What if I told you that worldwide, almost nine hundred million people live in total and complete poverty? It’s alarming how close that number is to a billion. Even more alarming, is that countless individuals with the means and ends to help, have done nothing.
I know. If you are anything like me, you are busy. Hey, we are American. We are good at being busy. You might be wrestling with your kids while you are trying to read this, scooping out Facebook for the fifteenth time today (been there, done that), zoning out to your ipod, or playing Minecraft, which is infinitely more entertaining than anything I have got to say, I am sure. The possibilities are endless, and they are everywhere.
But let’s just take a breath for a moment. Think yoga. Think prayer. Think Buddha. Whatever floats your boat.
Okay, I don’t know about you, but I feel better.
There are an overwhelming number of issues with our world today, but here is one that you can actually do something about.
Each and every year, seven million children die needlessly. To put this into perspective, let me roll this number by you. Currently, it is estimated that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
I don’t know about you, but the Holocaust has always horrified me ever since I learned about it in school. Perhaps it was just my experience, but nobody taught me about world hunger and poverty in school. Rain forests, yes. Seven million children — no.
It’s a staggering reality. Broken down, this means that about nineteen thousand children die every day. Almost eight hundred lives every hour. Thirteen precious boys and girls each minute. By the time you finish reading this article, approximately Twenty-five children will have died from hunger and malnourishment, the lack of a vaccine, or unclean drinking water.
Things, reader, that most of us (spoiled middle-class Americans) take for granted every minute of every day.
Maybe it is time to break the mold. Count your blessings, and stop taking everything for granted, for say, at least a few minutes. Meanwhile, check out these websites. DO something positive with those blessings.
Make a donation.
Make a difference.
Make a life.
UNICEF
https://secure.unicefusa.org/site/Donation2?df_id=10262&10262.donation=form1
END7
http://www.end7.org/
FEEDING AMERICA
http://www.feedingamerica.org
About Linds McDonald
Hello, there!
There is not much to know about me, really, except that I am an aspiring writer. I am currently working on two projects. First, and foremost, I have been working away on my novel, currently titled “As Clay”. My great-grandparents came to America from Ireland in the 1900s, and my strong Irish heritage has always interested me. “As Clay” is a fantastical but Christian tale of Irish history, and I hope, the first in a trilogy. (Planned titles are: “As Clay”, “Burning”, and “Vessel”.)
Isaiah 64:8
Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
My less serious, but possibly more engrossing, project that I have been working on is, I am a little abashed to say, a fan fiction for Harry Potter. I know that it sounds completely juvenile, lol. But it is great fun, and a very productive learning experience. It’s titled “Still I Rise” and is inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem of the same name.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8387697/1/Still-I-Rise
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