Ask HN: Can you help me help a friend in need? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Can you help me help a friend in need?

8 pointsbradleyjoyce4 comments

my job in technology gave me the opportunity to travel to Peru as part of a State Department program to assist small business owners in developing nations.

One person I met was Paulina, who is now a victim of the recent severe flooding in Cusco, Peru.

I'm reaching out to my communities to help, and would appreciate anything the HN community can do.

You can donate here: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/8425

or feel free to tweet/share the link.

Thank you so much for helping me make a difference for one person and her family.

View on HN

Why do you need exactly $1000 ?

the $1000 is really an arbitrary goal to shoot for, I'll send whatever we collect within the next week whether it's more or less. But if you're wondering what the money will be used for, here is a list:

- rebuilding what's left (if anything) of her home when the waters recede - new clothes for her, her husband, and there 2 small children - ensuring they have funds for food, water, and shelter over the next view weeks - helping restart her business when the time comes

Thanks for the question and I hope you can help, even if it's just by voting this up.

- Bradley

> even if it's just by voting this up.

Voting is cheap :)

As a rule I don't like these 'help my friend in need' posts, on HN there are relatively few of them but they're there all the same.

It's happened 3 times or so over the last two months, one was a guy that couldn't get his money out of the Apple app store (but it wasn't really Apples fault, the other a direct plea for money. I can't find the links right now but if you've been here for this long then I'm sure you recall the threads.

I'm going to try to explain why I don't like these threads without coming across as a cold-hearted bastard (which I probably am anyway).

Over the last two decades I've been in a position to help people plenty of times, and for the most part I've done what I could when I could, with a few exceptions because I thought that the parties involved were creating their own misery.

But I've never even thought of asking others to pitch in as well.

My friends are my problem first.

Using the six degrees of freedom principle anybody would have a great reason to pitch their friends troubles on HN.

So kudos to you for trying to help, but why involve HN?

Do you think I should ask you to pitch in to help my friends too?

We all probably know of at least one person that could use some help. For instance, my friends X and Y from Ontario, living in a house where it's -40 outside and barely able to pay their taxes and their heating bill.

I wouldn't dream of asking you to help them, not because I think that that would be wrong, but simply because you are too far removed from them, both physically and on a more human level.

I'd encourage everybody to help those in their circle of friends to the maximum of their abilities, rather than to start petitions like these to help people on the other end of the planet.

If you can do both, then of course more power to you.

I hope that makes sense.

I generally agree with you, but then where would the world be if people didn't go out of their way in both asking for, and providing help.

This is a new experience for me, being the first time I've felt compelled to take my assistance to the level of asking others to help if they can and it's certainly changed my perspective a bit on the whole topic.

If you felt your friends were in a situation where they really needed the help, I hope you would reach out to as many people as you could to get them the help they need.

Why involve HN? Why involve anyone in anything? It's a community of generally good people that I'm involved in that may have the means of offering a little assistance to someone in need.

Maybe someday you'll find yourself in a position of wanting to help someone, but not being able to do it all yourself.

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