What's a community? Why does it matter?
A community can be defined in one sentence or a book as well, in simple words community can be defined as a group of people who may or may not belong to the same race, living together to serve a common purpose or because of a common characteristic. I am the only International Student in SERVE Living and Learning Community but that does not affect my affiliation to the group, I am as integral to the community as my other fellow friends are, for that’s the whole essence of living in a community, Where people respect your opinions even if they don’t match with theirs.
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But today I want to talk about the biggest community in this world, bigger than any religions, political group or country even, the community called Humanity. Google defines humanity as human beings living collectively with peach and benevolence, but that single word has a deeper meaning than the depth of all the oceans in the world combined. To reflect upon the importance of humanity as a community, I would like to mention an incident that shook the entire world as a family. In 2010, Haiti, a Caribbean country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic to its east, was hit by a catastrophic earthquake of magnitude 7.0 resulting into taking almost 250,000 lives and destroying as many as 200,000 houses. 1.5 million people became homeless and this calamity shook the entire world. Being a country with not such a sound economy, Appeals for international aid were immediately requested by the Haiti government to the United States for help. This was the time when Haiti had its eyes on the entire world, desperate for both financial and humanitarian assistance. Irrespective of political relation, gender or caste, the world came together as one community and helped it stand on its feet back again.
From Hollywood celebrities in America like Jennifer Anniston, who donated $500,000 to the fund, to national governments of countries like India, Iran and Indonesia who gave both monetary assistance as well as sent peacekeeping soldiers to Haiti for amelioration of the destruction caused by the natural calamity. The entire world had come together as a family to help the people of Haiti recover from the massive damage. This act of kindness and empathy was a testimony to the fact that the world may be divided by countries, religion, caste or creed, but still remains to be a community in its own.
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This incident and its aftermath taught us a big lesson as individuals. It taught us that problems never knock on your door before coming and you should always be determined like the people of Haiti to face them with courage and bravery, second and the most important one, no matter what may be your relation with the opposite person, even if he stands as your enemy, never step back when he/she needs help. Even one person can bring a difference, for example Charlie Simpson, a seven-year-old British boy from Fulham, south London, who initially aimed to raise £500 ($800) by cycling round his local park in London, raised more than £200,000 (US$300,000) for UNICEF via Internet donations from around the world on his JustGiving page. Please don’t think that Haiti was only looking for monetary assistance, money can only help you buy articles, it takes efforts of human beings to put them into use.
The main focus after reading this thesis of each and every individual should be to engage in community service and voluntary work. Even after 5 years of the earthquake, Haiti is still struggling to become stable and thus our job does not end with donating, We still have a large section of our society who struggles to make their both ends meet and thus it’s the moral obligation individuals like us to come together and provide them aid. The gesture can be as small as giving a homeless person a windcheater or food, for the only thing that matters is your attempt to make this world a better place to live.
