Surrounded by many having to help out (4)
I believe the answer is:
amid
'surrounded by' is the definition.
(amid means among or surrounded by)
'many having to help out' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'many' could be 'm' (Roman numeral for a thousand) and 'm' is found within the answer.
'help' could be 'aid' (synonyms) and 'aid' is present in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for amid that I've seen before include "'See . . . . the winter's snow' (carol)" , "Maid (anag)" , "In the course of" , "Among" , "In the centre of" .)