# 'Take her, take that little kid'

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-drought-camp-volunteer-take-her
- Themes: compassion, selflessness, tragedy, meaning
- Life situations: disaster, humanitarian work, meaningless job

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

A woman volunteered for a year with an aid organisation in a drought-stricken African country. Each morning she had to go outside the camp and choose perhaps 20 of the hundred people waiting who could come in, because that was all the supplies allowed. It seemed a terrible job — but the people never said 'take me'; they said 'take her, take that little kid', knowing they would die. She called it one of the most inspiring years of her life. Asked what she was doing now: back in her usual civil-service job in the UK — 'Now that really is depressing.'

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

There was was one story I haven't told for a long time of a woman who had a year she wanted to do something for the world. She volunteered for for something. I forget what the organization was. And they sent her to some country in Africa where there was a poverty caused by a drought. And her job, she was given the job of going outside the camp every morning with a number of people she could let come in to survive. Maybe 20 cuz that's all the medication and supplies which this camp had. She could only allow say 20 people in and there's maybe a hundred outside. Every morning who just survived the night before. And she had to choose which 20 came in. And you think that was such a terrible job to do. But then she said the attitude of the people who came in or was waiting outside, it was not like take me, take me. What? It was take her, take that little kid. It inspired her just with the the compassion and the selflessness of the people who were waiting outside. By saying take him, don't take me. They knew they were going to die that day. They knew that's the best they could do. And she said that was one of the most inspiring years of her life. I remember the monk who told me this in England. Then I asked her, "What are you doing now?" She said, "I'm I'm working in my usual job in the civil service in UK." "What's that like?" "Now that really is depressing."

## Teaching point

Tragedies reveal astonishing compassion and selflessness, and remind us what matters.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Each morning an aid volunteer could admit only twenty of the hundred starving people waiting at the camp. None said take me; they said take her, take that little child. It was the most inspiring year of her life. Tragedies will happen. How we respond matters most, and the kindness they reveal can be breathtaking.

## Source

- [The Nature of Suffering | Ajahn Brahm | 10 February 2023](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvMmZICc1Y) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:10:39 to 1:12:36: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvMmZICc1Y&t=4239s