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12 Tips for Teens on How to Help the Poor and Needy
What
can you, a teenager who doesn't have a lot of money or
resources, do to help the poor and needy?
More
than you think! Most young adults are blessed with the
creativity and intelligence to find ways to help others despite
limited resources. Here are some tips that can perhaps start the
creative process:
1.
Give a portion of your allowance each week to a poor and needy
person or a cause that supports them
How
much is your allowance or your salary from your part-time job?
Not much, you might say. The great thing about giving though is
that in about 99 percent of cases, you are not restricted to how
much you can give to help the poor and needy.
That
means for instance, instead of dishing out a dollar a day for a
can of soda from the vending machine at school or work, maybe
you can save this money two days of the week. Then give this
money to the Zakat
and Sadaqa committee of your mosque, a poor person you know
in your neighborhood, a local soup kitchen or to a worthy cause
abroad.
2.
Encourage your parents to pay Zakat
Zakat
is something too many Muslims neglect. If you are eligible to
give Zakat, you must pay. If you aren't eligible, ask your
parents about Zakat and if they pay, how and to whom. If they do
not give Zakat, respectfully and politely emphasize to them the
importance of this necessary pillar of Islam and encourage them
to start paying it. Use wisdom and beautiful preaching.
3.
Encourage a family Sadaqa (charity) project
Get
the whole family to pitch in at least once a month to a worthy
cause by organizing a family Sadaqa project. Call a family
meeting (if you've never had one of these, this is a great time
to start) and discuss your idea. Then come to an agreement on
how everyone can help the poor. It could be contributing a set
amount a week as a group with Dad giving the money to the Masjid
after Friday prayers or setting up a box somewhere in the house
where family members can privately donate. You all decide.
4.
Talk about it in your youth group
What
are the first steps in finding solutions to problems? Du`aa'
(supplication) then brainstorming and discussion.
At
your next youth group meeting, put the difficulties of the poor
and needy in your community on the agenda. Simply discuss and
brainstorm. You don't have to come up with a plan all at once.
But discussing this will start the process and keep it in
people's minds.
If
you don't have a youth group, get your friends together. Instead
of having the usual hang out time one day, substitute this with
a formal meeting. Now you have a youth group that can do this
exercise.
5.
Visit a poor part of town
How
many big cities have "poor quarters"? Almost every
single one. Sometimes, we need to see the reality of poverty
right in front of us to really believe it's there, especially if
we live in a financially well-off part of a city.
Go
with your youth group to visit these areas. You don't have to
necessarily bring money or food for them (although that wouldn't
be a bad idea). Talk to the people, if they are willing to be
approached, about living conditions and how they ended up there.
Prepare yourself for an eye-opening experience.
6.
Do a class presentation on poverty
Stumped
about what to do for a school assignment? Why not talk about the
plight of the poor in your community. Do your research
thoroughly. Get
statistics on poverty, real stories from books and perhaps
even video- or audio taped interviews of the poor and homeless.
Show the human face of poverty. Follow the presentation up with
a class collection for the poor.
7.
Don't just collect money
There
are plenty of basic necessities that people have to meet. Some
people can't afford new shoes. So hold a shoe drive (some teens
have already done this). Others cannot afford clothing. Hold a
clothing drive. Collect the material, arrange for cars, vans or
trucks to transport it to where it's needed, then make sure the
material is properly
distributed.
8.
Write about poverty in your school paper
Have
you got a knack for writing? Then write about poverty in your
school newspaper. Educate your student body not just with words,
but photos too, if possible. If you've visited a poor part of
the city (see tips above), then you have plenty of material and
personal material to write about.
9.
Write about Zakat and Sadaqa in your Masjid newsletter
Does
your Masjid have a newsletter? If so, dedicate the next issue to
the topic of Zakat and Sadaqa and how they help the poor and the
needy. You can interview an Imam to get the basics straight. You
can also include various charitable causes readers can give
their money to locally to help the poor and needy.
If
you don't have a Muslim youth newsletter, maybe this can be your
premiere edition.
10.
Put the information on a website
If
you put the above-mentioned newsletter or at least some of the
articles online, you 'll probably have more young people reading
it than if you limited the information to print only.
11.
Collect money in your group
After
your next group meeting, pass around a box to collect donations
for the poor and needy. Better yet, make this a weekly practice.
Make one person responsible for collecting the money and sending
it off after consulting everyone on which cause it should be
sent for.
12.
Organize a youth seminar on poverty
Get
a youth-friendly imam or speaker to come and talk about how
Islam has successfully fought against poverty in the past and
can continue to do so in the present. Then, after his lecture,
hold a workshop with participants and come up with 21 ideas of
how the audience and Muslim teens in general can help fight
poverty.
http://soundvision.com/Info/poor/teentips.asp
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