What to do when the world is on fire?

How can you contribute? Why I do what I do.

Photo: Chris Grodotzki.

🤍 To see people suffer, online or in real life, hurts. It makes me sad, angry, frustrated, hopeless. I believe there a few things you can do with these feelings; you either not feel them or ignore them, you swallow them in and let them consume you, or you put them into positive energy. Especially anger is an emotion that can create a very strong driving energy.

It is in my character to do something when I feel this way, and I actively decided I wanted to make a change. That’s when I became a humanitarian and an activist.

You can be this too, it doesn’t have to be big, start small. Let’s decided to help, out of love.

💛 I believe in the power of change and influence. Everyone has a circle of influence. One drop of red paint in a bucket of water doesn’t make it red, but many drops of red paint make the water pink, and at some point it might even turn red. That’s what we can do together.

Talk to each other, open up the discussion.

Talk about equality, stop racism, #act4rightsnow.

🧡 I learned what is in the news is only a very small part of the real story. I’ve always been curious to different countries, cultures, backgrounds, with an open mind.

Seeing and experiencing situations myself in reality has been my way of learning the truth in the world. I have seen oppression of human rights, and there are always two sides to a story. It is difficult to find trustworthy news sources.

Polarisation and dehumanisation are being fuelled by disinformation now. The big news agencies should be impartial, but never totally are.

If you watch international news agency’s you might get different points of views: the Dutch broadcast is very focused on our country. Try @globalnews bbc, or @aljazeera for more focus on the Middle East and Africa.

When you follow NGO’s who stand up for human rights, the information is more neutral. Accounts could be:@unitednations @unitednationshumanrights

@amnestynl @amnesty @artsenzondergrenzen @oxfam @rodekruis @paxvoorvrede @the_rights_forum

Or @represent.jezelf for information about Dutch politics.

❤️How to start?

Follow the above accounts.

Open the discussion about human rights.

Sign petitions of @the_rights_forum, @amnestynl or @amnesty and many others.

Donate money to NGO's.

Volunteer in your neighborhood, look for instance voor asylum seekers centers, or other NGO's in the area. Humanitas is also a good organization in the Netherlands to start.

Vote for a party in the elections of the Dutch government on 22 november that stands op for equal human rights and international law.

💜 Don’t forget to take care of yourself.

From personal experience I can share that this can be an emotionally difficult time.

Personally I have felt guilty in the past about my privileges. That I live in peace and prosperity. I’ve realised that I can’t do anything about this, it has not been my choice, and it doesn’t help to feel guilty about it. It does make me aware of my position to use this privilege to do good. From my position I have the opportunity to make certain choices in my life(style) to influence the life of others in a positive way, and I can take action.

These realisations and events are a reminder to be grateful for and appreciate what I have. I can therefore still enjoy my life, be happy, create positivity. This creates balance, and causes me to be able to do what I can.

Other tips are:

• Watch news about conflicts on designated moments (for example once or twice) in the day.

• Take a break when you need it.

• Plan time for self care.

• Go out in nature: it gives peace and balance.

💙 We cannot always do big things, but we can do small things with big love.

NB. This post is originally written during the conflict between Israel and Palestina end of October 2023 (instagram), but adapted for general use.