Helping someone is not an investment!

TO HELP OR NOT TO HELP! That's the question!

 

Helping means to provide or give what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; cooperate effectively with; aid or assist. "Helping" is an act this world wouldn't and can't survive without. Everybody needs help and we have all been helped by another at some point in time.
There are more than 80 synonyms for the word Help. You could assist, abet, bail out ...and the list goes on and on. We all love to be helped when we need and sometimes even when we don't need it because it feels good to know that someone has got your back and is rooting for you.

(Even little pups get it.)

However one of our weaknesses as human beings is taking anything that's given to us for granted.
We take our life for granted, we take our children for granted, our partners, our jobs (those secret solitaire or candy crush games during work hours) and yes! we even take the help that is offered to us for granted sometimes. We shouldn't do that! Just like the person helping shouldn't expect some sort of payment, compensation or a return of the favor.
Many a times when someone helps you, they tend to think you're indebted to them forever. When you help someone, you're actually helping yourself. It's been proven that helping is actually therapeutic. When you help someone, you get that "feel good feeling".

Even the bible urges us to help others without expecting anything in return. In developing countries like Uganda where I come from, corruption is synonymous with getting help. If you apply for a job, you will probably have to bribe a few people along the way to get the job. If you go to the hospital, or most government facilities, you might have to pay for any little grain of help you get. I think this ceases to be termed as help. Help shouldn't have a price tagged to it. It should be given joyfully, with pleasure and freely. One of the amazing things I have learnt about the American spirit, is the willingness to give, to help and to aid. In comparison to where I come from, when tragedies like landslides, famine, floods occur, most people just carry on with their lives and "ask the government to help." (Loosely translated as "tusaba government etuyambe). Whoever came up with this phrase, should never speak again! Help starts with YOU! In the USA, when tragedies strike the social media is awash with a call for help and they always pool together to help those in need. From family to friends to strangers to philanthropists, everyone is always willing to help. Marathons are run, Bank accounts are opened up, challenges are taken just so a kid can beat cancer; a homeless man can find shelter; a mother can put a roof over her child's head. 

Follow link to see what I am talking about:- http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/08/07/mayor-marty-walsh-accepts-ice-bucket-challenge/IE6aVsjZpPJt324jLwDasL/story.html

 

With all the stuff we copy from the more civilized modern world, this is the one thing we need to copy.

(The visionary family visiting Jajja Nakijoba & the orphans she looks after.)

 

 If you're going to help someone but then hold them captive and keep reminding them how you helped them, then maybe you shouldn't. You shouldn't feel disappointed or cheated when somebody that you helped at one time cant help you back or doesn't thank you every time you run into them. The very thought of it is laughable.

Everything in life is about balance. The beneficiary should have the common courtesy of being grateful but he/she shouldn't feel like they have to appease the benefactor time and again.....oh and please, pretty please, when you do help someone, there's no need to broadcast it for the entire world. We shouldn't help others just so we can brag about it. Lets do it simply because we want to make another persons' life better and therefore make the world a better place than we found it.

Growing up, I didn't always have all that I needed but certain people always had my back. Some without even knowing it.

So to the Carmelite sisters and Hajji Kasule Kawooya; thank you so much for making sure I got an education.

To Uncle Frank, Sarah and Eric Parsons, thank you so much for making sure my little brother got back his health and the doors you have opened up for me and my family.
To Hajati Halima thank you for the free rides, Araminta darling thank you for just being there always and not expecting anything in return.
Chics am amazed at how you do it, but you've seen me at my worst and you're still here.
Lastly to my mum, my babies and my siblings, you have no choice but to always have my back (I say that with lots of love and a smile).
PS: If I forgot to mention you or say thanks for that time when you helped me, please don't be mad....Remember: help without expecting returns. Its a kind gesture not an investment.