragedy befalling my state and thought, I have to do something. But what?
I reached out to Sallie Cohen who told me she was getting ready to post something on Positive Charge PDX’s Facebook page about coordinating a donation effort.
On Saturday, September 12, I joined a group of nine other vehicles on a caravan to Molalla, OR in Clackamas County. It’s not very far from Portland, but the air was orange, and there was ash on the ground. You could see your footprints in the ash as we unloaded supplies. Even though I was new to working with Positive Charge PDX, what a pleasure it was to participate.
Photo: The sky in Molalla has an orange hue from the nearby fires.
I returned home that evening and heard that farm towns in the southern part of the state had been destroyed. I immediately thought, Oh, my gosh. What about all the migrant workers?
I had read an article in The Washington Post by Samantha Schmidt that addressed this very issue. She wrote about Latinx migrants in the Rogue Valley. I researched and called into the school in the area and left a message.
When I didn’t receive a return call, I did further research and found out that the school had burned down.
I tried to look up who to connect with next. I wrote to a reporter in the Ashland area, and he gave me the number of a high school teacher. They connected me with a woman who’s in charge of migrant education in the area.
She told me that their real need is housing, that there is no place to store donations. I sent her the photos of our Positive Charge drive from Saturday. I said, ‘Look, this is what we can do, please, let us know if you do have a list of immediate needs.’
The woman provided a list and I forwarded it to Sallie Cohen with Positive Charge. That night, Sallie posted on her Facebook page that they were going to help migrant workers, and is anyone interested?
This location is four to five hours south of Portland, and within a short period of time, Sallie had multiple people willing to drive.
Again, I found myself in the parking lot helping fill up trucks and vans of the people who were going to make the 250-mile journey south. I noticed someone in the parking lot pointing in my direction because I was the liaison, and they walked over and said,
“Would it be possible for us to donate our doublewide trailer?’
I just burst into tears. As it happened, it was my birthday. I was just overwhelmed. I told all these other people in the parking lot how amazing that was. And then someone else said, ‘Oh, we might have more resources for you like that, too.’”
The next day I wanted to check in and thank one of the drivers, who was a principal of an elementary school in Newberg, not far from Portland. She wrote back saying that many of her families had been evacuated, and they’re down on their luck. She went on to explain that here’s a significant migrant worker population in her area.
I said, ‘How can we help?’ She said, ‘Oh, you’re busy. I said, ‘No, how can we help you?’
This is what we can do: We can act quickly, we can call on the community, and we can see what response we’re going to get. The community’s response has been amazing and even during the quarantine when people may feel disconnected, the desire for community building is still there.
We did what we could, with the people around us — people we knew and people we reached out to connect with. As a result we we able to help that school and community.
If you are interested in helping migrant communities affected by the fires, you can donate directly to Unete: Center for Farm Worker and Immigrant Advocacy
If you are interested finding out more about how you can help you might also want to check out Positive Charge PDX: https://www.positivechargepdx.org/
This was adapted from an article by Mala Blomquist for Oregon Jewish Life.
To read the full article, go here: https://orjewishlife.com/the-snowball-effect-of-kindness
Covid Prevention in Kenya
This is a story of how easy it is to connect people at a time when it feels particularly complicated.
In March, as the shutdown began, I wondered how I might continue to connect with the world given our new quarantine orders. In my search for information about the virus, I came across a Covid prevention poster on the internet. I researched the nonprofit that made it and asked if they could send me a copy with no English instructions, as the information could be offered in other languages that way. Philip Bramson at www.changepeople.org responded to my request. Hoping to connect with others, I sent the two versions, English and blank, along to my Rotary Peace Fellow network. I should tell you here that the differentiating factor of this Covid prevention flier is that it is pictorial and shows people how to wash their hands, cover their cough and how to ask for help with food or medicine requests.
After sending the two versions of the flier out to my Rotary network, Timothy Kariuki of Nyeri, Kenya responded. He is a Rotary World Peace Fellow who studied in Thailand a decade after I had gone to the Argentine and Australian program. He had the flier translated into Kiswahili and distributed 1000 copies. I was amazed. I then asked him the question, what further assistance can I provide?
I also contacted several Rotary clubs and asked for funding. I did this according to my pre-quarantine process ideas. When I didn't get positive feedback from the Rotary clubs I realized that I could ask Tim how much money he needed to go forward with his Covid prevention project. He told me $300 USD. I felt ashamed for not having asked sooner. By this time, weeks had passed. My family and I decided to send money ourselves.
Last week Tim sent me an update about how his nonprofit had applied the funds. The community development work he performs allows rural populations to train citizens by sending women leaders who relay the information back to their own communities. Here in the U.S. we have so much to learn from this example. $300 USD produced posters, calendars and helped to purchase masks and Tim trained 18 women leaders who went back to to their communities to train countless others.
It has struck me that several friends of mine in the Pacific Northwest of the United States mentioned that they would not have thought about making this kind of connection. I ask all of you who have read this far to think of a person or a place that you have loved and feel far away from right now. You have the ability to write or call out to them and ask how they are doing in this pandemic, to offer your assistance. Their answers to this question may surprise you. You may have a chance to participate in the world in a surprising and delightful way.
We’re All In This Together, But We’re Not All in the Same Boat
“We don’t always communicate well with our neighbors and with the people in the places we frequent on a daily basis, whether it’s schools or stores. I don’t think we can assume right now that everyone’s connected to the same websites or internet pages, and we’re certainly not getting the same messages from all of our governors or leadership. I feel like there’s a disparity of connectedness. And there are so many people who are alone going through this alone.”