![Reality Zone with Vicky Wireko: Good hearts still abound](http://photos.myjoyonline.com/photos/news/201901/6714617577484_6308499415146.jpg)
In the midst of so many afflictions, cruelty and pain in a world where a nephew can premeditate stabbing his uncle to death in a Church vestry of all places, it gets extremely hard to accept people on the face value.
It is difficult to comprehend how at a time when he was preparing to start a service with a packed congregation seated and waiting in the sanctuary to hear his sermon, a reverend minister’s own nephew could repay the kindness he has enjoyed from his uncle.
Then on New Year’s Day, we hear of another callous act. A regional manager of Ghana Water Company driving to his home town is alleged to have been ambushed, removed from his vehicle and shot dead. There was also the report of a man killing his wife and attempted to commit suicide. Such unsavoury news reports and many others which hardly hit the headlines confirm the callousness we live with.
However, in the midst of all that pain, it is a great delight to know that there are others with golden hearts around who are ready to make the world a better place especially for those in need of help. While some are inflicting pain, these exceptional individuals are premeditating and seeking ways to touch heart – not stab them.
Good hearts
A couple of weeks before Christmas, a documentary on a local television and radio network highlighted the unfortunate story of a nine-year-old boy who, at the age six, was smashed against the wall by a vehicle while waiting to be picked up from school. The freak accident rendered the boy maimed, thus requiring the help of others to move around.
On the anniversary of his 9th birthday, the documentary ignited empathy, touching the hearts of many good Samaritans. Kind deeds kept coming in from various parts of the country as the boy received two surprise birthday parties. The boy’s wish to be able to go to school as a normal child was heard by a philanthropist who donated a taxi cab to the boy’s parents to enable them transport the boy to school. The vehicle would also be used by the parents to run a commercial taxi business to make extra income to support the family.
Another Good Samaritan made a pledge to provide the boy with prosthetics to enable him to accomplish his wish to move freely around like other boys of his age. Furthermore, at a surprise birthday parties organised for him, the boy received countless other gifts in cash and in kind. Hopefully, the boy will grow up to be thankful to God and his benefactors because in the midst of so much pain and anguish, God sent in someone to make his predicament public. The result is the joy that filled his heart on his 9th birthday.
Examples
There are countless examples of golden hearts that are ready to give unconditionally to help others. Many more of such support captured the headlines at Christmas, a perfect opportunity for individuals, Churches and organisations to express love. Foods, drinks, cash and other gifts in kind were distributed across the country to those in need.
Around the globe, there are many acts of kindness without borders. The magnitude of the kind deeds get overwhelming when individuals get so committed as to donate millions of dollars for just causes.One such act of profound kindness touched my heart recently.
Heart-warming
A November 2018 publication in the Washington Post featured a heartwarming story of former New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The former Mayor announced that he was giving a record $1.8 billion to John Hopkins University, his alma mater. The gift, described as the largest private donation in modern times to higher education, was to help the university expand grants to those in financial need and provide relief to many undergraduates.
Mr. Bloomberg’s kind gesture saw education as an engine of social mobility in every society, rich or poor and a stepping stone to empowerment. With his donation, his focus was on making elite universities such as his alma mater, more accessible to students from low to middle income families not only from America but from across the globe and who want to obtain an American education. This is an individual’s well-thought out kindness to benefit education of the less privileged.
Kindness
Such kindness out there and around us goes to show that despite the coldness of hearts, there are also warm hearts which ignite our world and make life worthy of living.
Gestures of reaching out to the socially disadvantaged are always heart-warming. Out of the abundance of riches bestowed on them there are people with a heart of gold and who are willing and ready to part with their riches or widow’s mite to make others also see their way clearer.
Writer’s email:[email protected]
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