Pain and suffering around the world

Today I'm listening to news about the brutal terrorist attack in Israel, following the continuing Russian attack in Ukraine, and looking at headlines about kids killing kids in the USA.  

It's overwhelming.

A few years ago I posted a map showing disaster areas throughout the world.  Today I looked for updated information and found this detailed map on the Visual Capitalist website.

The Reliefweb website also has a map showing disasters around the world.  

As I look at the scale of these conflicts and natural disasters I ask, "How can I keep trying to help kids in  high poverty areas connect with tutors/mentors in organized, on-going non-school programs?"  That seems like such a small issue compared to these larger conflicts and disasters.

This is not a new concern for me.  Below is a graphic I created in the 1990s. 

This shows a goal of attracting a small percent of attention and philanthropy to youth tutor/mentor programs on a regular basis.

Below is another graphic that I created to show the need to divide attention and giving into slices of a pie so that a small percent goes to on-going problem solving, like helping kids entering 1st grade today be entering jobs/careers in 12 to 20 years.

Here's another. It uses the pie chart from the graphic shown at the top of this page, to emphasize how every non-profit youth program competes for a small, inconsistent, pool of donor dollars.

My goal has been to draw youth serving programs together in an on-going campaign that educates donors and increases the size of the pie, and motivates them to look for 1) where tutor/mentor programs are most needed; 2) choose a zip code you want to help; 3) look at websites for programs in that area to see what they do and what help they need; 4) then look in a mirror, and decide how, and how much, you want to help.

While we need to give attention to disasters and conflict around the world, and in America, we need to continue to devote a small slice of time and dollars to helping kids grow up safely and well-prepared to be leaders in their adult lives.