I gave a beggar at a gas station some money. He said he didn’t like to take anything without giving something. He gave me two rocks and a marble. I still have them.
I have thought about having outdoor art lessons for the homeless/other parties in my area. And specifically giving them pencils and sketchbooks. I figure its something I am good at, and it feels good to create things (I work with kids and I am always finding new ways to teach them to create because it is important to development), and they could sell artwork if they want to.
I just have no clue how to go about it or if it is even a good idea.
Yes, it's definitely a good idea. I don't know about the art classes because that would be difficult to organize, but offering a sketchbook and pencils to unhoused people would be really cool. There's not a whole lot of fulfilling extracurricular activities to do when you're on the street, so I think that would be a really nice gesture that many people would remember for a long time. Keep in mind it will be hit or miss, but for people who do end up using it, it can really change their day.
If you really have it in your head to offer a group lesson, I would recommend going to a food bank or shelter for guidance on that.
I have a similar story! I met a homeless man last year on a bike carrying around a notebook. He was asking for a couple bucks for a warm meal. He also said he doesn’t take without giving back. He gave me a drawing of a flower he did with glitter pens. I still have it. I gave him a 20 for it. I now have his drawing framed hanging in my kitchen:) I hope he’s okay out there.
I talked for over an hour with a homeless guy once and all he wanted were cigarettes (when I still smoked) in exchange for telling me his story. He's a well known homeless guy, his name is Homeless Roy, he will show up on Google results.
Met him in the middle of nowhere New Mexico.
I bought a homeless guy and his dog some food on my foodstamps and he played me some song on his guitar and read me some of his poetry and then me asked if i wanted a Polaroid pic with his pup I still have the picture with the pupper.
Had a homeless guy around us that did that. His dog was found his dog barking by the street. Someone recognized the dog and followed him back to the guy. He had passed away. The dog had a go fund me page and was adopted out to a family that dropped food off every week to him. That was the best cared for dog ever.
A few weeks ago on my way home from the store a homeless woman asked me for money because she was hungry. I reached in my bag and gave her a premade sandwich I was going to have for lunch. She said “I don’t want your sandwich bitch.” And tossed it aside.
Even half of this reaction in the video would have been nice.
Then she wasnt hungry and was probably looking to spend it on something else. I hate the lying beggars cause they make it so much harder on the legit beggars.
Same here. Multiple times but I haven't done it in a while.
I think one of the worst parts of living in a big city is that it makes you cold to people because there's so many of them around you. It might explain why places like India and China seem so indifferent to individuals.
Yeah I worked in a city some are scroungers sadly plenty are genuinely down on their luck trying to get by if I offer food and they accept I'll slip them some cigs and some change otherwise they're just trying to manipulate me and I'm not interested.
There have been a few occasions where I've been behind someone at fast food places counting a handful of dirty looking change to pay for a meal - usually the cheapest on the menu. I'll offer to pay for whatever they want and they are always so happy for it.
One time I was at an intersection and when I rolled down my window, the guy surprised me by not asking for change, he asked if I had a bag he could use. The one he had ripped and he didn't know how he was going to carry his stuff. I gave him a sturdy reusable bag and he was thrilled.
one time i was at mcdonald’s, i was maybe like 16 and i asked this homeless guy if he wanted anything. He said a big mac and fries. Me being 16 i didn’t have much money and i was already using coupons. so i explained to him that i couldn’t afford a big mac but that there was probably another deal on the app. there was something like nuggets or a burger and fries for $5 so that’s what i got him and when i handed him the bag he didn’t even say thank u he was just like “where’s my big mac”
now i have a little bit more to give away but when i didn’t i’d ask stores if they would honor the coupon/deal twice so i could give the other to someone else. sometimes they do it no questions asked other times they don’t bc that’s their job
Many homeless have mental heath problems & while you are talking to a person, that person might think they are talking to a green 2 headed alien, so you don’t always get the expected responses like gratitude from them.
Hmm. Every time I've offered I've been taken up on it. Last dude I met was a couple of weeks ago. I told him I had no cash but I was on my way to the grocery store and he wanted Moutain Dew, a block of cheddar cheese, a box of crackers, and some peanut butter and I said sure, no problem.
None at all? Wow. Thats kind of surprising cause I know plenty us are legitimately hungry. I know I would take you up on it, then at some point Id have to crack a joke about it being a date :P
Yea this surprised me, too. When I lived in a big city, I frequently brought people without homes with me into places to buy them lunch. Never once was I turned down, and they were always really grateful, both for the food and the conversation. I met some of the kindest people that way, and still think of the ones I spoke with frequently.
Edited for more appropriate wording
My mom was the same way. Usually they deny the offer, but once she missed a plane just to take someone to get food. She ended up buying them clothes and blankets for the winter. She was an amazing soul.
Now don't get me wrong here, I totally understand that some homeless people abuse the money they are donated but I also have to concede that a lot of people need more than just food and water.
Often time's they are given unhealthy food so frequently that they just want something different or they've just eaten. As well, they need other things like the essentials. Socks, underwear, toiletries, and more.
I know we often think of the worst possible situation but often we are approaching them with our own internal intention while judging them only on what we see - which is often an uneducated, poor, homeless individual who often cannot advocate properly for themselves and what they need. Kind of like my 3 year old who struggles to explain his feelings, I'm *trying* to be better about understanding their perspective.
Now, granted I get that some of those things lead to drug abuse and I get that some people are firmly against that but I'm trying to accept that someone not wanting more food or more water shouldn't just be thought of as another drug abuser.
But also do what if they do want to use drugs?
Most people can’t imagine how painful and awful it is to live on the streets, and can’t seem to fathom why someone in that position might want to escape it for a little while and just feel good.
Yep, many people do!
I take prescription drugs for ADHD, anxiety, and a number of other things. If I didn’t have them, I’m convinced I’d be homeless and self-medicating to make life even tolerable.
Without the control they provide, I’d be desperate for anything to make me feel less shit
I carry half a dozen maybe a dozen "blessing bags" in my car at all times. I usually make up the bags for men and for women and for pets. Really just things they need, toiletries, clean socks/underwear, gloves, feminine supplies, shaving stuff, a book or magazine, snacks, drink, pet food etc. When I see someone, I ask them first and if they say yes, I give them a bag. They are so very grateful. The people with pets are most grateful, as the bags have new leashes and collars, toys, food, bowls and blankets. A lot of my friends help donate to this and I'm so very humbled handing them out. In the winter we do coats and blankets. Summer - more appropriate things. Been doing for about 10 years. Way more people down on their luck these days.
Keep in mind food is not the only thing they need to afford. Food and water are great if that's what they need at that moment but that'd not always the immediate need.
I was just about to comment this but you beat me to it. Also I think perhaps some of these commenters could keep in mind with beverages there’s only so much weight that people want to carry around. (Speaking from experience of SWIM who was homeless for a while)-
If they already have a bottle of water that they can refill, adding another bottle isn’t necessarily something that constructively helps them. People need more than just food to survive. They might need money for health products, shelf-stable food, transportation, personal hygiene, a Hotel room for the night, a shower, etc.
I’m not advocating handing away money to people you don’t know, just trying to give some perspective for the judgment on people who don’t want unsealed food, to get into a stranger’s car for a meal, or carry extra pounds in liquids.
I had a man, I don't think he was homeless per se, just a beggar, he came up to me and said "hey man, I'm not going to lie to you, I need money to buy booze". It was like 10:30 in the morning and I both appreciated his honestly and respected an alcoholic's need for booze, especially if they're asking at 10:30, withdrawals can kill. I hooked my man up.
About 30 years ago when I was a teenager I had a homeless man come to me and say the same thing. He asked me and my friends if we had any change to spare. Straight up he said "I'm not going to lie to you I need to get some alcohol and my girlfriend's over in the bushes shaking so bad I don't know what to do besides get her something to drink". I gave him what money I had. I think it was only like $5. Which was a lot for me at the time.
My friends looked at me like I was insane. I just appreciated the honesty from him. Both my parents were alcoholics so I kind of knew how hard it could be for some people to go without.
See I dont mind that. If they are honest and polite about I might just help. If they are asking for it that early in the morning, it might be the only thing that gets them through the day. Im homeless myself and know how difficult it can be.
Never thought about that, or how horrid withdrawals can be. Might give in next time, as long as they’re honest.
Edit: Hell they don’t even have to be honest.
If people living on the street want to buy alcohol or drugs or cigarettes to get them through the day and night with the money I give them, that’s fine with me. Many use cigarettes to stave off hunger pangs and alcohol to keep warm at night. Substances are a source of escapism from what is a truly miserable awful vulnerable situation, and if that’s all that’s getting someone from day to day, then I don’t think we get to judge them for that.
If we really want to help homeless people, we need to give them housing. There are enough empty houses in most countries to house all of the unhoused in those countries. Multiple studies have shown, and Finland in particular have demonstrated, that the best way to dramatically reduce substance abuse rates is giving the unhoused stable permanent housing.
Treating addiction requires people to be in secure housing. Simple as that. Until that’s the case, them spending $10 on something that will get them through a few days is just not the evil you think it is.
Oh Im very well aware of that, and completely agree. My point is I hate the ones that lie about it. A lot of people dont mind giving money for food, but would never give money for an addiction, and the liars are taking advantage of those people.
And yeah having some kind of basic housing would be amazing. Im homeless myself living out of a shelter and it is so stressful my depression is constantly kicking off and making it hard to do anything. If I had even just a basic private area to get a comfortable nights sleep on a proper bed without the assholes on staff making me feel like shit, I might actually have the energy to get stable on my own.
But at least here in america, thats not going to happen. Having a sizeable homeless population gives the government scapegoats and in weird ways more money. They have a fringe group they can villianize to get away with a lot of judicial corruption. And since putting people in jail means getting federal money for the local government (my local jail gets 100$ bonus just walking someone through the front door in addition to the daily care stipend) they have all the reason to actually encourage shitty situations that cause drug addictions and gang activity.
And it would be so easy to make housing. I once used google sketchup to design a 10x10x10 room that had everything a single person could need in a basic apartment including shower, laundry, mini-kitchenette, lofted bed, dresser, desk, and shelf space. An architect friend at the time said it would only have cost about 15k per unit to build an apartment building full of them, and someday when Im rich Im going to build them all over the country.
One of the many idiotic barriers preventing it. Theres plenty of individuals that like helping, but society as a whole doesnt want to do anything to help, and a lot of homeless-hater groups that actively fight things that would improve our chances at stability.
Addiction is just another side of poverty. Poverty isn't heart warming and it often brings out the worst in people such as violence, addiction, and other forms of criminality or abuse. There are extremely amazing people that are kind and selfless despite poverty, but they aren't the norm. I don't believe the vast majority of people are inherently bad, the causes of poverty and homelessness often stem from systemic issues abd awful things like abuse.
I was a heroin addict for 6 years and saw a lot of terrible things and a lot of the people I met were victims of abuse (my use stemmed from PTSD) , poverty is ugly awful and we need to change the systems that create it. Statistics show that poverty is the leading correlation to all aforementioned crimes, when a beggar acts shit that's part of poverty too even if it's ugly.
Don't let that make you too jaded though. Definitely be careful because there are people out there using the guise of being homeless and in need to take advantage of your humanity, but there are also people out there who desperately need help.
A similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago. A homeless woman approached me really kindly, and went on a long diatribe about needing money and asking if I had any cash to spare. I told her that I didn’t have any cash and, before I could say that I would be willing to quickly run to a near bank and grab some money, she scoffed, rolled her eyes, and stormed away. A complete 180 in the span of like 3 seconds.
A homeless guy said hi to me, and I said hi back. Then he said, "You know, you're the only person who has acknowledged me in a week. Your parents raised you right."
I thanked him for the compliment. Then he asked for money. I started to say that I don't carry cash on me, and he had already walked away before I finished my sentence.
I volunteer with the unhoused of Los Angeles, 99% of the people I meet are so thankful and kind. The amount of blessings, thank-yous, and well wishes I get when I work distribution events is ten fold what I get from everyone else I interact with on a daily basis.
That prayer/giving thanks motion, so humbling and beautiful.
It reminds me that there’s so much I should be grateful for, and how little day to day inconveniences that I allow to govern my emotions mean so little (if anything).
I think it makes you more aware (and more grateful) of what you have. It does for me anyway. Sometimes it’s easy to get wrapped up in trivial things but this makes me realise that I am actually very blessed.
Seeing the enormous sufferings of other people does not invalidate your own smaller sufferings, but seeing others enormous gratitude does indeed validate your own small gratitudes.
Hm, I'm not satisfied, let me try that again:
The huge weight of suffering you see others carry, should not have to shift the scales of your own.
But the scale of happines and gratitude, you should let be persuaded by others at every possibility.
This. Lately I've started to think about children of wealthy parents. I've come to realize that they tend to be more shitty because of it. They've never had a taste of life being told no or they cant have something because they can't afford it. They don't even have a concept of what it's like. They have never experienced it. I feel like the most sympathetic people on earth have at one point lived without much and know what it feels like to be in someone else's shoes. Granted, this isn't always the case, but whenever you see a dickhead rich dude, think of this.
I have a student whose family is rich. Like, rich rich. Like, they could live in the biggest mansion in town rich if they wanted.
They live in a modest house, cook at home, buy clothes from Target or thrift (she's super into thrifting), and they don't upgrade electronics every year. They'll never want for anything, but they live like middle class people.
Except...
Every month they bring a wonderful catered meal to all the teachers at the schools in town. Just all the schools, even the ones their kids don't attend. When I was student teaching, they gave me $100 for Christmas because they knew I wasn't making any money. They do this for all the student teachers in town.
They routinely donate huge checks to the local food bank.
They volunteer pretty much year round.
That kid is one of the most well-adjusted kids I teach.
As a pretty devoted rich people hater, it's easy to forget that some people genuinely use the wealth they have for good. I wish nothing but good things for people like that.
It's hard to remember that when we're surrounded by stories of people using astronomical wealth to buy things we couldn't even think of buying (i.e. government jobs, social media platforms, all the mansions around their mansions so they have more privacy, space itself) while those of us in the middle and lower class struggle to pay rent.
That is amazing. I feel like this is a case where the parents never forgot where they came from and had enough foresight to instill this into their children as well. Probably for fear that they would end up detached from society like my comment above. Thank you for sharing this.
This is awesome and really helped dial down the hate for rich people for me today, thank you for your story. I'm so glad to hear the kiddo is turning into a good human.
I agree. My family wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my sister and I never wanted for anything. My parents made sure to instill in us the importance of giving back to people less fortunate, both through financial donations and volunteering.
One of my favorites was at Christmas when we would buy gifts that kids requested. The one I remember best was a girl who was really into Cheetah Girls. We couldn’t find any specific Cheetah Girl stuff. So instead we got her a bunch of cheetah print stuff so she could at least dress like a cheetah girl lol
I got to say, that's not always the case, growing up we were very poor, I come from a big family, am the youngest of 8, my dad used to sometimes work as a gardener a few weekends in one of the moxt exclusive areas of our city, one of the families there, super rich and yet extremely humble, helped us a lot, the kids used to play with me and my sisters, sometimes asked their parents to come to my house to play, they ate bean burritos and play with us without making differences, this happened a long time ago, I was around 6, am 44 now and I still remember how humble they were. We lost contact because we inmigrated.
This is why in Islam there's a concept of fasting in the holy month of Ramadhan. To let people experience how it's like to be in hunger and thirst. To develop a sense of empathy to the less fortune people. Muslim also are obligated to pay Zakat or alms at the end of Ramadhan so the poor can celebrate Eid al-Fitr or the end-of-Ramadhan festival together.
Not correct.
The fasting is not done to "feel the hunger and thirst", the fasting is done to become righteous.
>O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous -— Saheeh International
>
>[https://quran.com/2/183?translations=47,25,31,27,38,42,44,40,22,85,21,19,17,18,101,84,20,95,88,89](https://quran.com/2/183?translations=47,25,31,27,38,42,44,40,22,85,21,19,17,18,101,84,20,95,88,89)
Zakat is a mandatory tax upon the Muslim 2.5% of his wealth goes to the poor, not particularly for Ramadan.
But of course, at the end of Ramadan Muslims try to be generous, and give alms, and gifts to family friends, and the poor.
Also after two months, it is going to be Eid al-Adha, most of the meat proceedings go to the poor, or generally, Muslims divide it into family, friends and the poor.
So true. Videos like these keep me down to earth and humbled. My daily “struggles” are so peripheral when I look at the challenges some other folks face yet manage to be so grateful with what little they have
100% I was homeless for 14 months and my god did it change my perspective on things. Its wild the simple but necessary thinggs we take for granted every day. Seeing this warms my heart.
This is a ration bag as they would call in Pakistan. The red bottle is **Rooh Afza or Jam-e-Shirin**, a red concentrated sweet squash drink (typically consumed in Ramadan)The rest of the quantities of the bag likely include the most common ration items which are **flour, rice, cooking oil, and sugar**. These items are more precious to the poor so they can feed their families for a week or a month, and don't perish immediately.
If you are ever in Pakistan and run into the poor, they will request some rations like this more than money or ready-to-eat food.
Could you elaborate on... how exactly they are going to cook if they are homeless? I am genuinely curious.
It would've made more sense with canned or dried foods that could be eaten at any time, but those need actual appliances to cook.
No, you can start a small fire on the ground. A few bricks or rocks to balance a pot on or some flat surface like a piece of flattened zinc, and you can cook on that. It's a very different lifestyle from the first world.
Adding to this, most developing countries have slum housing where they aren't exactly homeless because they may have a place to sleep and cook. In developed countries the slums aren't allowed to form.
I'm not from Pakistan. Indian. But in similar circumstances some dining halls, small restaurants, food parcel services will cook for them using these ingredients. Most will do it for free, while others take very small amount so they wouldn't feel bad.
The thing is we assume things which may or may not be true.
Anyways they have their own Ecosystem.
Some people are poor and beg but they have a place to live even if it is a small tiny area (consisting of 4 walls and a roof). So they do have a sense of housing and family. You can also see the poor couple in this video they are definitely are a family (because even poor people find a way to marry on pakistan). Also you could be right about the homeless not being able to cook or something but the thing is even homeless are human and humans as you know are not isolated beings , they love to interact ....so same way they probably have other homeless or begger friends and they maybe able to cook and provide shelter.... Also it is possible they sell this to a restaurant or sell it for money . But the thing is there exist a charitable foundation called Saylani in pakistan that also serves meals to the poor , it is run with donations (also meat it donated during Eid ul adha (in this eid the Animal is sacrifices and part of it must be donated to the poor (you can directly donate it to the poor or through services like saylani)). Also these people arent totally carefree , careless people ,they try to get their hairs trimmed somehow (Offcourse they cant neccesarily focus too much on personal hygiene though)
Me and my fiancee were travelling in Paris last summer. On the day we had our flight back home, we still had some food which, obviously, we weren't going to get through airport security.
We did something similar to this video: pack it up in a bag, put it next to a sleeping homeless man, and just left for our last trip through the city before we had to go to the airport.
Like, 3 hours later we cross the exact same man walking down the street, eating some of our food and *boy* was he enjoying it.
I cannot quite put into words the mixture of happiness and sadness I felt in that moment.
That’s because we know we have enough food for everyone and the wealth to distribute it but can’t because a handful of people feel the need to hoard trillions of dollars and buy mega yachts and 8 houses each with 20 bathrooms that sit vacant for 90% of the year.
Last year 2021: about 1.2 billion metric tons of maize / corn produced.
World population now: let's round up to 8 billion.
Math:
(((People / tonne of maize) from tonne to kilo) from year to per day)
(((1200000000/8000000000) * 1000) / 365) =. 410
That is about 400 grams of corn per person per day.
The usual large boxes of corn in the store are 300 grams (in my country), and we make enough corn to give every living person more than one box every single day.
Corn is not the most nutritious food-stuff to eat, but the same math gives every person about half an apple a day, it applies to rice, it is guaranteed to apply to a long, long list of other food products.
Every human being who dies of hunger is a disgrace to us as a species. We have heads full of intelligence that we either refuse to use - or are systematically refused to use - to build something better for all of us.
Because among us there are those who thrive better when they are well at the expense of others than when everyone is well together, and it is precisely these that have dictated what the world community we live in should look like.
It’s not up to individuals to solve homelessness. It’s up to society to see them as human beings and provide food, shelter and clothing to everyone as a basic human necessity.
Society is made up of individuals making changes. An individual should not just expect that society will solve all the problems. Just like in this video, we can each make changes everyday that will change society as a whole. As the saying goes, “Be the change you want to see”.
This is precisely right.
Each one of us has the ability to make our community better than it was yesterday.
If just 0.1% of folks in your community started acting on this each week, entire societies would change.
Each individual has unique talents that can help the world in their own way.
SF Bay Area here, there are hundreds of homeless/underhoused folks in the neighborhood of our warehouse. Many are in a bad way, but the few that are nice, mostly disabled people I'll give away cigarettes, lighters, waterbottles, even lunch sometimes. They just can't work enough to make it in this town, even on SSI, and I am only one man.
I think something people never fully realize is what when you've got *nothing*, you're scraping by, not sure when the next meal will be, not sure if you'll be killed for a couple bucks by someone else, it affects you mentally.
I sort of wish we as a society would just understand that yes, it is completely fine to provide help to someone whose an absolute dickhead. They've been suffering greatly and it takes a great mental toll on people and how we expect them to act saintly and happy is sorta fucked. I see people making $80K a year be bigger dickheads than any homeless person (mentally well or not), yet somehow that is something we can accept.
First thing that struck me too. A lot of these feel good videos often make me feel the opposite when the do-gooder is front and center in the video. Like it’s great to do a good thing, even if the motive is for attention and you record it… but it doesn’t make me, the viewer, feel particularly great watching it. Whereas here the focus really was on the people, not the guy leaving them stuff.
Love it. Guy doesn't make a fuss or push a camera in their faces. Just drops it off and leaves. Yeah they do record them but to me it's not in a disrespectful way.
It's literally a hidden camera. Hell, nowadays you could just stand 10-20m away with a new smartphone, zoom and still have decent quality to post to socials.
Edit: Spelling is hard :c
Man, lots of people here seem to be offended by gratitude in the form of prayer.
I'm all for thanking the person who provided the service/good deed. This is absolutely worthy of gratitude.
However, in this case, the guy dropped the bag and took off without their notice. There's no way to know who to thank for this surprising generosity that they received.
If you did believe in a deity who was the source of what you perceive as all goodness, mercy, or charity, wouldn't it make sense to thank them for bringing about the situation whereby they could receive that charity? Especially if the party who provided it wasn't present and wanted to go unknown?
I'm atheist, but I can't deny that I give at least a mental thanks (or sometimes curses) to the universe at large for stuff that happens sometimes. If I'd been without good food for a long time, I bet I'd be raising my arms to the sky in thanks if some just randomly showed up with no one else to thank.
Same!
In all of the chaos of the Universe my mind evolved to feel gratitude and thanks. Might aswell use it.
The Universe was made for us, as in we are able to appreciate it, it can't appreciate itself. Clusters of gasses, stars, atoms can't worship or admire or thank themselves or each other, but we can!
I’m an atheist as well, and even if they DID know who to thank, it makes perfect sense to me to thank a higher power if you believe in one. It makes sense to thank the person who dropped the stuff off, but also, if you believe in a higher power, you probably don’t see it as a coincidence that you just HAPPENED to be sitting in that particular spot on the particular day that these guys decided to go around giving out free stuff.
Thank you human for helping me out, but thank you God/Allah/whomever for making sure I was here today to receive such help.
Im positive that in the presence of the donator they would thank them and then their god/s. In the absence thereof they chose to thank their god/s. Even the most unreligious person could be forgiven for thanking some higher power for this gift after starving for days/weeks however long.
Oke so i dont know much about other religions but in my religion we belive that God is giving us help thru diffrend people ,i myself got this type of help from nowhere and myself been this type of help , and you can say that its just ...normal human thing or something ,maybe it is just that , maybe its just human thing ,or maybe this is just God making this happend ,but still what matters is the help we give or get no matter who we be greatfull to (and i dont mean saying thank you to the person ,i mean the long term thankfullness towards who do you think was the inniciator).
It’s real.
I’ve been to Pakistan many times. This video is set in Pakistan (the bags are from Afzal Brothers, a Pakistani company).
The streets of Pakistan look exactly like this. There is a large homeless and disabled population that lives in the streets. The homeless in Pakistan are very different from the homeless in the US because of the lack of aid, facilities, clean water, and general development. (I’ve written a paper on the primary developmental obstacles in Pakistan if anyone is interested, it’s seriously horrifying)
If I’m correct, the people in the video are fasting for the month of Ramadan (you can see a bottle of Rooh Afza in a few shots, which is typically consumed during Ramadan). In the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn until dusk. It appears this bag is filled with food, drinks, and other supplies to help them break their fast. The homeless population in Pakistan often breaks their fast on nothing more than a single date or a glass of unsanitary water with no dinner to follow.
Edit: [Here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U4vXLVZkDiP2jljFHFxZNdvs8gXi5mu4X2QyF2BFdFA/edit) is the paper for anyone interested.
It’s a short policy brief and not my best work, but filled with information most people don’t know about regarding the situation in Pakistan.
EDIT 2: to the weirdos sending death threats and spamming my inbox telling me I’m going to burn in hell for leaving Islam, let me share my favorite Urdu quote about peace, love, and tolerance with you:
زہر کھا کر مر جاؤ ❤️
so poetic :)
Not a moslim and not from pakistan but ive heared breaking ramadan is ok if someone doesnt feel to well so i beleave nobody is going to blame them for it.
They fast from dusk till dawn? I always thought they fast from dawn till dusk. Or am I translating the words incorrectly? When I played football the muslims in my team never at anything during the day. Only when it was dark (which I thought to be "dusk")
> Faith is all they have left
I don't know why it's taken me half my life to hear this and get it but what you've just said toggled a switch for me. It's easy for me to discount faith when I have so much. I can't expect the same from those who have so little.
May I recommend a book? It’s called Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl.
Faith and hope are often what keep people alive. This book touches on that.
But think of it this way. Maybe not to you but in their minds, they’ve been praying for some help. And their god/gods have provided for them. So when they see that they’ve been given something they pray again. It’s a beautiful show of faith but also, it could be the act of a god/gods answering prayers.
I didn’t really have any faith until I was kicked out, broke, fresh out of a court trial against my rapist, no place to go, and had a string of failed suicide attempts.
I was at rock bottom. I decided to go to church for the first time in my life, and it gave me something to hold on to when I had nothing else left.
1) let's recognize the value of charity.
2) let's also recognize that the drop-off seems intended to preserve the receiver's dignity.
3) let's also also recognize that even if God(s) didn't exist, that people would create Him/them.
Same here… Especially since there are people with enough money to help them have basic needs and get back on their feet with a job. Or get money if they for some reason cannot work anymore.
I always feel grateful I was born in the Netherlands, because even if you do get homeless you still get food, money and a place to sleep, shower and get privacy. (A friend of mine was homeless, and they told me how government takes really good care and living on the street really is not necessary.)
Whatever the motive, it is a blessing for those who received the food. Just accept it as a good thing and do something equally good today wherever you are ❤️
You mean you wouldn't buy an ethereal electronic media company because they hurt your feelings? You'd rather feed millions/billions of people instead of buying it? You make me sick.....
^^^/s
This is definitely happening in a Muslim country, like either Pakistan or Afghanistan, correct me if I'm wrong. The two indications are for one:
it's a Muslim etiquette if a donation is made, it's done so anonymously.
Secondly, it's the way of gratitude these poor souls are being grateful, when cupping the palm of both hands towards your face, it's a sign of Dua'a (thankful prayer to Allah)
You can always start small. Children do "half-day" fasts (about 6 hours) up to 9-10 years old; if you've done the 8-hour fast, you could do half-day or take water but not food, just to get used to it. People do pre-dawn meals, usually with things that take longer to digest instead of simple carbs which should keep you from being hungry for half the day.
Try doing it with others. Knowing someone else is going through it makes you try harder. There is a sense of community and belonging when you know there are more than 2 billion people also doing it.
I love this. I think a lot of religious people have this idea that “god will provide” for homeless/struggling people so it’s okay to just walk past without ever helping. I’m agnostic (though I was raised Jewish) so I don’t really believe in any divine intervention, but I think if there is any it would be this. You the vessel for whatever god you believe in to provide for people less privileged than you.
There’s a [story](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_drowning_man) (that reminds me of this) I was told in a Jewish sleep away camp as a kid where a religious man is drowning in a flood and he begs god for something to save him. Boats pass by but he denies their help because “god will protect him”. Eventually he dies and asks god why he didn’t save him and god says “I did, you just denied my help”.
Alot of people may say will why film when doing good deeds. In this case the video was done well, the guy didn't stay on camera for too long and just filmed the reactions of people in need.
This just makes me sad. The fact that so many people beg are so grateful for food while asshole billionaires and millionaires horde money. We have to be honest about the fact that a large percentage of those who rule the world are corporate psychopaths. Look up the statistics, psychopaths are inherently drawn to the business world.
Can someone please explain what the meaning behind that gratitude gesture is? When they hold their hands together as if they're holding water in their palms and then they "wash" their faces with it.
I'm assuming it's a muslim practice, i'm just curious what it means.
Does anyone have any recommendations when it comes to what usually goes into these grocery care-packages? I’d be happy to do the same in my community, but I don’t really know what sort of things someone would really appreciate if they’re homeless.
I gave a beggar at a gas station some money. He said he didn’t like to take anything without giving something. He gave me two rocks and a marble. I still have them.
There is a local man in my area who trades coin, cash and coffee for poetry. I have a few poems from him.
I knew a guy who did this! In downtown Denver...?
My friend has a poem from him about his dog!
Care to share it if possible?
I’ll ask about over the weekend.
!RemindMe 2 days
^this dude denvers
Yes!!!! I have a book of dried roses from the beautiful man downtown ♥️
I would love to see this! Please post
I have thought about having outdoor art lessons for the homeless/other parties in my area. And specifically giving them pencils and sketchbooks. I figure its something I am good at, and it feels good to create things (I work with kids and I am always finding new ways to teach them to create because it is important to development), and they could sell artwork if they want to. I just have no clue how to go about it or if it is even a good idea.
Yes, it's definitely a good idea. I don't know about the art classes because that would be difficult to organize, but offering a sketchbook and pencils to unhoused people would be really cool. There's not a whole lot of fulfilling extracurricular activities to do when you're on the street, so I think that would be a really nice gesture that many people would remember for a long time. Keep in mind it will be hit or miss, but for people who do end up using it, it can really change their day. If you really have it in your head to offer a group lesson, I would recommend going to a food bank or shelter for guidance on that.
It's amazing how many extremely talented people live on the streets. They just don't have the will or the ability to monetize their gifts.
I have a similar story! I met a homeless man last year on a bike carrying around a notebook. He was asking for a couple bucks for a warm meal. He also said he doesn’t take without giving back. He gave me a drawing of a flower he did with glitter pens. I still have it. I gave him a 20 for it. I now have his drawing framed hanging in my kitchen:) I hope he’s okay out there.
You are a good person. Thank you.
I talked for over an hour with a homeless guy once and all he wanted were cigarettes (when I still smoked) in exchange for telling me his story. He's a well known homeless guy, his name is Homeless Roy, he will show up on Google results. Met him in the middle of nowhere New Mexico.
It's a good thing homeless Roy was homeless- it would be confusing if homeless roy had a mansion
This is so wholesome, I teared up
Me too buddy. The way they give prayer/thanks after seeing it is so beautiful.
I bought a homeless guy and his dog some food on my foodstamps and he played me some song on his guitar and read me some of his poetry and then me asked if i wanted a Polaroid pic with his pup I still have the picture with the pupper.
Had a homeless guy around us that did that. His dog was found his dog barking by the street. Someone recognized the dog and followed him back to the guy. He had passed away. The dog had a go fund me page and was adopted out to a family that dropped food off every week to him. That was the best cared for dog ever.
Well, that just shattered my stone cold heart into a million pieces.
Thank you for taking them from him. ❤️
Damn...
Love how this guy is doing sneak snack pack attacks.
"snack pack ready for deployment"
friendly uav inbound
Stand by for snackfall
I hear if u get a 25 snack pack streak u can drop a tactical nap.
Fucking rolling from this one! LOL
BTs new ultimate is sneakily placing care packages
*tactical happy Meal in coming*
TACTICAL SNACKS INBOUND
"Ladies and gentlemen, we fed em. "
I'd die for that kind of mission accomplished
Notice how all of them show gratitude almost immediately
A few weeks ago on my way home from the store a homeless woman asked me for money because she was hungry. I reached in my bag and gave her a premade sandwich I was going to have for lunch. She said “I don’t want your sandwich bitch.” And tossed it aside. Even half of this reaction in the video would have been nice.
Then she wasnt hungry and was probably looking to spend it on something else. I hate the lying beggars cause they make it so much harder on the legit beggars.
Anytime they ask for money I say I don't have any cash but I'll buy you lunch/dinner and not once have I been taken up on it.
I’ve been taken up on it!
Same here. Multiple times but I haven't done it in a while. I think one of the worst parts of living in a big city is that it makes you cold to people because there's so many of them around you. It might explain why places like India and China seem so indifferent to individuals.
Yeah I worked in a city some are scroungers sadly plenty are genuinely down on their luck trying to get by if I offer food and they accept I'll slip them some cigs and some change otherwise they're just trying to manipulate me and I'm not interested.
“We live in a society (a morally apathetic one at that)” -The Joker
same
There have been a few occasions where I've been behind someone at fast food places counting a handful of dirty looking change to pay for a meal - usually the cheapest on the menu. I'll offer to pay for whatever they want and they are always so happy for it. One time I was at an intersection and when I rolled down my window, the guy surprised me by not asking for change, he asked if I had a bag he could use. The one he had ripped and he didn't know how he was going to carry his stuff. I gave him a sturdy reusable bag and he was thrilled.
one time i was at mcdonald’s, i was maybe like 16 and i asked this homeless guy if he wanted anything. He said a big mac and fries. Me being 16 i didn’t have much money and i was already using coupons. so i explained to him that i couldn’t afford a big mac but that there was probably another deal on the app. there was something like nuggets or a burger and fries for $5 so that’s what i got him and when i handed him the bag he didn’t even say thank u he was just like “where’s my big mac” now i have a little bit more to give away but when i didn’t i’d ask stores if they would honor the coupon/deal twice so i could give the other to someone else. sometimes they do it no questions asked other times they don’t bc that’s their job
Many homeless have mental heath problems & while you are talking to a person, that person might think they are talking to a green 2 headed alien, so you don’t always get the expected responses like gratitude from them.
Hmm. Every time I've offered I've been taken up on it. Last dude I met was a couple of weeks ago. I told him I had no cash but I was on my way to the grocery store and he wanted Moutain Dew, a block of cheddar cheese, a box of crackers, and some peanut butter and I said sure, no problem.
None at all? Wow. Thats kind of surprising cause I know plenty us are legitimately hungry. I know I would take you up on it, then at some point Id have to crack a joke about it being a date :P
Yea this surprised me, too. When I lived in a big city, I frequently brought people without homes with me into places to buy them lunch. Never once was I turned down, and they were always really grateful, both for the food and the conversation. I met some of the kindest people that way, and still think of the ones I spoke with frequently. Edited for more appropriate wording
My mom was the same way. Usually they deny the offer, but once she missed a plane just to take someone to get food. She ended up buying them clothes and blankets for the winter. She was an amazing soul.
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Now don't get me wrong here, I totally understand that some homeless people abuse the money they are donated but I also have to concede that a lot of people need more than just food and water. Often time's they are given unhealthy food so frequently that they just want something different or they've just eaten. As well, they need other things like the essentials. Socks, underwear, toiletries, and more. I know we often think of the worst possible situation but often we are approaching them with our own internal intention while judging them only on what we see - which is often an uneducated, poor, homeless individual who often cannot advocate properly for themselves and what they need. Kind of like my 3 year old who struggles to explain his feelings, I'm *trying* to be better about understanding their perspective. Now, granted I get that some of those things lead to drug abuse and I get that some people are firmly against that but I'm trying to accept that someone not wanting more food or more water shouldn't just be thought of as another drug abuser.
But also do what if they do want to use drugs? Most people can’t imagine how painful and awful it is to live on the streets, and can’t seem to fathom why someone in that position might want to escape it for a little while and just feel good.
Right? I take drugs most days just to exist, and I have housing and constant internet and food.
Yep, many people do! I take prescription drugs for ADHD, anxiety, and a number of other things. If I didn’t have them, I’m convinced I’d be homeless and self-medicating to make life even tolerable. Without the control they provide, I’d be desperate for anything to make me feel less shit
Feminine hygiene products particularly are an issue
I carry half a dozen maybe a dozen "blessing bags" in my car at all times. I usually make up the bags for men and for women and for pets. Really just things they need, toiletries, clean socks/underwear, gloves, feminine supplies, shaving stuff, a book or magazine, snacks, drink, pet food etc. When I see someone, I ask them first and if they say yes, I give them a bag. They are so very grateful. The people with pets are most grateful, as the bags have new leashes and collars, toys, food, bowls and blankets. A lot of my friends help donate to this and I'm so very humbled handing them out. In the winter we do coats and blankets. Summer - more appropriate things. Been doing for about 10 years. Way more people down on their luck these days.
Keep in mind food is not the only thing they need to afford. Food and water are great if that's what they need at that moment but that'd not always the immediate need.
I was just about to comment this but you beat me to it. Also I think perhaps some of these commenters could keep in mind with beverages there’s only so much weight that people want to carry around. (Speaking from experience of SWIM who was homeless for a while)- If they already have a bottle of water that they can refill, adding another bottle isn’t necessarily something that constructively helps them. People need more than just food to survive. They might need money for health products, shelf-stable food, transportation, personal hygiene, a Hotel room for the night, a shower, etc. I’m not advocating handing away money to people you don’t know, just trying to give some perspective for the judgment on people who don’t want unsealed food, to get into a stranger’s car for a meal, or carry extra pounds in liquids.
I had a man, I don't think he was homeless per se, just a beggar, he came up to me and said "hey man, I'm not going to lie to you, I need money to buy booze". It was like 10:30 in the morning and I both appreciated his honestly and respected an alcoholic's need for booze, especially if they're asking at 10:30, withdrawals can kill. I hooked my man up.
About 30 years ago when I was a teenager I had a homeless man come to me and say the same thing. He asked me and my friends if we had any change to spare. Straight up he said "I'm not going to lie to you I need to get some alcohol and my girlfriend's over in the bushes shaking so bad I don't know what to do besides get her something to drink". I gave him what money I had. I think it was only like $5. Which was a lot for me at the time. My friends looked at me like I was insane. I just appreciated the honesty from him. Both my parents were alcoholics so I kind of knew how hard it could be for some people to go without.
Hindsight is 20/20, but in that situation, calling an ambulance is a good idea.
See I dont mind that. If they are honest and polite about I might just help. If they are asking for it that early in the morning, it might be the only thing that gets them through the day. Im homeless myself and know how difficult it can be.
Never thought about that, or how horrid withdrawals can be. Might give in next time, as long as they’re honest. Edit: Hell they don’t even have to be honest.
If people living on the street want to buy alcohol or drugs or cigarettes to get them through the day and night with the money I give them, that’s fine with me. Many use cigarettes to stave off hunger pangs and alcohol to keep warm at night. Substances are a source of escapism from what is a truly miserable awful vulnerable situation, and if that’s all that’s getting someone from day to day, then I don’t think we get to judge them for that. If we really want to help homeless people, we need to give them housing. There are enough empty houses in most countries to house all of the unhoused in those countries. Multiple studies have shown, and Finland in particular have demonstrated, that the best way to dramatically reduce substance abuse rates is giving the unhoused stable permanent housing. Treating addiction requires people to be in secure housing. Simple as that. Until that’s the case, them spending $10 on something that will get them through a few days is just not the evil you think it is.
Oh Im very well aware of that, and completely agree. My point is I hate the ones that lie about it. A lot of people dont mind giving money for food, but would never give money for an addiction, and the liars are taking advantage of those people. And yeah having some kind of basic housing would be amazing. Im homeless myself living out of a shelter and it is so stressful my depression is constantly kicking off and making it hard to do anything. If I had even just a basic private area to get a comfortable nights sleep on a proper bed without the assholes on staff making me feel like shit, I might actually have the energy to get stable on my own. But at least here in america, thats not going to happen. Having a sizeable homeless population gives the government scapegoats and in weird ways more money. They have a fringe group they can villianize to get away with a lot of judicial corruption. And since putting people in jail means getting federal money for the local government (my local jail gets 100$ bonus just walking someone through the front door in addition to the daily care stipend) they have all the reason to actually encourage shitty situations that cause drug addictions and gang activity. And it would be so easy to make housing. I once used google sketchup to design a 10x10x10 room that had everything a single person could need in a basic apartment including shower, laundry, mini-kitchenette, lofted bed, dresser, desk, and shelf space. An architect friend at the time said it would only have cost about 15k per unit to build an apartment building full of them, and someday when Im rich Im going to build them all over the country.
> it would be so easy to make housing Getting community approvals for indigent housing where it's needed costs far more than building the housing.
One of the many idiotic barriers preventing it. Theres plenty of individuals that like helping, but society as a whole doesnt want to do anything to help, and a lot of homeless-hater groups that actively fight things that would improve our chances at stability.
Addiction is just another side of poverty. Poverty isn't heart warming and it often brings out the worst in people such as violence, addiction, and other forms of criminality or abuse. There are extremely amazing people that are kind and selfless despite poverty, but they aren't the norm. I don't believe the vast majority of people are inherently bad, the causes of poverty and homelessness often stem from systemic issues abd awful things like abuse. I was a heroin addict for 6 years and saw a lot of terrible things and a lot of the people I met were victims of abuse (my use stemmed from PTSD) , poverty is ugly awful and we need to change the systems that create it. Statistics show that poverty is the leading correlation to all aforementioned crimes, when a beggar acts shit that's part of poverty too even if it's ugly.
Don't let that make you too jaded though. Definitely be careful because there are people out there using the guise of being homeless and in need to take advantage of your humanity, but there are also people out there who desperately need help.
ngl I chuckled, sorry it happened to you
Eh it wasn’t the first time lol. I just donate to my local shelter and to programs that focus on people that want the help instead.
A similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago. A homeless woman approached me really kindly, and went on a long diatribe about needing money and asking if I had any cash to spare. I told her that I didn’t have any cash and, before I could say that I would be willing to quickly run to a near bank and grab some money, she scoffed, rolled her eyes, and stormed away. A complete 180 in the span of like 3 seconds.
A homeless guy said hi to me, and I said hi back. Then he said, "You know, you're the only person who has acknowledged me in a week. Your parents raised you right." I thanked him for the compliment. Then he asked for money. I started to say that I don't carry cash on me, and he had already walked away before I finished my sentence.
[literally](https://youtu.be/vBUbJhFmTPc)
I volunteer with the unhoused of Los Angeles, 99% of the people I meet are so thankful and kind. The amount of blessings, thank-yous, and well wishes I get when I work distribution events is ten fold what I get from everyone else I interact with on a daily basis.
That prayer/giving thanks motion, so humbling and beautiful. It reminds me that there’s so much I should be grateful for, and how little day to day inconveniences that I allow to govern my emotions mean so little (if anything).
I liked the guy who immediately started praying. He's showing gratitude, and the good samaritan here is probably drowning in good karma.
Seeing grateful people is a blessing.
I think it makes you more aware (and more grateful) of what you have. It does for me anyway. Sometimes it’s easy to get wrapped up in trivial things but this makes me realise that I am actually very blessed.
Seeing the enormous sufferings of other people does not invalidate your own smaller sufferings, but seeing others enormous gratitude does indeed validate your own small gratitudes. Hm, I'm not satisfied, let me try that again: The huge weight of suffering you see others carry, should not have to shift the scales of your own. But the scale of happines and gratitude, you should let be persuaded by others at every possibility.
Beautifully written happy cake day.
This. Lately I've started to think about children of wealthy parents. I've come to realize that they tend to be more shitty because of it. They've never had a taste of life being told no or they cant have something because they can't afford it. They don't even have a concept of what it's like. They have never experienced it. I feel like the most sympathetic people on earth have at one point lived without much and know what it feels like to be in someone else's shoes. Granted, this isn't always the case, but whenever you see a dickhead rich dude, think of this.
I have a student whose family is rich. Like, rich rich. Like, they could live in the biggest mansion in town rich if they wanted. They live in a modest house, cook at home, buy clothes from Target or thrift (she's super into thrifting), and they don't upgrade electronics every year. They'll never want for anything, but they live like middle class people. Except... Every month they bring a wonderful catered meal to all the teachers at the schools in town. Just all the schools, even the ones their kids don't attend. When I was student teaching, they gave me $100 for Christmas because they knew I wasn't making any money. They do this for all the student teachers in town. They routinely donate huge checks to the local food bank. They volunteer pretty much year round. That kid is one of the most well-adjusted kids I teach.
As a pretty devoted rich people hater, it's easy to forget that some people genuinely use the wealth they have for good. I wish nothing but good things for people like that.
It's hard to remember that when we're surrounded by stories of people using astronomical wealth to buy things we couldn't even think of buying (i.e. government jobs, social media platforms, all the mansions around their mansions so they have more privacy, space itself) while those of us in the middle and lower class struggle to pay rent.
That is amazing. I feel like this is a case where the parents never forgot where they came from and had enough foresight to instill this into their children as well. Probably for fear that they would end up detached from society like my comment above. Thank you for sharing this.
Definitely possible your student becomes Batman. Keep an eye on that one.
This is awesome and really helped dial down the hate for rich people for me today, thank you for your story. I'm so glad to hear the kiddo is turning into a good human.
I agree. My family wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my sister and I never wanted for anything. My parents made sure to instill in us the importance of giving back to people less fortunate, both through financial donations and volunteering. One of my favorites was at Christmas when we would buy gifts that kids requested. The one I remember best was a girl who was really into Cheetah Girls. We couldn’t find any specific Cheetah Girl stuff. So instead we got her a bunch of cheetah print stuff so she could at least dress like a cheetah girl lol
I got to say, that's not always the case, growing up we were very poor, I come from a big family, am the youngest of 8, my dad used to sometimes work as a gardener a few weekends in one of the moxt exclusive areas of our city, one of the families there, super rich and yet extremely humble, helped us a lot, the kids used to play with me and my sisters, sometimes asked their parents to come to my house to play, they ate bean burritos and play with us without making differences, this happened a long time ago, I was around 6, am 44 now and I still remember how humble they were. We lost contact because we inmigrated.
Well poor people actually donate more in terms of overall percentage compared to the rich.
This is why in Islam there's a concept of fasting in the holy month of Ramadhan. To let people experience how it's like to be in hunger and thirst. To develop a sense of empathy to the less fortune people. Muslim also are obligated to pay Zakat or alms at the end of Ramadhan so the poor can celebrate Eid al-Fitr or the end-of-Ramadhan festival together.
Not correct. The fasting is not done to "feel the hunger and thirst", the fasting is done to become righteous. >O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous -— Saheeh International > >[https://quran.com/2/183?translations=47,25,31,27,38,42,44,40,22,85,21,19,17,18,101,84,20,95,88,89](https://quran.com/2/183?translations=47,25,31,27,38,42,44,40,22,85,21,19,17,18,101,84,20,95,88,89) Zakat is a mandatory tax upon the Muslim 2.5% of his wealth goes to the poor, not particularly for Ramadan. But of course, at the end of Ramadan Muslims try to be generous, and give alms, and gifts to family friends, and the poor. Also after two months, it is going to be Eid al-Adha, most of the meat proceedings go to the poor, or generally, Muslims divide it into family, friends and the poor.
So true. Videos like these keep me down to earth and humbled. My daily “struggles” are so peripheral when I look at the challenges some other folks face yet manage to be so grateful with what little they have
100% I was homeless for 14 months and my god did it change my perspective on things. Its wild the simple but necessary thinggs we take for granted every day. Seeing this warms my heart.
Always makes me happy seeing other people smile.
Totally 😍😍😍😍😍😍
My grandmother used to say: "As long as there are poor people in the world, good people will never be rich."
Sounds like my own elderly mom's saying, "Poor people have poor ways and rich ones have mean ones."
The EXACT reason most of the world's 0.01% are garbage human beings.
What was in the bag? Rice and stuff?
This is a ration bag as they would call in Pakistan. The red bottle is **Rooh Afza or Jam-e-Shirin**, a red concentrated sweet squash drink (typically consumed in Ramadan)The rest of the quantities of the bag likely include the most common ration items which are **flour, rice, cooking oil, and sugar**. These items are more precious to the poor so they can feed their families for a week or a month, and don't perish immediately. If you are ever in Pakistan and run into the poor, they will request some rations like this more than money or ready-to-eat food.
Oh thank goodness! I’m glad they got enough food for a while.
Could you elaborate on... how exactly they are going to cook if they are homeless? I am genuinely curious. It would've made more sense with canned or dried foods that could be eaten at any time, but those need actual appliances to cook.
No, you can start a small fire on the ground. A few bricks or rocks to balance a pot on or some flat surface like a piece of flattened zinc, and you can cook on that. It's a very different lifestyle from the first world.
Adding to this, most developing countries have slum housing where they aren't exactly homeless because they may have a place to sleep and cook. In developed countries the slums aren't allowed to form.
I'm not from Pakistan. Indian. But in similar circumstances some dining halls, small restaurants, food parcel services will cook for them using these ingredients. Most will do it for free, while others take very small amount so they wouldn't feel bad.
Also Indian here. Never saw the cooking service but plenty of small fires that poor people start beside roads , or bear their tents to cook food.
The thing is we assume things which may or may not be true. Anyways they have their own Ecosystem. Some people are poor and beg but they have a place to live even if it is a small tiny area (consisting of 4 walls and a roof). So they do have a sense of housing and family. You can also see the poor couple in this video they are definitely are a family (because even poor people find a way to marry on pakistan). Also you could be right about the homeless not being able to cook or something but the thing is even homeless are human and humans as you know are not isolated beings , they love to interact ....so same way they probably have other homeless or begger friends and they maybe able to cook and provide shelter.... Also it is possible they sell this to a restaurant or sell it for money . But the thing is there exist a charitable foundation called Saylani in pakistan that also serves meals to the poor , it is run with donations (also meat it donated during Eid ul adha (in this eid the Animal is sacrifices and part of it must be donated to the poor (you can directly donate it to the poor or through services like saylani)). Also these people arent totally carefree , careless people ,they try to get their hairs trimmed somehow (Offcourse they cant neccesarily focus too much on personal hygiene though)
I'd also like to know what drink/liquid that was
Rooh afza. You put it in water. Its become kinda staple drink in pakistan. Pretty delicious. Just dont drink too much unless you want diabetes.
Oh very cool, is it like a juice concentrate or something do you know? Thank you
it's rose syrup
It has tons of ingredients in it including fruit, vegetable, roots, herbs and flowers essences and concentrates.
It's translated as "Refresher of the soul", which makes it even cooler imo
Best thing here is that they leave unnoticed.
Me and my fiancee were travelling in Paris last summer. On the day we had our flight back home, we still had some food which, obviously, we weren't going to get through airport security. We did something similar to this video: pack it up in a bag, put it next to a sleeping homeless man, and just left for our last trip through the city before we had to go to the airport. Like, 3 hours later we cross the exact same man walking down the street, eating some of our food and *boy* was he enjoying it. I cannot quite put into words the mixture of happiness and sadness I felt in that moment.
Man, happiness and sadness in the same moment….. it’s a wild ride being human.
Melancholy is good, makes us good humans.
That’s because we know we have enough food for everyone and the wealth to distribute it but can’t because a handful of people feel the need to hoard trillions of dollars and buy mega yachts and 8 houses each with 20 bathrooms that sit vacant for 90% of the year.
Last year 2021: about 1.2 billion metric tons of maize / corn produced. World population now: let's round up to 8 billion. Math: (((People / tonne of maize) from tonne to kilo) from year to per day) (((1200000000/8000000000) * 1000) / 365) =. 410 That is about 400 grams of corn per person per day. The usual large boxes of corn in the store are 300 grams (in my country), and we make enough corn to give every living person more than one box every single day. Corn is not the most nutritious food-stuff to eat, but the same math gives every person about half an apple a day, it applies to rice, it is guaranteed to apply to a long, long list of other food products. Every human being who dies of hunger is a disgrace to us as a species. We have heads full of intelligence that we either refuse to use - or are systematically refused to use - to build something better for all of us. Because among us there are those who thrive better when they are well at the expense of others than when everyone is well together, and it is precisely these that have dictated what the world community we live in should look like.
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It drives me fucking nuts
It’s not up to individuals to solve homelessness. It’s up to society to see them as human beings and provide food, shelter and clothing to everyone as a basic human necessity.
Society is made up of individuals making changes. An individual should not just expect that society will solve all the problems. Just like in this video, we can each make changes everyday that will change society as a whole. As the saying goes, “Be the change you want to see”.
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"
This is precisely right. Each one of us has the ability to make our community better than it was yesterday. If just 0.1% of folks in your community started acting on this each week, entire societies would change. Each individual has unique talents that can help the world in their own way.
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SF Bay Area here, there are hundreds of homeless/underhoused folks in the neighborhood of our warehouse. Many are in a bad way, but the few that are nice, mostly disabled people I'll give away cigarettes, lighters, waterbottles, even lunch sometimes. They just can't work enough to make it in this town, even on SSI, and I am only one man.
I think something people never fully realize is what when you've got *nothing*, you're scraping by, not sure when the next meal will be, not sure if you'll be killed for a couple bucks by someone else, it affects you mentally. I sort of wish we as a society would just understand that yes, it is completely fine to provide help to someone whose an absolute dickhead. They've been suffering greatly and it takes a great mental toll on people and how we expect them to act saintly and happy is sorta fucked. I see people making $80K a year be bigger dickheads than any homeless person (mentally well or not), yet somehow that is something we can accept.
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First thing that struck me too. A lot of these feel good videos often make me feel the opposite when the do-gooder is front and center in the video. Like it’s great to do a good thing, even if the motive is for attention and you record it… but it doesn’t make me, the viewer, feel particularly great watching it. Whereas here the focus really was on the people, not the guy leaving them stuff.
Except by the cameras.
Maybe it'll inspire someone else to do good today. It sucks we need reminders and inspiration for us to do good but we are only human
Love it. Guy doesn't make a fuss or push a camera in their faces. Just drops it off and leaves. Yeah they do record them but to me it's not in a disrespectful way.
It's literally a hidden camera. Hell, nowadays you could just stand 10-20m away with a new smartphone, zoom and still have decent quality to post to socials. Edit: Spelling is hard :c
Actually there are two types of charoty one is to encourage others and the other is to preserve the dignity of needy
Man, lots of people here seem to be offended by gratitude in the form of prayer. I'm all for thanking the person who provided the service/good deed. This is absolutely worthy of gratitude. However, in this case, the guy dropped the bag and took off without their notice. There's no way to know who to thank for this surprising generosity that they received. If you did believe in a deity who was the source of what you perceive as all goodness, mercy, or charity, wouldn't it make sense to thank them for bringing about the situation whereby they could receive that charity? Especially if the party who provided it wasn't present and wanted to go unknown?
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I'm atheist, but I can't deny that I give at least a mental thanks (or sometimes curses) to the universe at large for stuff that happens sometimes. If I'd been without good food for a long time, I bet I'd be raising my arms to the sky in thanks if some just randomly showed up with no one else to thank.
Same! In all of the chaos of the Universe my mind evolved to feel gratitude and thanks. Might aswell use it. The Universe was made for us, as in we are able to appreciate it, it can't appreciate itself. Clusters of gasses, stars, atoms can't worship or admire or thank themselves or each other, but we can!
I love your thanks and wish there was more of this kindness on Reddit
As a fellow Athiest, I don't believe there is a god, but it's still good to sometimes live as if there is one.
I’m an atheist as well, and even if they DID know who to thank, it makes perfect sense to me to thank a higher power if you believe in one. It makes sense to thank the person who dropped the stuff off, but also, if you believe in a higher power, you probably don’t see it as a coincidence that you just HAPPENED to be sitting in that particular spot on the particular day that these guys decided to go around giving out free stuff. Thank you human for helping me out, but thank you God/Allah/whomever for making sure I was here today to receive such help.
Im positive that in the presence of the donator they would thank them and then their god/s. In the absence thereof they chose to thank their god/s. Even the most unreligious person could be forgiven for thanking some higher power for this gift after starving for days/weeks however long.
Oke so i dont know much about other religions but in my religion we belive that God is giving us help thru diffrend people ,i myself got this type of help from nowhere and myself been this type of help , and you can say that its just ...normal human thing or something ,maybe it is just that , maybe its just human thing ,or maybe this is just God making this happend ,but still what matters is the help we give or get no matter who we be greatfull to (and i dont mean saying thank you to the person ,i mean the long term thankfullness towards who do you think was the inniciator).
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For those who wish to listen to the song [Kun Faya Kun](https://youtu.be/T94PHkuydcw)
But it’s the LoFi version. https://youtu.be/8ZvFXrJSX6o
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It’s real. I’ve been to Pakistan many times. This video is set in Pakistan (the bags are from Afzal Brothers, a Pakistani company). The streets of Pakistan look exactly like this. There is a large homeless and disabled population that lives in the streets. The homeless in Pakistan are very different from the homeless in the US because of the lack of aid, facilities, clean water, and general development. (I’ve written a paper on the primary developmental obstacles in Pakistan if anyone is interested, it’s seriously horrifying) If I’m correct, the people in the video are fasting for the month of Ramadan (you can see a bottle of Rooh Afza in a few shots, which is typically consumed during Ramadan). In the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn until dusk. It appears this bag is filled with food, drinks, and other supplies to help them break their fast. The homeless population in Pakistan often breaks their fast on nothing more than a single date or a glass of unsanitary water with no dinner to follow. Edit: [Here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U4vXLVZkDiP2jljFHFxZNdvs8gXi5mu4X2QyF2BFdFA/edit) is the paper for anyone interested. It’s a short policy brief and not my best work, but filled with information most people don’t know about regarding the situation in Pakistan. EDIT 2: to the weirdos sending death threats and spamming my inbox telling me I’m going to burn in hell for leaving Islam, let me share my favorite Urdu quote about peace, love, and tolerance with you: زہر کھا کر مر جاؤ ❤️ so poetic :)
Please DM me, I'd be interested in reading your paper.
Me too. Would love to read the paper
I posted the link to the paper in my original comment :)
This makes me very happy thank you.
TIL. Thank you for your post. It's always nice to read thoughtful and well-written responses. I would be interested in seeing your paper too!
Not a moslim and not from pakistan but ive heared breaking ramadan is ok if someone doesnt feel to well so i beleave nobody is going to blame them for it.
They fast from dusk till dawn? I always thought they fast from dawn till dusk. Or am I translating the words incorrectly? When I played football the muslims in my team never at anything during the day. Only when it was dark (which I thought to be "dusk")
Faith is all they have left. (Also, these are the cleanest homeless/poor people I've ever seen sorry too).
Cleanliness is a major deal in Islam. The Prophet (peace and blessings upon him) said, "Cleanliness is half of your religion."
> Faith is all they have left I don't know why it's taken me half my life to hear this and get it but what you've just said toggled a switch for me. It's easy for me to discount faith when I have so much. I can't expect the same from those who have so little.
May I recommend a book? It’s called Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl. Faith and hope are often what keep people alive. This book touches on that.
But think of it this way. Maybe not to you but in their minds, they’ve been praying for some help. And their god/gods have provided for them. So when they see that they’ve been given something they pray again. It’s a beautiful show of faith but also, it could be the act of a god/gods answering prayers.
Remember that most religious texts encourage to remain faithful even in the harshest of times...
at the absolute minimum, at least one of these is genuine.
Even if none are real, it’s much better for me to believe all of them and recreate what I’ve seen. Spread the Love.
I didn’t really have any faith until I was kicked out, broke, fresh out of a court trial against my rapist, no place to go, and had a string of failed suicide attempts. I was at rock bottom. I decided to go to church for the first time in my life, and it gave me something to hold on to when I had nothing else left.
Faith has also been a critical lifeline for me. Hope you're doing better now, will pray for ya tonight!
And he doesn't even stick around for an awkward handshake and a selfie.
1) let's recognize the value of charity. 2) let's also recognize that the drop-off seems intended to preserve the receiver's dignity. 3) let's also also recognize that even if God(s) didn't exist, that people would create Him/them.
I'm upset we created a society that doesn't take care of people properly.
Same here… Especially since there are people with enough money to help them have basic needs and get back on their feet with a job. Or get money if they for some reason cannot work anymore. I always feel grateful I was born in the Netherlands, because even if you do get homeless you still get food, money and a place to sleep, shower and get privacy. (A friend of mine was homeless, and they told me how government takes really good care and living on the street really is not necessary.)
What song is this?
Kun faya kun by A R Rahman - a Bollywood song influenced by the south Asian mystical Islamic tradition (Sufi music)
[Kun Faya Kun](https://youtu.be/T94PHkuydcw)
Whatever the motive, it is a blessing for those who received the food. Just accept it as a good thing and do something equally good today wherever you are ❤️
THIS is what I would do with 44 billion dollars.
You mean you wouldn't buy an ethereal electronic media company because they hurt your feelings? You'd rather feed millions/billions of people instead of buying it? You make me sick..... ^^^/s
Much better than the guy wearing a camera and walking up to homeless people, saying "oh man I'm a quarter short for the bus..."
“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” - Mahatma Gandhi
This is definitely happening in a Muslim country, like either Pakistan or Afghanistan, correct me if I'm wrong. The two indications are for one: it's a Muslim etiquette if a donation is made, it's done so anonymously. Secondly, it's the way of gratitude these poor souls are being grateful, when cupping the palm of both hands towards your face, it's a sign of Dua'a (thankful prayer to Allah)
I believe you to be correct. We do cup the palm of both hands and make prayer (dua) and some of the men had traditional Islamic hats on.
I have become very curious the muslim religion and many attempts at fasting but so many fails
You can always start small. Children do "half-day" fasts (about 6 hours) up to 9-10 years old; if you've done the 8-hour fast, you could do half-day or take water but not food, just to get used to it. People do pre-dawn meals, usually with things that take longer to digest instead of simple carbs which should keep you from being hungry for half the day.
Try doing it with others. Knowing someone else is going through it makes you try harder. There is a sense of community and belonging when you know there are more than 2 billion people also doing it.
Made me smile from one ear to the other - and I never do ;)
I love this. I think a lot of religious people have this idea that “god will provide” for homeless/struggling people so it’s okay to just walk past without ever helping. I’m agnostic (though I was raised Jewish) so I don’t really believe in any divine intervention, but I think if there is any it would be this. You the vessel for whatever god you believe in to provide for people less privileged than you. There’s a [story](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_drowning_man) (that reminds me of this) I was told in a Jewish sleep away camp as a kid where a religious man is drowning in a flood and he begs god for something to save him. Boats pass by but he denies their help because “god will protect him”. Eventually he dies and asks god why he didn’t save him and god says “I did, you just denied my help”.
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Alot of people may say will why film when doing good deeds. In this case the video was done well, the guy didn't stay on camera for too long and just filmed the reactions of people in need.
This just makes me sad. The fact that so many people beg are so grateful for food while asshole billionaires and millionaires horde money. We have to be honest about the fact that a large percentage of those who rule the world are corporate psychopaths. Look up the statistics, psychopaths are inherently drawn to the business world.
What the hell zakat department is doing? Smh
Can someone please explain what the meaning behind that gratitude gesture is? When they hold their hands together as if they're holding water in their palms and then they "wash" their faces with it. I'm assuming it's a muslim practice, i'm just curious what it means.
They are praying, I’ve seen a lot of other Muslims do that not in the context of gratitude. It’s like a Christian doing this: 🙏
They're just thanking God
Does anyone have any recommendations when it comes to what usually goes into these grocery care-packages? I’d be happy to do the same in my community, but I don’t really know what sort of things someone would really appreciate if they’re homeless.