We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.

Kota Sato

When we hear news about disaster or poverty far away from us, it’s a bit difficult to go to the place and save people, while some people may try to do this action. At that time we might feel our powerlessness and helplessness not to be able to do big things to save people who are suffering from hardships; we can only watch that news. At least I used to feel so.

Have you ever heard the word “philanthropy”? The definition of this word is “altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment to institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.” Moreover someone who gives money to people who need help is called a philanthropist. For example in 2004, the famous rock band U2 released their 11^th album called “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”. The vocalist Bono, who is famous as a philanthropist, explained the meaning of the title of the record. He explained the title means while it’s very difficult to dismantle an atomic bomb in the present day, if you start thinking about how to do it in the future it’s possible to eliminate atomic bombs. He also shows his explanation that while now there are lots of problems in the world, if you can do some small help the process makes the world better and it will become the power to dismantle an atomic bomb.

Summing up, Bono’s idea has two aspects of help. One is big influence from people who have a big power like him. When he became famous, he decided to use the value of fame for saving people in Africa who suffered from poverty and also decided to give people, especially in developed counties chances or hints to think about help which they can do. After that people have been realizing small steps to help, getting hints from people like Bono. Actually I’m one of them. I think what we can do is having concern about small contributions and conducting what we can do. In other words, if there are lots of people who do a little help to realize the importance of them, lots of help results.

I suppose the worst thing is giving up on our small contributions because they are little. As I showed it’s a very important part of help overall and it makes the world better. On the other side, some people who have big influences on society should have some projects that people can join to help people who suffer from hardships and they also should give people the chances to make people think about “help” and what they can do.