Blog Action Day: You can change Poverty. You count.

// October 15th, 2008 // Volunteer

Photo By nicasaurusrex


Today is Blog Action Day. The theme is poverty, and I think this is a wonderful topic to write on.

A little boy was on a beach after a storm. Thousands of starfish had washed ashore, and he picked up one after another and threw them back into the sea. A man watched him work and after some time said to the boy, “Look at all these starfish. You’re never going to be able to save them all. Do you think all your work will make a difference?” The boy thought for a minute as he looked up and down the beach. “I don’t know,” he said as he picked up another starfish and flung it into the brine, “but it sure will make a difference to this one!”

You can change the world, one person at a time

    It is a hard to know that you can’t change the world (perhaps you can.), but you will not change anything if you don’t try. You could be living without a home or any shelter. You could be hungry half the time and wonder when your next meal will be. Now, if you someone comes up to you and offers to take you to lunch or give you some money, would this make any difference? Yes, it would. It might not end world hunger, but it would help you which is very important. Think of how someone else will feel. You made a difference to that person.

    How many people do you have to save to be considered changing the world, a few hundred a few thousand, a few million, every single person in the world? You cannot just draw the line and call that changing the world, because you do change the world even if it is only one person you help. If you are from the United States then I assume you have heard that your vote counts, that one vote out of over 300 million other possible votes. If you believe your vote counts, then you shouldn’t need any encouragement to know that one person can make a difference. Those that are not so sure then think that if you encourage enough people to vote then your vote does make an impact. If five million people do not vote because they do not think that their vote counts, then it truly doesn’t count, but those five million votes do count if you do cast them. You have to make the effort because you aren’t the only one that is thinking that you don’t matter. Many other people are thinking that same thing, but if you do try then at least you did something. Who knows, if you have the courage to try to make a difference then other people might be doing the exact same thing. Who knows how many people could be making an impact.

    It can be hard to know that you can’t make a huge impact. This is easily discouraging, but don’t allow it to not let you take action. You can make a difference to one person and that is important for each person. Try playing at FreeRice, this might not seem like a big change, but you just gave someone food. They think that is pretty awesome, so you should too. You are only one person, so how would you feel if no one paid attention to you, just the group you were in. No one would help you because they can’t help everyone. You would greatly appreciate the help, so someone that you do help will appreciate it also. You can make a difference to someone, and that is important.

     Your actions do make a change in this world. This change may be small, or this change might be large. No matter what, it still is a change. The dollar that you donate could feed four children. This could make the difference of life and death; I hope that is a good enough difference for you. Every single life is important to not only themselves but the people around them. You could change someone’s world, if not the world. Don’t let anyone stop you from making an impact on our world. We are too preoccupied with the concern if we will make a large impact, but any impact is an impact. Your actions could do more than you ever dream possible. You might only help one person, you might only influence one person, but you made their life better and then they may make someone else’s life better. This starts a chain reaction which could go on for awhile.

     You have to make an effort. That is the simple first. Don’t worry about the size of your influence; instead focus on just doing something. It can be simple or it can be as grand as starting something like Blog Action Day. You are not limited, but you just have to start somewhere. Go donate your time, money, possessions, or even ideas. The effort starts with you. Poverty cannot be solved without help from you. Yes, you. I mean this to every ‘you’ out there. Go help.