When Should You Stop Helping?

Six years ago I lay awake at night vexed by the question : “When should you stop helping?”. The young orphan Ruo Ruo, pictured above, suffered from a life threatening condition that needed immediate attention. She was operated on in Xining. When that failed we flew her to Shanghai. And when that surgery failed we flew her to Hong Kong. My colleagues in other organizations ‘tut-tutted’ the extravagance: all up, by the end of 2003, we had spent HK$ 500,000 to save her life. When should you stop helping?