Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Safe within the confines of a comfortably furnished house, we have been anaesthetised to the pain and suffering of the world.
The recent Haitian earthquake, which notched up 7.0 on the Richter Scale, shook up the lives of thousands, displacing them from their meagre shelters and dislocating their ways of life. Without food, water and warmth survivors of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere are struggling to stay alive but are showing an extraordinary will to survive.
Astounding stories of victims trapped under debris and rubble for days together have surfaced in newspapers as images of dehydrated, malnourished children have made the front pages of magazines.
The massive amount of destruction and chaos has marred immediate action to save this little Caribbean country. More than 200,000 people were killed in this catastrophe and the country has collapsed in shambles.
Thus, Haiti has to rebuild from scratch; start over, right from the very beginning.
They have to pick up the pieces, fit in the jagged shards, trying to work towards the intact bigger picture that seems a little more than a fabricated figment at this point in time.
Before the calamity, Haiti was impoverished, with a feeble economy and yet, even after losing everything, they are continuing to fight for their survival.
Their struggle is living proof that no matter however miniscule we seem in the grand scheme of things, we can always make our voice heard.
At the start of 2010, we vowed to catalyse the change essential to the world; putting service before self. Now, Haitians need our help and it is our moral obligation to lend a helping hand.
Your donation may be small, not much grander than your lunch money or loose change.
But much like Haiti, it doesn't matter how diminutive you are; every small supportive gesture, every crunchy dinar note, every last fil rattling in your pocket will help make a better difference - and will help save a life.
