A day in the world’s shoes::International Day
Last week Thursday, November 9th, was international day at SSIS. On that day, we learned about poverty in the world by the presentations and activities of Cross Roads from Hong Kong. All middle and high school students participated and it was an exciting day. We first listened to a longbut inspiring presentation from DJ, a representative from Cross Roads. After the astonishing presentation we were divided in to ‘families’ and we had to make paper bags to earn money for survival. All families had to make good and usable paper bags and had to sell them to gain money for food, sanitation, rent, doctor, and schools. We were doing this simulation because a large number of people live in slums sell paper bags for survival. For lunch this day, we had to eat just rice and vegetables with our fingers, not forks or spoons. This was another simulation and it gave us the idea of what and how most people that are unfortunate eat.
By doing these simulations and listening to presentations, I have learned about the world. Of course i knew there are a lot of people in this big world that are poor and are in need, but international day taught me exactly how most people live to survive their unfortunate life. While i was listening to the presentations it made me think about the people on the streets in Vietnam that beg for money and the people i met when I went to orphanages. They might not sell paper bags for their survival, but they still have an extremely hard time living each and every single day. The paper bag simulation taught me that the people that are in need try really hard even if it’s a small job to earn as much money as they can to live. We get our food from the market, water from our homes, and we live in airconditioned houses. However, a huge amount of people don’t and that impacted me and made me feel that i really need to help them. When I go to church, there are about 10 people who are there every week that beg and beg for even a bit of our attention and money. I usually ignore them and just go past them but now I think I should give them even a small amount of money. I can already imagine their smiles on their faces when I give them a bit of money and hope for their survival. Even if I am in 8th grade, I realized that I can still do a lot of things to help the poor and give them smiles on their faces. Every single person in this whole world that is fortunate enough to even use and have 4 dollars a day can help and give hope to people that are included in the circle of poverty.
A day in the world’s shoes really impacted me and gave me a chance to reflect how i lived and I bet it impacted each and every student in our school. I think we all should participate in every single charity programs we are running in our school or even have individual projects for helping the poor in need. This international day influenced me and I really respect the people who try incredibly hard to help the poor walk out of the circle of poverty with confidence and a better life.
::claraki
