Ongoing need. During holiday seasons such as Thanksgiving and Christmas people and organizations collect food, clothing, shelter, and other gifts for the less fortunate in our community. However, the need for charitable service is ongoing, and it is not just local, it is global. What should you give. Recently the New York Times published an article by Peter Singer entitled: “What Should a Billionaire Give—and What Should You?’ In the article Singer mentions how Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have together pledged more than $60-billion to reduce poverty, disease and premature death in the developing world. The Gates Foundation website suggests “To whom much has been given, much is expected.” So the question is what should we give, how much, to whom, and in what form to best serve the less fortunate? It is usually easy to give cash to a legitimate grass-roots charity that has little or no overhead—and this is important for us to do—but the gift of cash is not always satisfying to either the giver or the receiver. The old Chinese proverb comes to mind: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Common needs. People need fish, food, shelter, protection from harm, someone to love and to be loved by, opportunities to learn, satisfying work to do, something to share with others, and hope for a better future. Some of the extremely poor, as Singer points out, most of who live in sub-Saharan Africa, “have nothing to sell that rich people want, while others lack the infrastructure to get their goods to market.” Many have no hope for a better future. Long-term impact. One major reason for sharing educational resources is the desire to make a long-term difference in the lives of those who are less fortunate. For example, the gift of the $40 million, 50-acre Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, scheduled to open in January 2007 just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, will provide its 450 students with textbooks, uniforms and meals, as well as an opportunity to learn, lead and dream. While few of us have billions or millions of dollars to share, we could share a classic, or share a classic and offer to be a mentor to discuss it. Others may not be able to set up a school, but they could possibly contribute to mobile-learning for a specific purpose with the gift of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), ultra-mobile PC or Tablet PC. How about 10 percent? So, back to the question of what should we give, and how much. We each have gifts, talents, and abilities. We each have time and money. What if we each gave ten-percent of our time, our money, and our gifts and talents to helping the less fortunate? What if we could find ways to collaborate with other like-minded people? With the marvelous resources of this world, and generous givers, it is likely that we could serve the needs of all the less fortunate—that all could be rich like unto us—that there would be no more poor.♥