Coordinatingcompassion.org is a nonprofit organization which coordinates acts of compassion. Most people do care a great deal about the problems of the world, but do not know what they can do about it. Coordinatingcompassion.org provides a solution to this problem. It gives suggestions about what one can do to help, and provides resources for allowing people to coordinate their compassionate contributions.
The purpose of coordinatingcompassion.org is just that; to coordinate compassionate acts
among people so as to make the results of the efforts as great as they can be. These can be coordinated
among individuals, groups, non-profit organizations, companies, or some combination of the above. The problems that can be addressed are lack of food, clothing, shelter and education. Additionally, societal problems (including familial ones) can be addressed as well by compassionate communication, which stems from a good education as well as the idea that education is never finished; we all have many things we can educate others about as well as many other things we can be educated about.
Now, indeed, coordinating acts is already done to some degree in society; otherwise we would all be hermits having to grow our own food, build our own shelter and make our own clothing. The family itself, of course, is not possible without coordination.
But an interesting change would take place if we all made an active effort to make this coordination compassionate. Society is well coordinated to do all the things we want it to do, for all the reasons we want to do them. But, to choose and emphasize compassion as a motivation has the potential to fundamentally change our society. If compassion were to become the fundamental driving motive of all acts, it would give a wonderful direction to what is now a society made up of individuals with many different motivations. And, the fact is, it already is, in a sense.
Every action is done for the purpose of compassion for either one's self or another living being. Still, what is being talked about here is an educated compassion; that is, acting out of knowledge of one's personal, familial, local, regional, national and global situation, in a way that is best for all involved. Indeed, always acting in a way which is best for all involved gives great personal clarity and freedom from negative emotions because one hasn't left anyone out in one's thinking
Were an educated compassion to become the fundamental driving motivation for every act, society could look something like this: Food and clothing companies would make giving free food and clothing to the poor a very high priority. Transportation companies would transport it for free, and governments of third world countries would accept the gifts to their poor with appreciation, using either foreign or national transportation companies to deliver the gifts to the poor in their countries. (Of course, there would also be gifts to the poor of the richer countries too, but the poorest poor of the world would take the first priority.) Similarly, for shelter, architects would, for free, design effective housing appropriate for the geographic location of the poor that will be housed; materials would make their ways to the impoverished using transportation companies; and, volunteer builders, sent by volunteer companies via volunteer transportation companies, would help teach the locals how to build their homes and structures for their businesses. Engineers could help design devices suitable for the given geographic location of the culture being helped. Volunteer educators, sent by volunteer schools and universities via volunteer transportation companies, would teach with materials donated by schools, universities and their providers. Volunteer educators and architects would work on the design of the schools. Computer scientists could help by offering satellite computer connections along with free computers and free software. In particular, this would be very important in
communicating where a given need is within the society when it occurs. Volunteer computer experts could be flown in by volunteer transportation companies to help set everything up.
Also, psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists would study the cultures as they were being helped. They would work to ensure that all of the help offered would be felt as help, as opposed to being felt as an imposition or overriding of one culture over another. Psychologists would both practice and do research on individuals within the culture; the research being necessary because of the culture difference. Sociologists would ascertain what various things in the culture are valued, and would effectively communicate these things to those helping, and readily give advice as to the content and structure of the social programs so that these programs would be fully coordinated with the local culture, and therefore be much more effective. Anthropologists would be aware of the relative stage of social development within the culture, and correlate it with times in the past of modern day society, so that they would be aware of the issues that went on then, as well as the issues' solutions, and look for such issues, perhaps in different forms,
occurring within the culture being helped. Still, as we all have something to learn from each other, it is very important to avoid arrogance, and look very actively within the culture of those being helped for things that it can teach us, and have locals write books and make tapes and CDs about these things to sell abroad (and make
available locally for free). Having such an interaction would give people within the culture a sense of pride in themselves and their abilities, which, in addition to being well earned, will help them have the confidence to
implement the necessary sociological reforms to integrate to the worldly society in their own way. As one can see, the issues mentioned in this paragraph refer to ways to improve the help discussed in the previous paragraph; so, we can call this type of help "second tier" and the first type "first tier". One can even have some psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists studying the second tier help, and find ways to improve it. This would be a "third tier".
But there is a much different way in which second tier help can be administered. Second tier help can be offered at the origin of the help, and on its way to its destination, not just at its destination. Individuals, groups, companies and non-profit
organizations can offer their resources to first tier help facilities wherever needed. For example, one can donate a meeting location at a certain time every week. Media coverage can be donated in TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. Flyers can be put up for meeting so that people can join in on first (or higher) tier discussions. Food can be donated to meetings.
Indeed, second tier help can come before the first tier it supports. For example, art programs can be initiated so that local children (and more experienced local artists) can work together to make art items (paintings, drawings,
sculptures, metal or plastic art items, etc.) to donate to cultures. The children and local
artists here would be giving the first tier help. Here, the point would be as much to make a meaningful donation to the culture as also to instill the value of helping others in children (and adults). Also, musical tapes and CDs can be offered in the same way; here, of course, tape and CD players would be donated to the culture as well. Of course, one would not want to overwhelm the culture with such gifts; the appropriate number of such gifts would be determined by the psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists (and other such experts). However, though the quantity would be determined by the experts, the quality would not be. So, if the quantity needed is not as great as it might be, it is all the more important for the people giving the gifts to make something that they feel has deep meaning, perhaps that they even love, for people of this culture, maybe even including with it a short poem or two or three sentences about it.
Indeed, this is a way that every person on Earth can contribute, not just children and artists. Still, each individual optimally would make a gift which is the most personal to them, which amounts to coming as close to sharing their souls with this culture as possible. Again, a poem or a few sentences (or more) would be included as necessary to ensure that the meaning of what is being sent is known to the recipient. And, the locals of the country would be encouraged to make, when possible, their own soulful gifts with poems or a few sentences to send back so that their culture becomes connected to world culture in the deepest sense.