Global Issues

Many teens have had emotional issues that we all need to work out! But most of us feel alone and scared that no one will stand by us if they know who we really are.

Think about which ones fit you:

-Feeling like your friends don’t notice you. That you’re invisible to them. They dnt hear you when you talk. Only hearing you when your not being yourself. Ex: Acting really hyper or stupid to be in the center of attention.

-Feeling you can’t tell anyone about your life or troubles because they wont listen or just wont want to hang with you or you dont want to bug them and put them in a bad mood with your troubles.

-Feeling like everyone is better than you. Having low self-esteem. Putting yourself down in front of your friends and other ppl so they will give you a compliment. Making you feel better about yourself. When you really should be giving yourself a compliment.

-Feeling you have to please everyone. Making them feel better. Helping them when you really should be helping yourself. Which is really not selfish unless you tell ppl your problems so they will sorry for you. Hating when other ppl do stuff for you. Afraid to bug other ppl.

See all these are stuff we can feel! If there is more you can let me know but if anyone has problems and needs to talk to someone you can email me at phat.amanda@yahoo.com! I will listen and try to help. Telling you how I felt and what I’ve been through hopfully to make you feel better. Knowing that you are not alone. So plz before you really can’t take it anymore.

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This is my story from the night it happened. I hope you read an understand wat more than half of teens go through.

Coming out of the bathroom, I was so shaky. It was suprising my mom didnt notice when I asked for the phone to call Courtney.
I hadnt grasped the action I had acted upon. Though by my shaking I knew I was goin to find out!
Laying on my floor I started to dialed Courtney’s number hesitating every digit I put in, not knowing what was going to happen or how much pain this would have caused my best friend.
As the first ring came I was trying to steady my breathing. Feeling like my lungs werent working like they should have been. Two rings later I could hear her voice. Suddenly, I was frightened to speaked but telling her goodbye was my main priority at this moment. Not thinking or hoping I could possibly save myself from the hundred pain killers I took that had infested my body!
Speaking slowly I answer her hello “Cort.” She could automatically hear in my low, cracky voice that something was wrong.
“What’s wrong babe?” she asked softly.
At that point I couldn’t hold it in anymore, tears streamed down my face as I made loud gasps into the phone.
“Amanda what is wrong!” she demanded imidiatley worried and scared to hear to here my reply.
It took me a minute to slow my breathing enough to talk “Cort,” my voice was coming out in a choky whisper ” I’m laying on my floor and I dont think I can move.”
“Why cant you move?” her voice getting light again as if talking to a baby with a booboo.
This time I didn’t even hide the fact that I was sobing into my carpet.
“I took a whole bottle of..” choking off the last words from my lack of breathing.
“A whole bottle of what?!”
“Painkillers.”
“Oh, Amanda.” she moaned “Why did you do that?”
“Because.”
“Because…I’m a bad person! And I hate my life!”
I kept thinking ever muscle in my body was having a spasum or that was me trying to restrain my shaking.
“Amanda, who is at your house?” by the way she spoke to me made me feel like she actually was concerned about what happened to me at this point. This stunned me for a moment, like it pinned me to the floor.
“Everyone,” I fianlly managed to choke out ” everyone is here.”
“So your mom is there?” she asked as if unsure.
“Yes.” I replied, still stappled to the floor.
“Go tell your mom amanda!” her voice was now firm.
“What if she gets mad at me?” I sobbed fear creeping back into my mind again. Seeming to be the only thing that clouded my mind.
“You’ve got to get up an tell her!”
“I don’t know if I can move.” Telling my muscles to work was getting harder ever second I waiting for my mind to work.
Limbs seeming to get heavier with each quick breathe I took. In my brain I was screaming get up and all my nerve endings were screaming back in numbing pain.Slowly I made my way up to my feet, using the bed as a crutch to grab.
Hobbling to the door I let my hand rest on the handle. Not really conforted by the good in my intentions and the fact my best friend was on the other line wanted me to live.
Slowly turning the knob I stepped out into the hallway to face my mom and brother in the living room. Immediatley, my mothers eyes caught a glimps of my face making her voice go soft like Courtney’s did. “What’s the matter?” Slowly shifting her position on the couch. Probably getting unconfortable with my red face and shaky body just watching her.
“Amanda, what’s wrong?”
“Mom?” I coughed out now unaware of the phone still glued to my ear like it was now part of my skin.
“What?” she asked again waiting for my reply!
Choking out the question that escaped my lips “Will a whole bottle of painkillers hurt me?”
That was probably the most terrifying thing I’ve ever put myself through. But since I got out from the hospital a week later I’ve gone through three weeks of therapy. My life is getting better and better every single day but I sometimes I can’t get the delight of it all out of my head. Like the craving of your favorite candy bar when you are stuck in Candy Land. The thoughts of doing it again burns through my brain as an need not a want. Then a bunch of thoughts come into my mind like a reaction I can’t really control. The first is about how all these people I loved coming to the hospital waiting to hug me with the little strength they had left. The other is my mom had bought me a magazine that I was looking through when everyone had departed from the hospital.
There was a picture of a really pretty girl, across it was a short paragraph. The part I noticed the most and will never forget was where she said ‘I’m glad I didnt commit suicide because my life is amazing now.”

Have you ever felt like maybe you were too insignificant to make a difference?
Maybe you felt like you couldn’t do anything anyways because your not famous.But if you are on any type of social network such as myspace or facebook, and the desire to help, (plus a few minutes of your time) then you can go to www.socialvibe.com and sign up.
socialvibe is a website that supposts a very large number of charities and you get to choose the one you want to support. then you pick your favorite brand as a sponsor such as converse, cherry coke, and so many others.
then you just put the code from your charity on your myspace or other social network and BAM!every time someone looks at a page with your code on it, a dollar or so is donated to your charity by your sponsor. then feel proud you have just helped out and made a difference. Socialvibe has thousands of teens signed up, and using this website, if you got everyone you knew to sign up, we could help out so many people and make this world a better place. social vibe isnt just helping one global issue, its helping almost every issue we have using teens like you. joining social vibe is free. and did i mention it benefits you too? if you earn at least 2,ooo points worth of donations,or refer five friends, you get to walk away with the coveted pink ball , showing you have earned money for charity! So dont be afraid to help out, and use that myspace for a good reason instead of dishing on the latest gossip. join socialvibe and make a difference today!

Our generation can’t be silent on global issues. Silence promotes apathy, and apathy perpetuates injustice. In a nutshell, that’s why the rest of the world needs to hear your voice.

To promote a forum for teen discussion, I’ve created a Facebook group for the Teen Ink Global Issues blog. Feel free to jumpstart the discussion by commenting here or starting a conversation on the Facebook group. What global issues are important to you, and how are you taking action? Who do you admire for fighting injustice? You can talk about current blog topics or other global issues. I want to hear your voice and your ideas so you can help shape the direction of this blog.

Invite your friends to the Teens with a Vision/Global Issues Facebook group. Also, feel free to post your own Global Issues blog here at TeenInk.com. This is your community for your passions.

And in addition to regular blog posts, you can look forward to This Week in Global Issues, a recurring feature designed to share the latest international news on human rights and social justice. As I write This Week in Global Issues, I’ll also link to interesting TeenInk.com Global Issues blog posts, so start blogging!

This Week in Global Issues

The ONE Campaign, an organization that fights extreme poverty and global AIDS, recently petitioned presidential debate moderator PBS’s Jim Lehrer to ask one question about global poverty during Friday’s first presidential debate. Earlier Friday, U2’s Bono appeared on CNN to talk about global poverty. Just updated: Jim Lehrer did not ask Senator McCain and Senator Obama to bring up their plans to fight global poverty, but the ONE Campaign did reach their goal of 100,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, Resolve Uganda recently reported that the Lord’s Resistance Army - a military in Uganda that brainwashes children and forces them into battle - kidnapped 90 fifth and sixth graders last week, causing 75,000 Ugandas to abandon their homes in search of safety.

“Imagine the headlines an event like this would get if it happened here,” wrote Alison Jones, the Resolve Uganda director of advocacy, in a mass e-mail. “90 kids, stolen, hauled off into the forest to be used as soldiers.”

President Bush met with Ugandan President Museveni on Tuesday to discuss the war in Uganda. You can send an e-mail to President Bush through Resolve Uganda and ask him to take further action.

In more positive news, UNICEF released a report that fewer children under age 5 are dying; the number has decreased from 12.7 million in 1990 to 9.2 million in 2007. Every day, 1,000 less children are dying compared to 2006, UNICEF said.

In Myanmar, the junta - a military government known for its oppressive rule and unjust imprisonments - released 9,000 prisoners, but then rearrested political prisoner U Win Htein for no given reason. The junta has an estimated 2,100 political prisoners and the leader of the pro-democracy movement against the junta, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years. Amnesty International is calling for the Myanmar government to release those imprisoned for voicing their opinions and exercising their rights.

Areas hit by hurricanes are currently trying to recover - stay tuned for more news on the hurricane damage and how you can help.

Finally, to continue the trend of passionate teens who’ve founded they’re own charities, here’s Zach Hunter, a high school junior who’s written two books on modern-day slavery, Be The Change and Generation Change. He really captures the fearless spirit our generation radiates, facing global issues and standing up for justice.

Click here to watch Zach Hunter on YouTube.

Last January I had the opportunity to chat with Kendall Ciesemier, the 15-year-old founder of the Kids Caring 4 Kids organization, which provides impoverished African children with food and education. She appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” last year with former President Bill Clinton, who came to her high school and spoke at a surprise assembly.

Kendall felt moved to fight for justice in fifth grade, when she watched an Africa special on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” about orphans. One girl her age had lost her family to AIDS, and now she carried the responsibility of raising her younger sibling. Compelled by the orphan’s pain and grief, Kendall signed up to sponsor a child through World Vision that day. Later she expanded her sponsorship to include an entire Zambian village. Her charity eventually grew into a nonprofit organization, Kids Caring 4 Kids.

“It’s gotten so much easier for people to join the force to fight AIDS,” Kendall said at a coffee shop in January 2008. She recommended PRODUCT(RED) and the ONE Campaign as examples of other organizations fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS. “These people in Africa are our future. It’s just deciding to take responsibility to change someone’s life.”

Kendall pointed out that it doesn’t take a lot to transform life for a kid in Africa. “Ten dollars, school uniform, right there,” she said. “If they don’t have ten dollars for a school uniform, they don’t get an education. That can change their life, give them an education for as long as they can fit into the uniform.”

The summer before sixth grade, Kendall, who was born with a liver disease (biliary atresia), went to the hospital for a liver transplant. She ended up spending most of her summer there, asking family and friends to donate to her cause instead of buying her gifts.

Kendall triumphed over the disease; now she says her hard experiences help her relate to kids in Africa. “I feel empathy for them,” Kendall said. “I know how they feel and I want to help.”

Kendall, who has raised $680,000 so far, also stressed the importance of channeling empathy into action. “Teens have to find a cause they’re passionate about,” she said. “You have to get in contact with people and see how you can help.”

She said teens don’t have to launch an organization to change the world, adding, “It can start with people at your school. There’s always people in school—even knowing who’s the loner in your science class and asking them to be your partner. You can change their life. High school is a hard time, but that in itself is enough to make a difference.”

Read my full coverage of Kendall’s story here on TribLocal.com and IgniteYourFaith.com. Visit her web site at www.KidsCaring4Kids.org.