Before you pity yourself… (cont.)
Today in class, the last guest lecturer talked about the most depressing topics on poverty and disease. He showed us pictures of the people he met, most having some sort of illness or problem or is already deceased now. Due to financial problems, they can’t find the healthcare they need for treatment and other essentials.
It was devastating to hear and see. I always contemplate what the best way of helping third world countries really is. In high school, I sponsored a kid from Ghana. But I was donating $30 a month without real knowledge of what this money did for the child. I had no connection to the child, no way to see the improvement from my donations, if at all. We always hear of celebrities and billionaires donating substantial amounts of money to these countries, but in reality, the money, food, clothes and other supplies we donate might not be enough.
What do we really need?
I think we need more teachers. Teachers who can educate the populations and help them stand on their own two feet in their societies. Teachers who can make these people become architects, engineers, doctors, and other crucial jobs that can help the society grow. For example, you can see the previous post I reblogged of China’s past state compared with its current state. Development can be rapid with education. Of course, the resources donated will help a lot, but alongside I think if we get more teachers to educate the poor, these people can become members who improve their own society. Once we get it going, I think the civilization and lifestyles of the people would improve a lot. I learned in class that there is a huge shortage of teachers, as two million more teachers are needed each year just to stand still.
Apparently their education about HIV/AIDS is whack. One of the lecturers said that all the villages had the same belief that the condom could get stuck in the womb of a female. Besides this, they have others saying you could only get HIV during the day, you can tell if someone has HIV from looking at their appearance, and all these other myths. If we can educate people about this, there would be substantially less people with HIV/AIDS in third world countries.
Before you envy others about what nice things they have and how rich they are, or before you tell yourself that your life sucks, remind yourself that there’s so many people worse off than you. I know it’s cliche, and I need to remind myself the same thing, but doesn’t hearing about all this make you feel selfish? It always does for me. I hope I’ll be selfless enough to make change in the world.
