Question from Sally

Q: Alyssa Li, what can people do to help poverty?

A: This is really easy; but for some reason, the whole world has a problem with it. Look at it this way: If I was at the park and wanted an ice-cream cone, I'd ask my dad to buy me one. He'd buy it for me because he loves me. If I saw someone who wanted some of my ice-cream, I'd ask dad to buy them one too, and I think he would if he had enough money. Otherwise, I'd buy it myself if I had my own money. That's called sharing. S-H-A-R-I-N-G. I have more of something than someone else, so I give them some so they can have some too. Sounds easy right? Well, for some weird reason, planet earth has some issues with this concept. For instance, I saw a commercial once about a little girl named Maria who had to climb through a garbage dump to look for scraps of food to eat. She looked like she could really use an ice-cream. If I was there, I would have given her one. I think I'd even invite her to my house to play with my Barbie dolls.

But the problem is that too many people don't want to share. They want to gather as much stuff for themselves as they can. And they turn their face away from all the little Marias in the world who could really use an ice-cream cone.

My mom is really good at helping people; she's a living example of how people should share with each other. For example, this Christmas she heard about a family in my brother's school who needed presents really really bad. So she went out and bought a TON of stuff and when she took it to the school, the guidance counsellor cried. She cried because my mom wanted to share so much. But my dad freaked when he saw all the stuff on the table, because he was worried that his own kids would not get as much. But mom chewed him out and he finally agreed with her in the end. Baby steps dad :) He is getting better! And that's what everyone else needs to do too. Stop freaking out about the stuff that you might lose if you share it with someone who really needs an ice-cream.

Little Maria...if you ever read this, I hope someone has found you and bought you an ice-cream by now. It looked really hot where you live.

Alyssa Li