12 tips for teens on how to help the poor and needy

What can you, a teenager who doesn't have a lot of money or resources,

do to help the poor and needy?



More than you think. Most young adults are blessed with the creativity

and intelligence to find ways to help others despite limited resources.

Here are some tips that can perhaps start the creative process:



1. Give a portion of your allowance each week to a poor and needy 

person or a cause in support of them



How much is your allowance or your salary from your part-time job? Not

much, you might say. The great thing about giving though is that in

about 99 percent of cases, you are not restricted to how much you can give

to help the poor and needy.



That means for instance, instead of dishing out a dollar a day for a

can of soda from the vending machine at school or work, maybe you can

save this money two days of the week. Then give this money to the Zakat

and Sadaqa committee of your mosque, a poor person you know in your

neighborhood, a local soup kitchen or to a worthy cause abroad.



2. Encourage your parents to pay Zakat



Zakat is something too many Muslims neglect. If you are eligible to

give Zakat, you must pay. If you aren't eligible, ask your parents about

Zakat and if they pay, how and to whom. If they do not give Zakat,

respectfully and politely emphasize to them the importance of this necessary

pillar of Islam and encourage them to start paying it. Use wisdom and

beautiful preaching.



3. Encourage a family Sadaqa (charity) project



Get the whole family to pitch in at least once a month to a worthy

cause by organizing a family Sadaqa project. Call a family meeting (if

you've never had one of these, this is a great time to start) and discuss

your idea. Then come to an agreement on how everyone can help the poor.

Whether it's contributing a set amount a week as a group with Dad

giving the money to the Masjid after Friday prayers or setting up a box

somewhere in the house where family members can privately donate, you all

decide.



4. Talk about it in your youth group



What are the first steps in finding solutions to problems? Dua

(supplication) then brainstorming and discussion.



At your next youth group meeting, put the difficulties of the poor and

needy in your community on the agenda. Simply discuss and brainstorm.

You don't have to come up with a plan all at once. But discussing this

will start the process and keep it in people's minds.



If you don't have a youth group, get your friends together. Instead of

having the usual hang out time one day, substitute this with a formal

meeting. Now you have a youth group that can do this exercise.



5. Visit a poor part of town



How many big cities have "poor quarters"? Almost every single one.

Sometimes, we need to see the reality of poverty right in front of us to

really believe it's there, especially if we live in a financially

well-off part of a city.



Go with your youth group to visit these areas. You don't have to

necessarily bring money or food for them (although that wouldn't be a bad

idea). Talk to the people, if they are willing to be approached, about

living conditions and how they ended up there. Prepare yourself for an

eye-opening experience.



6. Do a class presentation on poverty



Stumped about what to do for a school assignment? Why not talk about

the plight of the poor in your community. Do your research thoroughly.

Get statistics on poverty, real stories from books and perhaps even

video- or audiotaped interviews of the poor and homeless. Show the human

face of poverty. Follow the presentation up with a class collection for

the poor.



7. Don't just collect money



There are plenty of basic necessities that people have to meet. Some

people can't afford new shoes. So hold a shoe drive (some teens have

already done this - read this link about it). Others cannot afford

clothing. Hold a clothing drive. Collect the material, arrange for cars, vans

or trucks to transport it to where it's needed, then make sure the

material is properly distributed.



8. Write about poverty in your school paper



Have you got a knack for writing? Then write about poverty in your

school newspaper. Educate your student body not just with words, but photos

too, if possible. If you've visited a poor part of the city (see tips

above), then you have plenty of material and personal material to write

about.



9. Write about Zakat and Sadaqa in your Masjid newsletter



Does your Masjid have a newsletter? If so, dedicate the next issue to

the topic of Zakat and Sadaqa and how they help the poor and the needy.

You can interview an Imam to get the basics straight. You can also

include various charitable causes readers can give their money to locally

to help the poor and needy.



If you don't have a Muslim youth newsletter, maybe this can be your

premiere edition.



10. Put the information on a website



If you put the above-mentioned newsletter or at least some of the

articles online, you 'll probably have more young people reading it than if

you limited the information to print only.



11. Collect money in your group



After your next group meeting, pass around a box to collect donations

for the poor and needy. Better yet, make this a weekly practice. Make

one person responsible for collecting the money and sending it off after

consulting everyone on which cause it should be sent for.



12. Organize a youth seminar on poverty



Get a youth-friendly Imam or speaker to come and talk about how Islam

has successfully fought against poverty in the past and can continue to

do so in the present. Then, after his lecture, hold a workshop with

participants and come up with 21 ideas of how the audience and Muslim

teens in general can help fight poverty in America and abroad Islamically.