Some Perspective

I was skimming news posts last night and came across a photo that shocked me. I opened the article and learned more about the famine that is going on in Africa right now. Thousands of people are starving to death because they have not had rain to grow food. They are traveling on foot to Kenyan refugee camps to try and find help, but even those are now overwhelmed. 

I knew that was going on, but I guess I am more of a visual person. This picture made me realize how bad it really is. This is of a 7 month old child that weighs 7 pounds:

This doesn't seem real to me. How could a baby that looks like that still be alive? This child was so dehydrated he couldn't cry.  What will to live does this child have that he is still clinging to life when things are so bleak for him?  I don't think many people would still be alive under those circumstances.  He must have a really strong spirit in that little body. His poor mother carried him to the refugee camp to get medical attention. After 10 days of care he is doing better and will probably live.

Many, many more children are dying though. I read accounts of parents burying 2 daughters one day, and then their son the next.  What would it be like to be a parent and watch your children starve to death?  To not be able to provide something as basic as food? 

I wanted to compare what children in America look like at 7 months old.  I googled "7 month old child," and this is the first image that came up:

 

 Compare that to this:

What caused me to be born in a country where my child would look like the first, and not the second? This child did nothing to deserve being born under such circumstances. I am amazed with how many resources there are in the world today, that things like this are still happening.

How different is my life from that child's mother. Here I am trying to figure out how to eat less to lose weight, where they need pure calories to survive.  It made me realize, yet again, how much of a responsibility we have to give to other people.  

We need to give up some of our luxuries to provide for their necessities. 

I hope that you, like me, cannot stand for an injustice like this to happen without taking action.
We chose to give to  Save the Children, where $1 feeds a child for one day. There are many organizations that are providing relief efforts though: UN World Food Programme, Unicef, Doctors without Borders, CARE. Even $10 can make a difference.