How To Help Your Neighbors Safely During The COVID-19

Let us be honest, this is a testing time for all of us. Nobody was prepared for this uncertain situation until it knocked at our door. As Aristotle said man is a social animal, we can’t help but think about our immediate relations and neighbors. We wonder if they can sustain life and manage basic tasks on their own.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages Americans to observe health protocols and not leave home until it’s urgent or necessary. It becomes more important to stay home for older people and those with chronic diseases.

Though the situation has improved a great deal and restrictions are loosening but official instructions are to stay home and keep a distance. Therefore, those who are more vulnerable may choose to stay indoors.

To fill in the vacuum, online shopping has provided a befitting solution. However, they too are finding it difficult to meet the local demand. The delivery time is stretching out for days and weeks. The problems become double-fold if ordered by vulnerable people.

In this tough time, how can we extend a helping hand to your neighbors? Let us find more about it.

Given the circumstances, you may approach the problem from two sides. Let us discuss them one by one.

Help on a Personal level:

On a personal level, you may have certain restraints or fear of contracting the virus in the end. Given the nature of the contagious disease, visiting the neighbor at her door might not be an easy call.

Keeping the essence of the problem, the better strategy is to send a note through a window or door or via the mailbox. On that note, you may extend an offer of any service or enlighten them with your findings on how to cope with this situation.

Also Read: Tips to Deal with an Annoying Neighbor during Coronavirus

In addition to it, you may suggest ways how to stay connected, be it by phone or email. According to psychological terms, giving people more than one option helps them respond through a comfortable channel.

You might not be welcomed for the first time so you shall stay prepared.

The prime reason could be that people do not like to be dependent upon somebody. It just does not sit well with most people. Some never compromise on this principle while many end up adjusting according to the situation. If you step in the shoes of your neighbor for a moment, you would realize that you react the same way if any offer is extended to you. It seems like a built-in mechanism.

Along with these standard approaches, you shall evaluate the nature of your relationship as well as your neighbor to figure out the best option to approach them.

To be honest, we are all adapting to the situation gradually and things are likely to evolve and change for the better.

Help on the Organizational Level:

One appropriate alternative to a personal approach is to get the help of some organization for your neighbor. This works on the principle of connecting people in need to volunteers from that particular area. They extend help in various ways such as bringing groceries, cooking dinners, caretakers, and pet caring.

More people have come up to chip in their parts and many new startups have been initiated during this pandemic addressing the same issue. You may find them simply by searching it out on the internet.

Different organizations are extending different services, so you may subscribe to the one you think can better solve their problem. Some networks also help people financially those who need it to survive. Privately matched volunteer donors are chipping in by providing basic items of daily routines like medicine or groceries. Or they help financially to start some micro-level startup.

Make your Neighbor Get Rid of Loneliness:

The hardest part of these health protocols is loneliness. With people stuck at home and no way to socialize is falling hard on their nerves. It becomes nerve-wrenching, especially for old age people who do not have somebody to look after them.

The best way to help them is to get them rid of loneliness. Explore ways of what role you can play in reducing the bouts of loneliness. You may randomly check on them if they are doing fine.

Visiting in person might not be safe for you both instead taking the help of digital media can come to the rescue. You may do calls as well as video streaming.

In addition to it all, you may also introduce your friends to your neighbor on social apps or form a group of your friends including your neighbor and ask them to spend some free time in the group to give them good company.

This is the most superior service you are going to do to your neighbors and this alone will give them healthy vibes and great hopes to look forward to the post-COVID world.

Final Words:

The truth is we are all having a tough time during the pandemic. No one is having it lightly yet we are somehow managing the situation.

In the wake of staying isolated, it is more than necessary to spare your thoughts for your immediate relatives and your neighbors. Who knows if they have anybody to look after or not? At least making sure about the availability of basics is not merely your service to your neighbor but the whole of humanity.