What can we do to change the life of a stranger for the better, without using money? (excluding religion)?

Question

Recently Oprah posted a question asking what you would do to change a stranger's life with $1000. I want to go a step further, and ask What you would do to better a complete stranger's life, without spending any money at all. Someone you meet on the street, etc.

Answer 1

Ask them what they need and do that.

Just be a helping hand.

Listen.

Chuck Swindoll talked about how he helped an older woman when he was a cabbie and she was moving into a "home." Google him and look for his sermon from a couple weeks ago if you want to hear the story. Not a religious ploy just a good story.

Answer 2

There are so many different things you can do, without needing money or any given religion.

Just being there for someone can do a lot. So maybe it's not going to feed someone for the rest of their lifetime. Maybe it's not going to give them a roof over their head. But knowing that you're loved, and that someone cares, can at least make the battle called life a little bit easier on the soul.

Reading the answers to Oprah's question, one man mentioned how he had been homeless. He said, "I needed someone to believe in me... someone to make me believe in myself. That is something we all need, no matter whether you are homeless or not. Yet at that point in my life... I wanted someone to do that for me, and yet I wanted to die." And I think it's a better explanation of what I'm trying to say than anything else.

I was, and still am, the daughter of a single mother, and all my life I've had no father. Not even a picture or memory of him, because he disappeared before I was born. My mother was a busy woman, and I loved her, but sometimes I felt like I wasn't important to her. Like she didn't want me. Throughout school I (as I said) had many, many friends, but still I didn't feel like anyone really wanted me around. My friends didn't seem to act any differently when I was there or gone, and they never seemed to miss me. Some of them weren't even my friends, and I later found they made fun of me behind my back. Everything had been such a big, swirling mess of depression and loneliness and such a want... no, a need for importance and for love. I found myself thinking time and again of things like suicide, and once or twice I became so distraught that I just got down on my knees and prayed to God that some ruthless serial killer would... would come into my home and just kill me. And everything would have been better if just one person (one person!) had just taken the time to put their hand on my shoulder and say, "It'll all be alright. I know you may not think so, but it will be. We care about you, and love you, it's just that sometimes we don't know how to express it." Things like that can brighten a person's life for years to come, just to know someone cares.

I tell my friends as often as humanly possible that I care about them, and when they're upset or angry, I'm the first person to come running. And they've all told me how much they appreciate what I do for them.

I know this answer's a bit too long. So I'll bring it to a conclusion here. In short, just... take some time from your busy everyday life to reach out to a stranger and give them some comfort. It'll help more than you might think.

Answer 3

I think being a companion to a stranger, a friend, a good listenner, a hang out person for movies, walks, talks, jobs, playing a sport i.e tennis .. can make a whole lot of difference, I think I can use something like that myself. I can say I know 5 people at age 40 - and out of the 5, I can only call 1 of them my friend. That sounds depressing.

Answer 4

This year,earlier on,I helped a young girl of 16 years old. She had run away from home(though I thought her living on the streets was b/c of domestic abuse),and was living in a flop house where the men there used crack cocaine and marijuana,as well as dealt it. She also was a mother,and had her young baby with her at times when she picked up her son from her Grandmother's.
I let her spend the night and spend the day with me in my apartment,and until just recently,the location of where I lived was the ghetto,the projects.
So,I couldn't afford to share my food with her,but I did,even gave more when she asked for seconds,and being unappreciative,but I smiled and said okay.
I allowed her to cleanse herself by taking a hot shower,a long one at that,even though I pay for my water,I let her take her time,freely.
We played a game of dominoes,watched television,and I let her sleep on my loveseat,and let her use my blanket while I used a sheet to sleep with.
As you have read,you can help a stranger without money. I wish one day the government would care about the destitute and help them get back on their feet,not just a select few,but all.
Stephanie

Answer 5

Sometimes just a kind word and some understanding

is enough.People get tired in this world.Humanity

takes itself for granted.Everyone was a child once,with

dreams,no matter how they turned out.

Deep inside,we are children with an overwhelming

need to be loved and feel safe.We seem to

forget that about everyone but ourselves.

Kurt Cobain's suicide note lamented the general lack

of

empathy people have for others.I feel him there.

Answer 6

Perhaps a few choice words depending on the situation, maybe all that's needed is an ear to listen his/her problems for a moment .Or a point in the right direction. A hug or a sharing of information including tools I've learned and used. These are all things I have done over the years.

Answer 7

If you are successful in any way whether it be your career or your family, offer to be a mentor/life coach. Sometimes someone just needs another person who has attained what they dream of and be able to ask for advice on how to get there. Help point them in the right direction, set an example, introduce them to others who are the same type of person they are striving to be. Let them see that it IS possible.

Answer 8

Sometimes all it takes is a friendly smile. You can hold open the door, or offer to help carry a package, reach something off a high shelf for someone in a store.

Answer 9

Well if you buy him some food that will not work because you have to pay for the food. If you take him home, that will not work because you don't now him and he can hurt your family or steal from you. Well, lets see, maybe taking him to a shelter and ask for help for him there, and he can stay there and eat there, but other than that I don't see any other way to help without money.

Answer 10

hi, (ANS) i'm an Atheist and have a different & very own philosophical view of the international. Q) could the international be a greater robust place with out faith?. nicely my intestine instinct as an Atheist is to assert confident! of path !! isn't that glaring!! whether on mirrored image? whether, on deeper mirrored image. faith & God have been invented with the aid of human beings for human beings and in case you bumped off ALL faith & god faraway from those people who wanted it or needed it. I even have concluded that human beings could in basic terms re-invent something else, that had a various call yet substitute into honestly faith & god and fullfilled the comparable purpose, and could be the two irrational in nature. **human beings seem to have the equipped in choose for a thought in something that may not smart whats so ever, i.e. magical questioning, thought in fairy memories etc. human beings do not seem waiting to stand the existential realities of life ok as a result choose faith & god as a convenience blanket between the self & the fantastic certainty of life & death. Ivan playstation :- I have no choose or choose for god or faith. i'm able to thankfully stay my life with out the two.