Margarita Barrientos lives in the shanty-town Los Pilletones on
the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Margarita Barrientos lives in the shanty-town Los Pilletones on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. She has 12 children and her husband lost his arm in an accident. They opened a soup kitchen that daily feeds 1,600 children. Her husband planted gardens that provide vegetables for the soup kitchen. They are Latin American volunteers. An outstanding but isolated case? Not at all. Volunteers in every nation across the globe make the crucial difference between life and death for those who have fallen through the cracks of society.
Alene Arribere lives in the Silicon Valley city of Gilroy, where unemployment hovers at 14 percent, and a family of four with two working parents needs $70,000.00 a year just to survive. She (and many other Gilroyans) has volunteered to help make Thanksgiving dinner this month for those who have nowhere to go for the holiday.
In a state where the median family income is $47,437, according to the Census Bureau, many Gilroyans live on the edge of homelessness. Many others remain homeless, passing among us like unseen ghosts, unrecorded in census reports, living in alleyways or in their vehicles; some even sleeping at night in chicken coops. Some people improvise by living in their cars but paying rent for the use of bathroom facilities, so that they can take showers in someone else’s house.
The mandate to help others is a basic ethic of most religions. The Bible states that it is simply the right way to live. It further emphasizes that in reality, he who helps others is also helping himself.
The two reasons most often given by people for volunteering are “the desire to help others” and “to feel better as a person.” In a recent article, Luis Rojas Marcos, director of New York’s Department of Sanitation and Public Health, shows that volunteers have less anxiety, sleep better, suffer less from stress and have better overall health. He concludes: “Volunteering is good for your health.” In the face of growing individualism and the indifference toward the struggle of poverty, volunteering sends the message that we are all responsible for helping one another. In the face of the suffering of children, women, the elderly and disadvantaged families, it says that we can no longer postpone action, that we must act now as Margarita Barrientos did and as Alene Arribere is doing. It is time to encourage and support as much volunteerism as possible.
Alene Arribere is organizing volunteers for a unique form of giving this Christmas. “This is drive-by giving,” Alene explained, “Instead of drive-by shooting.” Alene came up with the idea last year of making positive drive-by drops at places like the Armory with gifts of caps, gloves, socks, and what is most often requested: clean underwear. She took her kids with her, and they really felt the true spirit of Christmas. A person’s family experience often affects his or her giving and volunteering behavior for life. A child who grows up in a family that volunteers will exhibit a greater degree of commitment to community involvement as an adult. National Family Volunteer Day is November 22: Why not find some activity the whole family can volunteer to do together during this Christmas season?
One man was so touched by Alene’s drive-by giving that he wanted to give her something in return. However, he had nothing. So he took a business card out of his pocket and gave it to her. No, it wasn’t his business card. It was just a piece of paper, a card he had gotten from someone else. But it symbolized how badly he wanted to give something in return for the generosity shown toward him.
