IMO I have always been of the mindset that you have to be an example 1st and start in your own back yard. Help the people around you locally and as you begin to build friendships with like-minds you can begin to work together to solve bigger problems that 1 person cannot. Homelessness for example, start by bringing blankets and sandwiches out, do this absent regard for attention, just do it because it needs to be done. It will eventually catch on, when people want to help, let them help, build an army of like minds and as you grow and build resources, you can do more.Ideas are like a virus, they spread person to person via contact.
Apply this basic formula to any social or moral issue you take interest in.
Eventually if it gets big enough you will need financial resources, when you get to that point you can go legal with it, then it becomes a marketing game. But it has to start with the singular person and locally.
RE "Awareness" I agree awareness is mandatory... but for someone like myself I guess a hardcore "J" type when it comes to people and help, I need something tangible and practical. Its important to show that there are people who are hungry, I agree... but for me stopping there would not be good enough (according to my personal standards) I would have to feed the hungry, only then would I feel as though I was accomplishing anything.
RE helping from million miles away. Well, donations do work. You could find the right organization and join it and become an evangelist of sorts. Hit the streets and drum up support, both moral and financial. Maybe you cannot rent a bunch of trucks and farm a bunch of food and ship it out to say Tsunami victims... you can however take to the streets and raise money, build a website to raise money and build a group of like minded individuals to collect funding and send a larger amount than you could do on your own. The trick is to be clever and figure out how to make the system work for your end goals.
I plan to be quite wealthy one day with my innumerable schemes... not because I want to have lots of money, but because I NEED wealth to effect changes I wish to make. A personal issue that has always resonated with me was the Sex slave trade in Asia and Russia, and the children who are forced into this disgusting atrociousness that literally makes me sick to my stomach. I need the money to "buy" these young children from the brothels and rehabilitate them with skills like literacy and critical thinking. I donate money annually to certain organizations that attack this problem, but I find them to be not radical enough for my liking. Once I have the financial support I will be there with boots on the ground doing this 1st hand. Rescuing women and children from these scum and exposing the American and European PIECES OF SHIT who go to these countries for this kind of activity. Imagine if we could prove that some motherfucking piece of garbage from Utah or France went and spent money to fuck a 10 year old girl, I would make a hit list of sorts and publish it everywhere and expose them. Make the risk of this sick behavior extra risky.