I will never forget the feeling that I got when I was walking along the streets in Beijing and saw this man sitting on the ground with nothing but a thin blanket separating him from the frozen cold concrete. He had a dirty face with gray whiskers and stress lines on his forehead and he was holding a dirty paper cup out in front of him. My stomach dropped and my heart hurt. I felt so useless. Of course I had seen people begging for money before, and it’s not like I didn’t feel bad but this was the first time I realized that no matter how much money I put in his paper cup that this man wouldn’t have a warm place to go to tonight. I knew that he would have to wake up the next morning with nothing on his mind except for how much his paper cup would provide him with that day. All I could think when I saw him was, I can’t help this man. Sure, the ten dollars that I could give him would provide him with food for a day or two but what about the day after that? What about the guy on the next street over, who’s paper cup is also painfully empty? What about his family? What about the other billions of people in this world with nothing but a paper cup and a thin blanket? I can’t help them either. As an individual in this world, I can’t help them. But as a community, together we can help them.
    

Almost half of the world’s population, about 3 billion people, are living in poverty with less than $2.50 per day. To put that into perspective, that’s about how much we would pay for a coffee. Approximately 1.3 billion people are living in extreme poverty, with less than $1.25 per day. That’s about how much we would pay for a pack or two of gum. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die of poverty every single day. This is the problem with the world. There are too many people in the world with lives that are too unfair to even imagine. There are enough people in the world, however, to change this. If we use that to our advantage, together we can change this.
    

I’m sure you’ve heard this before but that’s because people don’t realize how true it really is. And I’m sure that you think that curing poverty is an impossible task but that’s because people don’t realize that it’s really not. Think about an airplane. Do you think that people hundreds of years ago thought that it was possible for hundreds of thousands of pounds of metal to somehow carry thousands of pounds of people in the air? Do you think that it took one person to build one? Curing poverty is not an impossible task especially for a species like us, that is so good at making the seemingly impossible possible. And this time we’re not building an airplane, but a new society. The only way for this new society to succeed is for every one of us to become a passionate contributor with a goal to extinguish poverty. This means everyone lending a helping hand and making small contributions. They don’t have to be financial contributions. It could be raising awareness, it could be raising hope, it could volunteering to help rebuild houses. There’s a million ways to get involved, so I encourage you to do so.
    

It’s hard for us to imagine how much the world would change if we were able to even make a dent in decreasing the amount of poverty. Our lives wouldn’t change much because we are part of the few percent lucky enough to not have to worry about this issue every second of our lives. So what’s the point, you might ask. The point is to create a better environment in this world. The point is to create a world with more smiles. The point is to create a world where everyone feels as privileged as we do. The point is that if we don’t start right now, the world will only continue to suffer in poverty.
   

Nelson Mandela once said, “poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings”. So I encourage you to take action. I encourage you to care. I encourage you to care about people just like you that are in much worse situations. I encourage you to harness that and do something about it. It’s not hard to make small contributions. Because with seven billion of us, small contributions make the world of a difference. I encourage you to join me and this community. I encourage you to join the global community in our efforts to alleviate poverty. It’s not going to happen in the blink of an eye, but it’s certainly a start. Be a part of the start. Be a part of the movement. Be a part of creating a better world for each and every one of us to enjoy.  Together with you, me and not only our school community, but our global community, I promise you we can change the world as we know it.