How do I offer help without offending the person?

[ianria]

My college friend has lost her home this week and I bumped into her today hoping for a chat not realising she has had a fire in her home and she was standing in the clothes she had available - it was a shock - I felt I must do something kind i.e. helping her in some way - Any ideas please?

[JK2]

If she has lost everything in a fire, she is unlikely to be offended if you offer to help in anyway you can. Leave it to her though to tell you what sort of help she needs the most - just say you'd like to help and ask what you can do.

[joko]

say it casually as though offering a cuppa, so it doesn't seem like a grand act

'oh if you need to borrow any of my clothes just say so ', or 'do you need any toiletries and makeup etc? i've got loads so i can sort some bits and pieces out for you until you can sort yourself out'

you could also bag some stuff up and say you've been having a sort through and had collected this stuff ready for the charity shop, but you wondered if she'd like to take a look through the bags first to see if she can use any of it - you'd rather see it go to a friend...and as they say charity begins at home.

[Eve]

How about getting together a little gift package of things such as nice toiletries and girly staples and some treats with a nice card saying you're thinking of her and to let her know if there's anything that you can do.

Is there anyway of doing something longer term such as getting hold of photos and such to make up for some of the ones that she has lost and putting them together in a nice album or book for her?

[pitapan]

im sure she wont mind if you help her.