Treat others as you would like to be treated.
The world is often a strange place to live, well, I find it strange. I find it strange that tomorrow morning I will leave my university room, walk down the streets of central London towards the supermarket and in my head I will be complaining to myself the whole way there. I will worry about money. I will moan about the weather. I will stress over how much reading I need to do for university. I will think about what takeaway I fancy for dinner and what’s on TV. I will remember that I should probably call my Mum, check my Facebook and text back my friends. But the reality is that my worries are in sharp contrast to those that face many people across the world.
I am not starving hungry, unwell, freezing cold and completely alone. Someone in the world right now is worrying over when their next meal will be. Someone in the world right now is wishing that they could go to school. Someone in the world right now is hoping that tomorrow they will have somewhere to sleep that is safer than the streets. Many people in the world right now are in a far worse position than I am.
I have family, friends, food, warmth, shelter, money and most importantly, an education. We live in culture whereby enough isn’t enough for most people, the latest shoes, the fanciest foods and latest iPhone is no longer a want, but a need. And yet, tomorrow when I take that walk to the supermarket no doubt I will pass someone who is homeless, someone who is starving and someone who is dying through no fault of their own.
It’s not only what is on our doorstep that matters but also what is happening in our global neighbours communities. People are being poisoned by the water they drink and lowering their life expectancy through the conditions that they sleep in. People are dying for the sake of a mosquito net, a shelter and the lack of medical facilities.
I have witnessed this harsh reality with my own eyes in both Uganda and Swaziland. However, it was in Uganda on a Food Aid programme that I realised the brutality in all of this. We met a family who had nothing apart from a shell of hut to live in. Two elderly frail ladies looked after a newborn baby, feeding the little one fresh fruit as they didn’t have access to milk. They begged several people amongst our group to take the little girl, in our suitcase, back to England where she could grow up well. It broke my heart and those moments are still with me today. The desperation amongst their eyes narrated their life story. A story of pain, upset and lack of hope. Living in an orphanage complex, for three weeks, at the age of 15 opened my eyes to the difficulties that people my own age face in other parts of world.
But you can make a difference and together we can help to transform the lives of others. We can help to eliminate poverty one step at a time. Comic Relief is an incredible UK charity which uses comedy to raise money for those in need at home and abroad. The work that they do is phenomenal, especially the recent project #OperationHealth whereby they built a brand new health clinic in rural Uganda.
As little as a couple of pounds, the price of a chocolate bar, or a coffee, can help to change a life dramatically. To donate to Comic Relief click here.
