This coronavirus pandemic has many aspects.
The virus has confirmed the oneness of mankind – we are all in this together. To
the surprise of some, it has shown that love for, and concern for, our fellow
human beings is a fundamental consideration in our lives. This pandemic has
challenged our material well-being, and has brought forth a spiritual response.
At the same time, it has made obvious the need for more co-ordination and
co-operation between nations.
One important response to the pandemic has
been the way in which service to others is now being seen as the most important
kind of work. The general population is openly showing its appreciation of many
others who have often been taken for granted, such as carers, nurses, doctors,
and ambulance staff. These people are potentially sacrificing their own lives
by treating or caring for patients suffering from the virus, often without
adequate personal protection. Literally hundreds of doctors, nurses, carers,
hospital porters and so on have died during this outbreak – including retired
people who had come back specially to offer their services during the
emergency. People are now also beginning to appreciate the fact that shop
workers, delivery drivers, food packers, farmers, growers, waste collectors and
many others have essential roles which make life more bearable, or even possible,
for the rest of us. At the same time, ordinary people are offering their own services
in huge numbers: delivering food to people in isolation, providing comfort at
the end of a telephone, making masks and gowns, volunteering at food banks, and
in numerous other initiatives. We can take heart from this outpouring of
concern for others.
Most countries have struggled to provide an immediate
and effective response to all the different aspects of the pandemic. In the
U.K., local groups of volunteers sprang into being long before the
government-organised volunteer force could be implemented. The more developed
countries have a strong government organisation to call on but many other countries
do not have the administrative infrastructure that is common in Europe or in
North America. In some places without local government capacity, the grass
roots Bahá’í administration has been able to step in. We are hearing stories of
places where the Local Spiritual Assembly (which is the elected Bahá’í body in
any town, village or city) has organised a proper community response to a
particular need. For example, in India, the unannounced, draconian, nature of
the lockdown led many people to suddenly lose their livelihoods, and in many
places, the Local Spiritual Assembly organised Bahá’ís to give migrant workers
lifts back to their home villages (sometimes over a hundred miles away), and
also organised food parcels for those who could not be transported in time. To
Bahá’ís, service to others is a natural part of life. It is also part of the
spiritual life: “Order your lives in accordance with the first principle of the
divine teaching, which is love. Service to humanity is service to God.” And in
another place in the Bahá’í Writings we read: “This is worship: to serve
mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer.”
In the United States, young Bahá’ís, who have
been used to organising themselves in acts of service to the community - which
they have already been doing as part of the activities of the “Junior Youth
Groups” they were in - have been responding to a wide variety of needs caused
by the coronavirus outbreak. The photograph at the top shows some young Bahá’ís
in Texas, with support from their mother, making masks which they are then
distributing to their neighbours. Bahá’í youth in Chicago have been creating
informative videos about health measures in the different languages commonly
spoken in the community. They are also assisting families who face language
barriers in accessing government services. Such barriers exist in many other
areas, such as in Prince William County, Virginia, where many parents, without
access to translators, had been unable to adequately access online school
programmes for their children. “At first we thought that children missing
classes was related to internet access, but we were wrong,” says a youth from
one of the groups. “It was actually because the parents had no idea of what the
school arrangements were.” These youth, having identified the families
requiring additional assistance, are now holding regular online sessions to share
the necessary information in various languages and to assist their peers with their
assignments.
assignments.
Another example comes from Nicaragua. Even
before concerns about the global outbreak were in the public consciousness, a Bahá’í-inspired
community banking programme there took the initiative to implement measures for
the safe handling of money and made arrangements for transactions to take place
online and by telephone. “These banks are founded on the Bahá’í principles of
service and care for the well-being of all,” says the programme’s national
co-ordinator. “So, with the economic challenges and the evolving health crisis,
we have not only been conscious of continuing vital services that support the
economic life of the community, but also of ensuring that our operations do not
put people at risk.” She continued: “We recognise that we are not just
businesses looking to our own affairs but we are here to serve the common
welfare.”
As so many parts of the world have introduced
some form of lockdown, many of the enterprises generating income and providing
services to society have been at a standstill, and it is thought that many may
not survive in their present form. One of the results of the disease may therefore
be a re-building and re-balancing of society, in which monetary, social and
economic arrangements are subservient to the needs of the community, rather
than being their masters. The underlying response should not be: ”People need
things. How can we make money out of them?”, but rather: ”People need things.
How can we help?”
