Perhaps all the needs and suffering worldwide right now make you want to turn off the news and forget about it. Or, you may wonder how to ease some of the pain. What can you do to make a difference?
Our dear friend, a refugee from Myanmar, Naw Naw Chi, currently living on the Thai-Myanmar border, felt the weight of suffering more intensely than most of us when she wrote this last week:
"I couldn't sleep well since I heard about the news from last night that every hospital in the refugee camp is shut down suddenly and maybe for 3 months.
Many patients have to return home, and many with oxygen shouldn’t return home as their condition is serious. I thought I wouldn't write anything but I feel too sad down to my deepest heart and I feel heartbroken to see and hear about this news.
No one knows what will happen but all we know is there are no more basic health care services for our refuge people for now.”
A few days later, she sent us a message and a photo of her friends. Using their limited personal funds, they walk to patients’ homes, volunteering to help in any way they can. Their resilience, commitment, and love moved me to tears. These wonderful friends are using their very limited resources to try to ease suffering and save lives. They know it is not enough, but they do what they can.
Her heart, courage, and commitment made me want to do whatever I could to empower her to help more. This is also an opportunity for you to get involved and help some of the neediest people in the world.
With the US government's total freeze on all USAID projects that started on January 24th, the needs are greater than ever. This affects not only medical facilities but also people’s livelihoods. The wars don’t stop even when funding disappears—not in Myanmar, not in Ukraine, not anywhere. “People need food” is one of the most common things we hear when we ask how we can help.
Our work has never depended on government funding. It has always depended on people who care—people like you and local heroes like Naw Naw Chi. This is why we can still administer help where it is needed most. Now, we have more considerable challenges than ever.
Novi lives love. Love reaches the child hiding in fear, offering food and safety. Love touches the sick and gives healing. Love shelters the displaced. One act of love ripples outward, changing lives.
Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us that our neighbor isn’t just the person next door. It’s the child with malaria, lying in a hospital bed on the Thai-Myanmar border, the girl forced from her home, or the boy who has only ever known conflict. We are called to stop, see, and live love.
Right now, the need is urgent. We’ve been able to help, but there is much more to do. And we can’t do it without you.
If you’ve never given before, I invite you to take that first step today. Every gift—no matter the amount—makes it possible for us to step in when others step back.
And love will do the rest.
Oddny Gumaer
The Novi Community is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
