Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty
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This year I became a mother, and something inside of me changed. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a ridiculously empathetic person; but now things are even more personal. Knowing that other mothers love their babies as much as I love Dot has opened my eyes to a whole new level of suffering in this world. It is one thing to go to bed hungry at night, but it must be far, far worse to watch your children go to bed hungry.
It’s like a switch went off inside of me, and now I feel compelled to save all the babies. I want to go to Africa to dig wells for villagers and to buy mosquito nets for children in South America. I want to teach little ones to read in Tennessee and give them milk in my own state.
But there are so many of them. There are so many babies who don’t understand how their lives could be different and so many mothers who are heartbreakingly aware that things could be better. And there are those of us who are standing on the sidelines wishing with all our hearts that we could save the babies.
The truth is that the problem seems so huge and overwhelming that sometimes it’s just easier not to think about it. Because paying attention to the suffering of these babies and the women who love them is like sandpaper on your heart. Sure, I make loans to entrepreneurs through Kiva.org, and I make the occasional sandwich for a homeless person, but each gesture seems like such a tiny drop in the bucket that one has to question if they’re really making any difference at all.
As a part of Blog Action Day 2008, all of the participants are blogging about poverty. I’m not really sure what I can say that isn’t being said in tens of thousands of other places right now, but the cause is important enough for each of us to take a few minutes out of our day to reflect on just how much some people have to struggle.
I expect to read a lot about poverty today. I won’t shut my eyes or turn my head. I will think about how much those mothers are suffering because they must watch their children suffer. And I will gather ideas from the blog posts that I read and will find some small way that I can make a difference for at least one of them.
I very much encourage you to do the same.
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Christina Lemmey is the mother of two school-aged girls, a wife, and the owner of 
This is a good reminder that sometimes we just need to start by thinking about the world we live in and giving a few moments of thought to someone less fortunate than we are.
This particular blog action day has made my head want to explode. Long term, committed, recurring volunteer work can make a difference. Orphanges, for example, house what? 200 kids? That’s not a small flash in the pan like a $10 donation is. Or Habitat for Humanity- those houses change the entire projection of children’s lives. Moms can do these things on the weekends. Once children are a little older, you can travel to service projects for a 4 day weekend. I have specific opportunities in mind if you are interested.
@Allena – Oh, I totally agree. I’ve written my fair share of articles about volunteering, and I’ve headed a couple of volunteer groups that I think were really important. My favorite was when we actualy built raised bed gardens in people’s yards so they could grow and harvest their own fresh produce!
I didn’t mean to make it sound like there’s just nothing we can do. I was just expounding on how my awareness of the size of the problem has grown now that I understand the way mothers love their children.
Does that make sense?