Many of the people who know me well will tell you a get in these very strange moods sometimes. I will be extra fidgety and blurt out randomly “I wanna get on a plane, I just wanna go to Africa”. See I have this slight obsession with East Africa and the injustices that happen there (well many will say it’s much more then slight). I’ve never been to East Africa; I’ve never even met anyone affected by the injustices. It is just something I cannot get out of my head.
I want to help the children of Uganda who have been forced to kill one another. I want to hold them in my arms when they finally regain themselves. Cry with them. I want to bring water to the displacement camps of Uganda Sudan and Kenya. I want to learn the games the children play in these camps and play them with them. I want to sit down and talk to these children. Draw their pictures capture their smiles and their tears. When I finally must return to the states I want to take what I learned and share it with others.
I am in one of these moods and forces beyond my control are feeding into it. I was put in this mood by a book I am reading Three cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It is all about the Central Asia Institute and how it has been building schools in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan for over a decade. The tales it tells make my heart bleed for the children there and wonder if I can apply these same tactics of help to the children of east Africa. And then today I went to a benefit concert raising money to bring sanitary water to Ethiopia. There was an amazing slam poetry group there. One girl had a poem about Genocide. Her words of 400,000 killed and millions displaced ring through my head with the normal chorus of 1.5 million displaced for over a decade in Uganda.
I can’t get it out of my head.
I know I should join the activism groups on my campus. Go to the STAND (Students taking action now: Darfur) meeting. But these things make things worse. I get extremely nervous and fidgety because nothing is immediate action. I can’t just go raise money to go. I have to sign potations, write my senators who could not give a rats a--. I want to do something immediate even if it is just raising money that I know will go straight to help with results I can know.
I’ll still go to the meeting next week. Though it does not help my mood these round about ways to help the children. And that is what matters.
I'm going to Cambodia this summer to volunteer with street kids. You can help directly, if you want. There's so many different options, both in the US (assuming you live in the US) and abroad.
Yes there are, but that is in theory. East Africa is an extreamly volital place. It is incredably hard to get a US based group to take you there. The peace corp will not do programs in Sudan or northren Uganda for the violnece. But they are the ones that need it. My second problem is that silly thing called money. I have none. And asking my parents (particularly my father) to pay for me going to a place I could be raped or killed. Not exactly happening.
Not that I'm not trying, I plan to go to Uganda probably next summer, hopefully an orphanage in the south. But I get in these moods where I just don't want to wait.
I hope your hand and work are blessed in Cambodia.
Ah... I assume you're underaged? If so, it gets a lot more difficult.
I've seen some programs in the Sudan. :) And I'm fundraising to get to Cambodia, I found some sponsors, etc.
Nope I'm 18 but still poor, I'm intrested you saw programs in Sudan. Thats suprising, Where too?
Actually, I find what your saying to be refreshing. Many people feel like they're doing their part when they join groups like STAND, and understandably so. Kudos to them for caring, as we all should, but these groups do not really accomplish many tangible things. You're right- signing petitions and sending money do little to nothing. Raising awareness is good-- it might (and has, in the case of Darfur) get the situation national recogniztion-- but is very limited. Sending money hardly ever does anything, except allow Darfur Coalitions to print more t-shirts or whatever. Sending money to the red cross is really the only way that your money is guarenteed to really help the cause directly. I understand your desire to just get on a plane, and I definitely understand just how nearly impossible that is. I think that the best thing you can do is attempt to find some sort of program that will get you over there to help. This almost definitely means that you'll have to beg for scholarships or raise the money on your own, but that's really the only way that it's going to happen. Otherwise, I'd say try to go to college. It takes a long time, obviously, and a lot of money, but in four years you can get a degree in something like Development and then you can go to East Africa and have real skills to make real change. This is similair to my plan, although my focus is on the Middle East and Palestine. After college you could also join the Peace Corps, which would be a great choice.
I really am happy to see your passion and desire. Don't let anyone take that away from you--- we need more people like you in the world!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."