It’s easy to
walk through the first world unaware of the struggles of those across the sea.
Our shopping malls, grocery stores, and public education keep us satisfied that
the world is at equilibrium. If we have so many resources at our finger tips
how could it be that anyone in the world is going out with food, water, or toilets?
And then one
day it hits you – the world is at a critical imbalance. The abundance we have
in the U.S. is the devastating scarcity abroad. At that moment you realize you
can no longer stand idly by while others in the world suffer. This is your call
to action.
For me, I
always knew I wanted to help people. I even had the foresight in high school to
know I wanted to go into nonprofit management; however, I was only passively
taking action. I would volunteer at galas, vote on Election Day, and buy Tom
Shoes.
Then, in my
senior year in college, I took a class called Service and Social Justice. The
class was designed so to give us real world experience through volunteer work while
we learned about social justice in the classroom. It was here that I learned more
than I ever thought there was to know about the pervasiveness of systematic oppression.
Poverty is
not an accident. Race and gender are socially constructed for no other purpose
than to separate “us” from “them”? We use this system of us vs. them to decide
who is “worthy” of wealth and success.
This was my
call to action.
It was then
that I realized if I really wanted to help people it was going to take more
than passive action. In that moment I knew I needed to make my all decisions
and habits contribute to the betterment of the world.
That thought
has led me to the Oxfam Action Corps, where I now spend my time working to
right the wrongs of poverty, hunger, and injustice.
