Ordinary People in Extraordinary Circumstances

Everyday, I am happy that I have such like-minded and activist friends. My pal Dom is living in Melbourne at the moment and has just finished an internship with Amnesty International. He's written this opinion piece that was published in the Dominion Post (the daily paper in Wellington, the captial of NZ).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/5304987/Ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-circumstances

My friend Marnie works at the Cambodian Childrens Trust in Battambang, Cambodia. This is an excellent organisation set up by a young Australian woman that works with local families, orphans and street kids. They have a drop in centre, provide safe and supportive homes for children in need, a shop and a swimming programme, amongst other things. I'm heading over to visit in August and can't wait to see the great work that Marnie and her team are doing.
http://www.cambodianchildrenstrust.org/

My cousin Shayne is also pretty great. He's a bit of an environmental warrior and is always fighting some amazing fight to save some beautiful area of the world from destruction by some group or other. At the moment he is living in Aceh, Indonesia fighting their good fight.
http://leuserecosystem.org​/

There are lots of ways that you can help humanity, one of the most effective is donating money, but just raising awareness is an incredibly good way to, obviously, raise awareness. You'd be surprised at the amount of people that are totally oblivious to the issues of refugees, asylum seekers etc. It's not enough to just sit back and say that these people are other peoples' problem. We are all human, these people are a problem that, as humanity, we all must face up to. In NZ, we have an excellent resettlement programme, Refugee Services Aotearoa. You can find out about ways to help this fantastic organisation here:
http://www.refugeeservices.org.nz/

I volunteered with Refugee Services for about the 10 months leading up to leaving NZ. I was paired with the most incredible Burmese family, I love them so much, and look forward to being friends with them for a very long time. They recently had a new baby and asked me to name him. Meet Micah Van Bawi Lian Khual Sim. Volunteering with this family was one of the best things I have ever done in my life.

It is not enough to just sit back and say that other people are doing things, to help, so you don't have to. At the very least, talk about these issues with your friends, families, children and colleagues. This is a simple thing that YOU can do to help.