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Helping Hands

Date: Sep 19 2005

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

The Millenium Project is a project sponsored by the United Nations to develop a plan to deal with global issues of poverty, hunger and disease. According to the U.N., 2.7 billion people struggle to live on less than $2 per day. Over 11 million children – many less than five years old – die each year; nearly six million of these children die from very preventable diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia.
But the world is too large, the problems are too great, right? What can one person do? What can I do to help?

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Dave

John

Dave: John, you know I was down in Koh Phi Phi a few months ago and I did some volunteer work for the tsunami.

John: Oh yeah. I was down there May of last year, before everything happened. How was it?

Dave: Well, it was really devastated, now. We had to dig a road out of six feet of sand.

John: Wow. You did that by hand?

Dave: Yeah, by hand. There’s no machinery. The government hasn’t provided any sort of hard equipment to help with the relief on…at least on Koh Phi Phi.

John: Oh, that’s terrible. Were there a lot of volunteers there?

Dave: There were a few. A lot of backpackers who come in for a day to a week to do a little bit of work.

John: Then people give you anything like food or something to support your efforts?

Dave: No, not at all. It’s mostly western backpackers. We can afford to feed ourselves and do a little bit of work while we travel.

John: Yeah. Did you see any homeless people still displaced, er, or…

Dave: Yeah, quite a few. Quite a few people without homes, a lot of people lost their businesses, which is really sad to them digging through the beach to collect, you know, what remains of their offices or their homes.

John: Yeah, anything to get some money, I bet.

Dave: Yeah, yeah. But it was nice to be able to lend a hand.

John: Yeah, it’s good that you did that.

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Discussion

There are a number of organizations around the world that need volunteers for long- and short-term projects. Some organizations ask you to pay a fee to cover housing, food and transportation to the place where you will be volunteering, others pay you for your work. It depends on what kind of work you want to do and where you want to do it.
Volunteering internationally is a great way to put your heart into issues that matter to you. You will meet people from all over the world; you will add meaning to your life beyond material pursuits; you will expand your worldview.
In her diary, Anne Frank wrote: “How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment: we can start now, start slowly changing the world!”
You, too, can start now. Here are some useful sites on how to get started:
Idealist
Go Abroad
Global Volunteers
United Planet
Humana
If you’d just like to lend a hand without actually going overseas, visit the Millenium Project to find out how you can get involved.