"to helping"

[Odessa Dawn]

"Self-forgiveness is always critical to helping someone move past whatever secret that is," von Reiche said. She sometimes gives clients take-home exercises -- write down 15 reasons that you forgive yourself, for example.
More: Shhhhh ... Some secrets you might need to keep - CNN.com

Why do we have gerund right here?

[bhaisahab]

"Self-forgiveness is always critical to helping someone move past whatever secret that is," von Reiche said. She sometimes gives clients take-home exercises -- write down 15 reasons that you forgive yourself, for example.
More: Shhhhh ... Some secrets you might need to keep - CNN.com

Why do we have gerund right here?

Here "to" is a preposition meaning "in connection with". I'd call "helping" a present participle here. Not that it matters what you call it.

[5jj]

Not that it matters what you call it.

[Odessa Dawn]

Here "to" is a preposition meaning "in connection with". I'd call "helping" a present participle here. Not that it matters what you call it.

Thank you all, bhaisahab and 5jj.

"Under fire at home and abroad for acting openly as a salesman for the UK’s weapons industry, Cameron resorted to demonizing Iran in his desperate bid to sell as many as 100 Typhoon fighter jets worth £6billion to Persian Gulf countries of UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman."
More: PressTV - British PM resorts to Iranophobia to sell weapons

Can we say that to in the underlined part a preposition?