Making a difference for AFRICA

Today I would like to share my thoughts about poverty in Africa and the huge effort made by some organizations around the world or by groups of individuals (students, friends,teammates) who decided one day to give a lot of their time and sometimes part of their income to help people in Africa and particularly children.

Most people in Europe or America don't have a clear picture of what poverty means in Africa, people without a home, without clothes and without food, children without parents enrolled by force in some revolutionary army where most of them will never live over 15, countries bleeding because of civil war, ethnic division or corruption, men and women without any hope in what the future will be tomorrow because no matter how hard the United States and the European governments try to help "my continent" nothing seems to change....

No matter what time of the day you turn on BBC or CNN, read the Times in New York or London, African headlines are always the same : negative.

Last week I had a talk with one of my colleagues and was really happy to hear him talking about his six month trip next year from Egypt to South Africa by bike (with 5 friends) for a charity purpose which seeks to eradicate poverty through different programs by 2015.
The Millennium Development Goals (I highly recommend this website) works with national and local communities to transform lives on the continent by engaging Nations, Corporations and the general public in the huge effort to end extreme poverty.
The result so far : 87 villages are under their program and already benefit from a better living and a better chance to go forward to change their lives....

I said earlier that I was happy about my friend expedition, which is deeply truth. Africa is a part of me and I'm proud of it and when somebody stand up and invests part of his life to help my continent, to help my people this really touches me and it shows us that people around the world feel what I feel and push themselves really hard sometimes to find a way to make a difference.

Living in England today, makes me realize how privileged I was to be so far from the chaos of the London Times headlines, but it makes me realize too how privileged and proud I am to be from the Cradle of Humanity and hopefully the continent of tomorrow.

PEACE...