Where does mindfulness fit in a humanitarian crisis?

I read about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen this morning where infants were dying of malnourishment and hospitals were sources of infection for its patients. It broke my heart. I donated a little money to UNHCR but it felt so adequate. I felt such distance between the world that I live in and the world that displaced people and refugees live in. In my professional world, I work with people who think it’s practically the end of the world when a client gets upset over a document or a meeting. There are people in my community who own two homes, one of them rarely used. There are those who go on extended vacation to other countries multiple times a year. Even though I know the danger of comparing one life to another, the distance I feel between my life and the horrifying inhumanity of some lives, and the pain that such distance gives me aren’t easy to ignore. 

When I feel this way, two very different things happen. On one hand, I become intensely grateful for the mundane occurrences and routines of my life. Being able to eat another meal, while I am usually consciously grateful for it, becomes so precious that it is nothing less than miraculous. This gratitude for the mundane is an important element of my mindfulness practice. Gratitude and mindfulness go hand in hand. But on the other hand, I don’t know how my practice can reconcile the distance I feel between my world and the world of those who are suffering on the level of not being able to have their basic human needs met. It is a question I wrestle with.