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2 opinions for Oprah’s Big Give Episode 102 - Video

• Gloria
  Mar 28, 2008 at 9:50 am

  The “BIG Give”?

  This so-called “Big Give” worldwide phenomenon is a big let down because it seems to be all for show. When people do good deeds for publicity, it is not from the heart and so many less fortunate suffer even more because we realize that there is actually no help. Therefore they, the professed ‘big givers’ don’t really care about helping the less fortunate. My personal experience with getting help is nothing but a “Big Disappointment”. And I have finally given up on finding someone, anyone, with a big heart to help. My world has just hit rock bottom and I see no way back to reality. I don’t believe that I will ever get my life back on track on my own and I have exhausted my cry for help. I now realize that I will leave this world in pain, emotional as well as physical, alone. I am just so tire of begging for help when no one really cares unless they get something out of it. Whatever happened to people helping others because they had a good heart? But my pain is, no doubt, minimal compared to others in worst situations than myself. So I speak for them as well.

  1. But who am I, you ask?

  My name is Gloria. I am bitter. I am hurt. I am lost. I am a woman. I am a single mother because I chose to leave two abusive marriages. I am a grandmother who can’t enjoy her grandchildren because my daughter feels that it’s my fault that her choices have taken her along a similar path. I am on disability waiting for a chronic disease to take its toll on my body after 48-weeks of experimental treatment failed to work. I am on disability because chronic pain in my bones and joints are rapidly deteriorating. I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my 15-year-old daughter because “I” don’t qualify for emergency housing even after being on the waiting list since 2000. I can’t go home because both my parents recently passed and my siblings are out of their minds with jealousy, greed and painful childhood memories of poverty. I lost two part-time jobs because I was too sick to work and the executive director did not have compassion or kindness in her heart by not allowing me to work part-time from home after years of commitment to the organization. I lost my family home of eleven years because a ‘greedy’ landlord refused to give me a break when I became too ill to work and could not afford to pay the high rent any longer. I can go on but who really cares!

  2. Who are the “Big Givers”?

  When my, now 30 year old daughter was 15 years old, I decided to send a collection of poetry (yes, in order to deal with depression, I lay my pen upon paper rather than devour prescribed medication) to Oprah Winfrey to possibly help me publish my work in hopes of improving my daughters lives and moving from a community of crime and poverty. Of course, I thought my work was good because it was from my heart and I just wanted a little help from such a great role model whom I respected. To my dismay, a few weeks later my book was returned with no response whatsoever. Not even a kind word of encouragement. That year my daughter ran away, lived on the streets and became a single mother. I saved the Chicago postage in memory of how I once believed in the great and powerful black woman whom had known childhood poverty herself.

  Before my mother passed away after undergoing emergency surgery for a brain aneurysm, I emailed the richest man in American, Bill Gates, asking to borrow money to visit my mother in the hospital. The response I received was that he only helped organizations and not individuals. He wished me luck and a few days later my mother passed away of a massive stroke. I did not get to say good-bye to her and a year earlier I lost my father to prostate cancer.

  The list goes on and on of me writing to celebrities and those well off individuals who claim they help others but I was really hurt when Oprah and Bill Gates turned their backs on my cry for help. Two very powerful individuals who I truly believed in, at the time.

  Inasmuch, I now find it extremely difficult to believe that people give from their kind heart and love for others and not when they get publicity which is such a shame in a world of so much where so many suffer day to day. And not only are people who have so much misleading those who are in dire need of help, but so are companies who say they believe in giving back to the community. This past Christmas, I didn’t have money to give my 15 year old daughter a gift for the holiday so after visiting the Roots Canada website and reading how this company believed in helping others, I wrote to them hoping to receive a gift certificate or so because she loves their clothing even though I can’t afford them. To my surprise, I received an empty envelope with a card stating that the $50.00 gift certificate was enclosed. There was no gift certificate. I telephoned the company and spoke to a gentleman, who held back laughter and did not apologized, but did acknowledge that he had sent out the envelope without the certificate and that he would mail it out the following week. I never received it. It seemed that, my inability to give my child one gift for the holiday was just a joke. Even the giant Canadian Tire told me to contact a local store which I did and received no response. So our holiday wasn’t spend exchanging gifts but at least we still had each other.

  I’m on disability not by choice but because of illness known as a silent killer. Each month I struggle to buy food after I pay rent on a one-bedroom apartment that I can’t afford. I sleep on a hard lumpy futon because I can’t afford a sofa bed. Each month my bank account is overdrawn $500.00 because I am now depending on my overdrawn protection amount to pay my bills leaving very little left over for food. I haven’t taken my fifteen-year-old daughter to a movie or even shopping in ten years. I can’t work because I can’t sit or stand too long without massive pain in my joints. I have pleaded with big companies for work from home assignments, to no avail. I am intelligent, not dumb. I am a hard worker, not lazy. I want to work in return; I don’t want a hand out. Each month I visit the pharmacy to fill my anti-depression medication, I feel as if I failed my children and grandchildren and I will leave them in more pain and poverty that I’m experiencing. I have to break the cycle of poverty for their future because my time is slowly vanishing.

  Now. Today. At this very moment, I don’t believe that the “Big Give” truly exists. I’m on my own and I have to accept it. I’m just overwhelmed with pain, grief and dismay that during my 52 years of life I showed compassion, love and respect for others. Yet, I can’t seem to find it when I really need it.

  All I ever wanted out of life was to be able to help others. I can’t even help myself and I don’t believe that help will come my way anytime soon.

• Tyler
  Apr 14, 2008 at 4:38 pm

  That is a very touching story Gloria but maybe no celebrities or stores will donate money because there are probably people that call in all the time with a sad story to try and get money out of them. If they want to really be kind and give money they can but it’s their money so no one can really force them to. They don’t know if you’re someone in need or just another person who is trying to get money. And by leaving that message that you did you are probably just trying to get Oprah or whoever to notice it and come and help you. You think that people should help you with your problems but really other people all over the world have bigger problems than you and not to be rude and discourage you but people with a lot of money might want to help a group or organisation with even bigger problems. I don’t even know if you’ll read this because i’m sure you were just on this website to watch the episode but really you are basically saying that no one is paying attention to you and only to others. If you think the Big Give is a let down then you’re crazy because i think what everyone did in that one episode was huge and very kind, it changed a lot of people’s lives and just knowing that they were part of it probably makes them feel better. I think by Oprah giving the money to other people to spend and try to change people’s life is the best way because it’s not their money so they don’t mind spending it all to make a big difference and not saying Oprah would but if she did all that herself it would be different and probably wouldn’t seem as kind as a random stranger doing it. I am only 13 years old and this is just my opinion. If i was a struggling kid in need which i’m not i’d be so grateful if someone like whats on the show did that to me.

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