Poverty in Africa

I was really surprised by the fact that kids in Africa get sick, and don’t get any medical attention. Then they go to school and all the kids treat the sick one so badly and ignore him.

It also really surprised me when I read about a teenage girl having to leave everything she grew up with, including her friends and school and house, because rebels decided to destroys everyone’s life. Can anyone imagine doing that? Or having someone do that to you? I can’t.

My first reaction when I read stories like this was, how did people handle poverty? I learned that kids in Africa learned to just appreciate the good things in life, like that they had a small water tap, or that they got to go to school, and forget about all the misfortune.

Kids of our same age in Africa are totally grateful to be able to go to school. We just complain about going, and say that it's a waste of time. We take water and food for granted and just waste it all, taking more than we need and throwing away the rest, when people living in poverty are walking for kilometers for water, and working hard to get 2 meals a day. When we get sick people help us and we get immediate medical attention, or medication, but the poverty kids get nothing. Why do we get all this help and attention when we already have so much, and all the sick kids in Africa have so little.

Everyone is aware of these problems, you've all heard it before. But if everyone knows about it and everyone has the ability to help, why don't we? Why doesn't everyone step up and do their part to help stop poverty?