There’s an old saying that goes, “What you take for granted, someone else is praying for.”
Red Nose Day is a campaign that dedicates itself to raising money for children and young people living in poverty.
How do they do this? The organization teamed up with NBC to, “Use the power of entertainment to create positive change in the world.”
Celebrities like Seth Meyers, Blake Shelton, Anna Kendrick and Nick Cannon, pledged themselves to spread awareness and make a change.
We, as citizens of the world, have to pledge ourselves to making a change. Far too often, we take things for granted: the big things, the little things, our health, our loved ones, our stability.
Often, we neglect to remember that people are living in far worse conditions, not just all over the world, but in our own backyards, too.
Living in New York City, I’m reminded of this every single day when I commute to work and walk through Penn Station or down 8th Avenue. I see people who often get the other half of my sandwich as their token meal of the day.
Yet, not everyone lives in a diverse city like I do, and not everyone remembers the issues we face here in America.
According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, as of January 2015, 19 percent (4.7 million) of children ages 12 to 17 were living in impoverished families. Twenty-three percent of children under the age of 12 years old live in poverty.
That’s 11.1 million children.
From 2007 to 2013, the number of children who lived in low-income and impoverished families increased from 13 percent to 23 percent.
We neglect to remember this at times. We forget these numbers and these statistics because living in America, we don’t always consider ourselves impoverished.
We live in a country enriched with freedoms, luxuries and the opportunity to live the American Dream.
Yet, this is far too often not the case for all children.
Of course, we are taught from a young age that we can be anything we dream of, but circumstance often becomes our own worst enemy.
When you’re born into something as debilitating as poverty, it is hard to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Oftentimes, young children’s dreams become almost obsolete in their minds.
This should never be the case, and the Red Nose Day organization is fighting to change just that.
The money raised is donated to a range of non-profit organizations that give back directly to changing these young lives.
Half of the money raised is donated in America to organizations like Save the Children, Feeding America and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
The other half of the money is donated to our brother countries all around the world that face this growing epidemic, like Latin America, Africa and Asia.
We have to remember that the children of America and all around the world are our future.
They are the ones who will continue the life and journey of the world and its 7 billion people.
We are all human beings with hearts, minds and souls.
Mahatma Gandhi once said:
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
There is no better feeling than knowing you can make a difference. As humans, we are capable and fortunate enough to inhabit the quality of empathy.
Alongside all of the hundreds of entertainers, we must “be the change we wish to see in the world.”
