Helping the kids

Well greetings everyone, my name's Michelle!

As it happens after the war I inherited quite a bit of money, not that it will ever replace the lost ones. I decided to do some good with it, so I'm moving in on the Citadel to help out ducts rats, their fate always broke my heart...

I decided to register on this board, I understand quite a lot of people here live in the Citadel themselves.

So I'm in the process of finding a nice place to set up offices, and I'll be in business!

A very noble cause, ma'am. My wife used to leave boxes of food for the local duct rats.

That's very nice of her. Boxes of food? Does she own a restaurant or something?

She does.

Well the idea of the noblesse oblige survived the war. If it helps out people then I say that's great.

But just a word of caution. From what I hear duct rats are not the most trusting group (for understandable reasons). So don't be surprised if it's difficult translating good intentions and money into actions they'll actually benefit from. I'm not saying don't try, just be ready for it.

[This] shelter saved my life when I was in the ducts. It was a different name then, but the Kevin O'Brian Memorial Youth Shelter (formally St. John Paul the Great Youth Shelter) is still a go to for Tayseri duct rats.

Why duct rats, though, and not the children wherever you already happen to be? Surely there's no shortage of needy ragamuffins with heart-breaking fates in these times; Earth must be positively crawling with them, for example! All told, the ones on the Citadel are having it pretty good compared to those in a lot of other places- at least they have ducts to live in. Your money and energies would go a lot further in such places!

Mata Hari raises a good point. Why not help the local community, rather than moving to the Citadel inexplicably?

Because a lot of refugee kids were orphaned during the attack on the Citadel and now have nothing and nowhere to go?

The ducts are just as dangerous as living in the streets. You can get lost and starve to death, get exposed to vaccum, or end up in a protein vat somewhere and a bunch of other horrible ways to die. They are not some safe refuge.

So if this person wants to help. Then her attempts on the Citadel would be just as good on the Citadel as wherever she is now.

But the ones elsewhere have it worse. On the citadel there is always shelter and food to be had. Ducts and the Keepers nutrient vats mean that you will not starve or freeze to death. It's never too cold, it never floods, there's plenty of water and the like. Falling into a protein vat or (somehow) falling off the station are threats, but not as bad as, say, what you have to deal with on a planet.

The situation is bad, but it isn't that bad. On earth, or really most other planets, the same isn't true. The environment will kill you, it will flood and storm and snow. Food isn't readily available.

Planets need support more than the citadel does.

@PrayerForTheDamned : On Earth I was a social worker, so I'm familiar with the roughness that line of work entails.

@WildFlower : I'm familiar with Father Kevin's work, he gave me the idea actually. I really hope I can do half as good as he did.

@Mata Hari : I did until now, but when you take beaten children off their abusive parent's hands, they tend to look for you to pass their nerves. It was getting bad for me where I lived, and as Flower mentioned, the number of kids here from all horizons needing help exploded.

Welcome to the darkest pit of the extranet. I'd say Africa needs more souls like you, but I'm not going to tell you which way of helping the universe is right or wrong. Welcome.

Welcome to the forums! like Mombasa said, it's not my place to tell you how to help (unless you were assigned to my squad, at least), and every little helps and all that. I don't want to sound critical, but

^that's messed up.

If some child-beating [Blocked]'s giving you grief, then you call up the cops and they'll deal with it. Anywhere in the Alliance, the SATAE MPs do not look upon people breaching the peace with any great favour, let alone when they're child abusers.

Don't let scum like that push you around. They push you, let the Alliance push them right back.

@Lime Spider : Usually the cops would give them a stern warning and that would be it, but for some of those persons it didn't do the trick, and the cops couldn't be watching over me 24/7. I'd rather relocate and help others than having my efficiency diminished by safety concerns.