What do I know about poverty? Blog Action Day.
Thankfully, very little.
I have never had to worry about feeding my loved ones and my self.
I have never had to worry about water to wash my dishes, my clothes, my dog when he gets skunked.
Water to drink.
[audio:http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/IndiefeedHipHop/~5/308194366/indiefeed_knaan_washitdown.mp3]
K’naan – Wash it Down on indiefeed hiphop
I do know that I have seen children try to learn without food in their stomachs. And I know one child who missed school for a week one January because he had no boots to help him get to school through over a foot of snow and -30 temperatures. And another child who missed weeks at a time last year – when I found out she wasn’t skipping but had no winter jacket I sent her work home with her and lent her my ski jacket for the balance of the season.
These are the ones I know about. How many other children and their families in my area of the world are living in poverty amongst our riches? How many families around the world are living in poverty amongst our riches?
I am embarrassed for our plastic-bottle-filled with natural spring/vitamin/fiji/organic/limeessence/evian/polandsprings/perrier/sanpellegrino/sanmateo/sierraspring/volvic drinking selves when I hear K’naan sing:
My people drum on water,
drink on water,
live on water,
die for water.
And I know that the water that comes out of our taps is clean.
I wonder how we got so far out of touch from the needs of others.
And I wonder again how many people in my own community are hungry and cold without my knowing it, while we pay for water.
And then I wonder …
how many community organizations like Sun Youth in Montreal could benefit if we diverted the billion dollar water-bottling industry towards their food and clothing programs?
Or what could happen if the people in my city opted to donate 2$/day towards these programs instead of buying their bottle of water?
1,620,693 (Montreal’s population in 2006) x 2$ = $3,241,386 A DAY.
Now that’s some math that has amazing potential.
Click Sun Youth’s image to make a donation :)
Click the Blog Action Day image to find out more about Blog Action Day: On Poverty.