It's cool to care. Celebrities become Good Will Ambassadors. Companies have their Social Responsibility. School leavers take their gap year in South America at an orphanage.
But does poverty have a face to us?
We live in a world where we can pretty much access anything we want at any time. World News. Our bank details. Update our status. Find out the weather in Alaska. We have apps on our phones for everything. If we spend more than 12 hours away from a computer we start to freak out. We need information.
And we're bombarded with information about the world around us. To not know about global poverty would be to live in ignorance. It's a choice
not to know when once it was a choice
to know.
I found myself in a conversation about the difference between world poverty, families who survive on less than a dollar day. And that our own communities here in Australia are reluctant to give to relief in the Congo or Nepal, because 'we have issues here'. And the flip side of that is, people who are poor in Australia (or other developed countries) aren't truly poor because they are feed and have support from the government.
But when was the last time we spoke to one of these 'poor' people. And defined what poor really is. For many, it is the starvation they go to sleep with at night. A mother dying of AIDs. Famine and drought. But in our own city, poor is the lack of community and true relationships. They are lonely, dis-empowered by the government and forgotten by family.
With the riches we have been given, it is our responsibility to serve the community overseas in developing countries. Both financially and actively. But it is also our responsibility to serve our community in our own city who has been forgotten. They want more than a hot meal and bed at night. They want a smile, a 'hello' and someone who cares.
Give your own paradigm of poverty a face. It's something a World Vision ad can never give you.
