Teaching A Way Out Of Poverty

"Every generation has its own worries - the things that really get us." -- Emma Thompson, award-winning actress and campaigner against human trafficking. Click here to read Thompson's post.

We live in a materialistic and individualistic world. However, it is only by putting aside our individualism and acting as a global community that we can begin to tackle most of our world's problems. It will surely be a respectful and diverse world that will ultimately put an end to extreme poverty. My interests lie in raising awareness and providing education as a way out of poverty. My actions, thus far, focus on rural areas in my country, Argentina.

On the 14th of January, 2008, sixty young activists from forty three different countries began a week-long journey, unaware of what destiny would lay ahead. As one of the sixty, I quickly learned that my fellow young activists shared the same passions, obstacles and desire for change in our respective countries. Any barriers, differences or prejudices were left behind as our common goal of making a difference in the world became increasingly clear. At the end of the week, six of us--Rhadeena from Sri Lanka, Nick from Scotland, Whitney from the United States of America, Yunan from China, Gillion from South Africa and myself hailing from Argentina, were selected to represent the initial group of sixty to share our views on global issues, including education, human rights, poverty and climate change, at Davos, the Annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Our journey was just beginning.

On January 24th at 7:00 a.m. a Swiss policeman jokingly said to me as I approached the WEF conference center entrance, "Nobody under 40 enters the Forum." However, by 3:45 the situation had completely changed because six of us, all under 20 years of age, were inside the Center and preparing for our session. We were minutes away from sharing the space and exposing our views with the world's economic and political leaders. As soon as I entered the conference room, I felt a sudden rush of happiness and excitement, but at the same time, a very strong sense of responsibility: to represent the global views of 54 amazing friends I had met just one week ago my own country; and as one of six of us representing the next generation, my responsibility also lay within creating a foundation for posterity and giving a voice to the children in the world who are not heard. Youth is usually regarded as the future, but often forgotten in the present. Society, individuals and world leaders must realize that we should be given a key place in the local, regional and global agenda, not only because we represent the future, but because we are producing a constructive transformation in our society.

This huge responsibility powered my nerves the moment I entered our session titled "Future Shifts: The Power of the Next Generation" at the WEF. We were all nervous, but we knew that we had to put forward our shared message: to give youth a voice. And so each of us spoke our minds. I expressed my deep concern over the fact that eight million people die every year because they are too poor to stay alive without a proper water supply or hospitals that lack medication. They don't have access to education, a human right and a means to tackle our most urgent of the world's problems. People just like us die from being deprived of their basic rights and needs. They die as a number we read in the daily newspapers, not as a Human Being. I became aware there was a way of doing my part, as small as it may be, in changing this horrific reality right in my homeland of Argentina. I first started inciting change through my school, traveling two or three times a year to humble rural communities in the countryside and sharing activities and raising educational awareness with children. This made me realize we are all connected by one of the most vital of needs: education. It was this realization, which helped me develop my passion and platform: raising awareness about the value of education as a way out of poverty. Speaking with the kids impacted me so much, that I am working on a group project that aids in setting up libraries in shelter homes. Small changes maybe, but those small changes are the ones which truly make a difference in our community, country and world.

I believe the Davos experience has marked the six of us for the rest of our lives. I am sure each one of us will work fervently to produce positive constructive transformation in our individual communities. In the end, we can't be sure the world's leaders heard our voices, but if our message was able to influence people to BE PART OF THE CHANGE in their own societies, then we have reached our objective.

The Journey did not end at Davos. It is a journey every young person, whether a participant of this event or not, can join. It is only by taking part in student council in schools, volunteering in a shelter homes or creating recycling programs in our neighborhoods, that we began to follow a path. We are thousands of young adults who have ventured along this road and we need you to help us unite the global community. We all share the same goal in reaching our final destination: Making our world a better place for our generation, and future ones, so that everyone can benefit from and enjoy the journey.

See more on www.roadtodavos.net
or read the other Davos posts here.

Comments

[PacificGatePost]

Education needs to be given more attention.... right here.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/02/stanford-revolution-in-education.html

[El]

As an academic and professional student, I first saw the title of this article as,

Teaching: A Way Out of Poverty

[AngryAfricanOnTheLoose]

HuffPost's Pick

Interesting post. I have been an anti-Apartheid activist, a trade unionist in South Africa, an Afruican development worker, an Oxfam campaigner heading up coffee campaigns and access to medicine campaigns, and I have worked with business on sustainable development. The next step for the 60 to take it realise that most people in live want to see a better world. Most of us agree with each other 80% of the time. The challenge is to reach beyond the 60 and go where it is more difficult to go. Bridge the gap between NGO and trade union, between business and development agency, between campaigner and businessman. Only through these partnerships will we address the challenges that we face.
Look at Africa where I am from. Without government, trade unions, business and non-profits working toegterh we would never get it right. When we do it together we get it right. Not when we try and work on our own. Simple story - non-profits are excellent at making sure people don't die (dealing with poverty), but only through business can we create wealth that will lift people out of poverty. Not business as usual - I am talking justice in commerce.
And I agree with maddogbitesback - companies should not be the buddies of governments. But just as Oxfam and Technoserve are different - so is Starbucks and Exxon. Perfect? No. But give me Howard Schultz who pay a better price than even Fairtrade before you give me a government aid agency.

[kingfelix]

It might be better if you could find somebody less loathsome than Emma Thompson, a member of the elite who has enjoyed the best of everything and now helps the little people.

Truly, why does everything have to be in thrall to the celebrity culture, you could've quoted a campesino or a washerwoman or a carpenter, rather than feel the need to quote somebody who comes from the ruling class and is a part of the problem.

[BlueInARedState]

I wish I had your hope. Like you, I started out in the 70's with all the vitality and enthusiasm my elder world changers from the 60's had bequethed me. But now I have seen 8 years of George W. Bush. His destruction of this country and the world, which may follow soon, is nearly complete. Before him, the voices of our prophets in the wilderness on global warming were ignored for 30 years. And all the good the falling of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain accomplished is nearly destroyed thanks to Bush.

[ndem]

I do not argue with my enemies, I teach their children. More youth at Davos can only be a good thing!

[maddogbitesback]

Eliminating poverty eliminates population growth. That is the main thing to be got by eliminating poverty. No woman wants to raise ten children in poverty when she can raise one or two in rlative wealth. No woman rejects familyplanning. Her husband might but she won't. Women want a better life for their children. Poverty is a result of the greed of the rich and a feeling that poverty is okay if it is out of sight and so is out of mind. But it is always affecting us. We have to elect lawmakers who serve the people and not corporations.