There's Poverty Here Too

[this post was written on the 7th March 2012 after the release of the Kony 2012 video]

"It's obvious that Kony should be stopped, the problem is that 99% of the planet doesn't know who he is. If they knew, Kony would have been stopped long ago". Whilst emotions are high, and people have been moved to feel a sense of responsibility I want to take the opportunity to say; this type of thing is happening all over the world, all the time. Slavery, child prostitution, genital mutilation, discrimination, poverty, forced drug abuse and killings happens EVERYWHERE. Even in the UK. AWARENESS is a powerful tool. Creating emotions, putting a name to a face and using the power of social media is all it takes to motivate people. Sharing causes that you feel passionate about could spark interest in other people, and this interest could lead to action. So why not do it more often? It's free. You don't need to travel far to see people suffering, thus it's not difficult for you to find your place in making the world a bit of a better place to live in. Here are some statistics on London:

Roughly, 4 out of 10 children are living in poverty

Over 3000 people sleep on the streets

In the U.K over 1.2 million old people live in isolation

Go and help out at your local shelter, go and speak to local restaurant owners and convince them to handout their leftover food to the homeless, go and visit old people's homes (so many elderly people don't have any visitors) get involved in community projects to get kids off the streets.

Not many of us have the time, or money to make a large scale impact (like this guy) but you don't need lots of resources to make a difference. Dedicating a little bit of your time to do some volunteer work - be it international or locally or simply raising awareness, might make a difference to someone, somewhere... and what's more rewarding than that?

Kony 2012 Website