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06 July 2007
Making a Difference
Three young adults explain why they are working for a better world
By Alexandra M. Abboud
More than 57,000 nonprofit organizations from some 180 countries are registered on the Web site Idealist.org. The site serves as a meeting place for those interested in careers and volunteering in nonprofit organizations engaged in a wide array of social, philanthropic, and humanitarian activities. Idealist.org highlights the many organizations in the United States and abroad attracting university students, graduates, and others “who want to change their communities and the world by connecting people, ideas, and resources in every possible way,” according to the Web site. Connections made by the people going into this work often lead to cross-cultural exchanges between passionate and idealistic people from around the world who are working together for a common cause.
Alexandra Abboud, a writer and editor with the State Department, interviewed three young adults in the United States who are working to support issues that they care about. Their stories follow.
Diana Smith: Basic Human Dignity
Diana is an international policy intern at Bread for the World, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization working to bring about policy changes that address the root causes of hunger and poverty in the United States and overseas. In 2006, she graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois, where she studied anthropology. Diana is 23 years old.
International development has always been a keen interest of mine, inspired by my brother who spent several years working in Sudan, Chad, and Bangladesh with the World Health Organization. More specifically, my interest is in alleviating hunger.
When I was 15 years old, I wrote a research paper on malnutrition and wrote poetry trying to imagine how starvation would affect people socially and psychologically. While attending Wheaton College, I participated in a program for which I spent six months in Ghana living with Liberian refugees. Every month I had the chance to distribute the food rations — iodized salt, corn-soya blend, oil, dried peas, and maize. After I graduated from college, the director of the program suggested that I apply for a year-long internship at Bread for the World and learn how to advocate policy changes on behalf of those whom I’d met in Ghana, Bangladesh, Egypt, and other places along the way.
I’m primarily interested in people, in their basic human dignity and beauty. I’m interested in how they develop and live life, what challenges come their way, and how they deal with them. I came to Bread for the World as a learner, wanting to understand how the U.S. government decides to give foreign aid. I’ve seen a lot of development projects on the ground, but I never understood where funding comes from. My internship with Bread for the World helps me better understand the political and budgetary dynamics from the U.S. perspective.
I’m glad to be raising awareness among Americans about things that they can do to make a difference around the world. I spent a summer in Bangladesh working with sex workers, and when I was leaving, a Bangladeshi co-worker told me: “When you go home, you must tell them! You must tell them what you have seen and how we live. They will listen to you if you tell them the truth.” That’s something that I’ve seen a lot here at Bread for the World. Many Americans are quite generous but simply don’t know the realities of the world as I’ve seen it. Once they realize that around the world a child dies every five seconds from hunger and that they can do something about it, they become passionate advocates.
For more information about Diana’s work, see http://www.bread.org/.
Alejandro Martinez: Opening a World of Possibilities
Alejandro is a student at Dartmouth University in the state of New Hampshire. He works with Dartmouth University’s Rassias Foundation, which teaches foreign students English-language skills. With Worldfund, a U.S. organization supporting poverty reduction through education in Latin America, Alejandro returned to his homeland, Mexico, to teach English, before resuming his studies at Dartmouth. He is 22 years old.
I started working as a Spanish-language teacher for the Rassias Foundation after a year of working for the Spanish Department at Dartmouth University. Through the Rassias Foundation, I found out about Worldfund’s activities involving education in Latin America. I’ve worked as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in Mexico City in Worldfund programs. I’m currently working with other students at Dartmouth, trying to raise awareness on my college campus about improving education in Latin America.
Unlike many people in Mexico and Latin America, I had the chance to receive an excellent education and can attest to the value of it. For me, education has opened a world of possibilities. We must address education in Latin America in order to improve problems there. Through education, we will have better prepared leaders and stronger, more active populations that can truly make a difference in the futures of their countries.
Having strong English-language teachers in Latin America is important. For example, many university students in Mexico have to work jobs while they go to school. Learning English gives them a wider range of possibilities to find jobs right out of secondary school and will ultimately help their professional lives in the future.
Through my work teaching English in Mexico and teaching Spanish in the United States, I have had a chance to bring to light education issues and to get people to understand their importance. Raising awareness about this issue at my university has been a way for me to share my culture and my background with other people. The more others understand about this issue, the more likely people are to help and get involved.
While teaching English in Mexico City, I met students from first grade through primary school. The thing that was most impressive and inspiring was hearing the personal stories of the students and how much hardship they have endured in order to go to school. Meeting with the students helped me put my own life and my opportunities in perspective. These students have become an inspiration to me and have made me want to take a more active role in helping others.
For more information on Alejandro’s work, see http://www.worldfund.org/ and http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rassias/.
Sophia Lafontant: We Are All Connected
Sophia is the national campus organizer for Oxfam America, an international development organization focused on poverty alleviation, humanitarian assistance, campaigning, and advocacy issues headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Sophia has a degree in social work from St. Edward’s University in Texas, and she is 25 years old.
At Oxfam America, I work to educate and mobilize college students in the United States on international fair trade issues. Trade is a great umbrella topic that encapsulates many important issues, such as poverty reduction, the environment, and labor rights.
Prior to working for Oxfam America, as a college student, I participated in a week-long social justice training program run by Oxfam, called the CHANGE initiative, in which college students are taught about campaigning, advocacy, and student involvement. That training gave me my first taste for international development and trade work. That’s where I realized that students and young adults have a powerful voice. We need to use our voice to bring about positive and meaningful social change. This requires working in solidarity with socially disadvantaged communities, which are all too often excluded from the decision-making process.
Oxfam has offices worldwide, and we work together to speak with one voice even though we’re in different time zones and have different cultural contexts. At Oxfam, we believe international voices are important and should be highlighted. For example, in the past couple of years, we brought farmers from West Africa and Central America and HIV/AIDS activists from Thailand to the United States to meet with their American counterparts. We arranged meetings with members of the U.S. Congress so lawmakers will better understand how U.S. policies affect communities overseas. These activists bring an important and authentic voice to debates over various issues.
Since 2002, Oxfam has circulated a global petition, called “The Big Noise,” to promote more equitable trade rules. By the time of the 2005 World Trade Organization ministerial in Hong Kong, we had gathered more than 20 million signatures worldwide, from developing and developed countries alike. The global push helped strengthen the role of civil society in various developing countries. In Ethiopia alone, our civil society partners gathered 3 million signatures.
As an American, I am lucky to have access to a lot of information, providing me with the opportunity to educate myself about international issues and U.S. foreign policy. It’s important for everyone, but especially young people, to seek balanced news on current events. Technology allows us to share information across time zones and oceans. I consider myself a citizen of the world, and from Dakar to Delhi to Denver, I firmly believe that we’re all connected.
For more information on Sophia’s work, see http://www.oxfamamerica.org/.
Editor’s note: Since this interview took place, Sophia was promoted to senior organizer and training specialist with Oxfam America.
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
