Some days when it’s time to write I feel like Andy McDowell in “Sex, Lies and Videotape” when she’s talking to her therapist about how sad and paralyzed she gets by reading the paper and seeing the children getting hurt on the news.
That’s what it feels like waking up to the horrors of what’s happening in Aleppo right now. And, just as TV and Life Magazine made the Vietnam War “real” for people in the US with curated news images, now real people are broadcasting via social media real cries for help as bombs are falling.
Whether you can figure out who is “right” or who is “wrong,” you can know it’s terrifying and horrible. Calls for the international community to respond sound like personal life or death pleas. “Help us.” “Do something.” “Why is no one coming to help us evacuate?”
How is it possible to even know what to do personally? To see images of what’s happening go to Twitter and search for #EvacuateAleppoKids. You will see plenty. As for what to do—many organizations already exist on the ground—find one that you know or want to support who are either already there or responding quickly.
What can you do to help in Aleppo?
CNN published a list or organizations who are helping, here. I saw the list in my daily news from TheSkimm. Share the list with your own network. Is there someone on it who you already know and trust? (For me it’s Doctors without Borders). Give today.
Does your work have a matching donation program? Employees can pool resources for a donation. Some companies have responded quickly…Steve Kaufer, CEO & Co-Founder of TripAdvisor sent an email today to their list to solicit donations for refugee crises relief. And the TripAdvisor Charitable Foundation will match the first $125,000 in donations. They are partnering with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) which provides aid to families and individuals uprooted by the crisis. Other brands you support could be doing something as well.
I woke up this morning at 6:00 am with a full-bright moon shining directly in my eye. We’ve lived in our house for 12 years and I swear I’d never seen the moon framed in this window like this before. Was it me or was it the moon?
An hour later (and a much more reasonable time to get up) I looked out the same window from the same angle and saw a blue background with an intricate design of tree branches. It had me thinking about perspective. It’s something I think about a lot as an interculturalist—but the frame for an interculturalist is usually thinking about different perspectives from different people, and often through the paradigm of culture.
That was the road I was on for my thoughts today…perspective. But for me all of those perspectives were from the safety and comfort of my really warm house and bed. The window images gave deeper breadth to perspective—we change—our knowledge, our patterns, we age…the world changes…everything is in flux, and we need to be able to reframe our ideas and perceptions to new realities and fresh views.
And we need to do this quickly—to not become obsolete as the world evolves, and to respond quickly to world crises.
Do something. Act today.
