Global Issues

Change the world this Halloween by trick-or-treating for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and helping impoverished kids around the world. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. On Halloween, bring a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF box to school and ask your friends, classmates, and teachers for donations.

2. Recruit friends to Trick-or-Treat for UNCIEF online at the new Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Facebook Causes page and update your status to “(Name) is trick-or-treating for UNICEF.”

3. Don’t scream “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF!” and shove your collection box in your neighbors’ faces. Instead, invent an opener that will really grab their attention. Ask: “Would you like to help a kid today?” You might be surprised by just how generous your friends and neighbors can be.

4. Check out some stats about what your donations provide on the “Download Center” of www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat. Pick your favorite and share it with your donors while trick-or-treating. Some examples: Six cents buys water for a thirsty child, and $2 buys food for three kids.

5. Have you ever played that ding-dong-ditch game on Halloween and left candy and a picture of a ghost? If not, click here to get in on the fun. When you “boo” your neighbors this year, attach a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF information sheet (see below) and a box to spread the word. Hey, you can even print out this blog to let them in on more ways to help UNICEF around Halloween!

6. As an alternative for those who would rather not ding-dong-ditch their neighbors, print out a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF flier and distribute them to houses a day before Halloween. Download your colorful flier at www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat. Include a typed note letting your neighbors know that kids in their community will be trick-or-treating for UNICEF, and encourage everyone to get a UNICEF box themselves.

7. Recruit a team of munchkins for your UNICEF mission. No one can resist cute kids! So take your nieces and nephews, sisters and brothers with you this Halloween.

8. Speak at a local elementary school about Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF on the day before Halloween, and pass out boxes.

9. Recruit friends and other students to trick-or-treat for UNICEF by bringing a bunch of boxes to school and handing them out. Make sure to recruit at your Key Club or other volunteer club; some Key Clubs even participate in a special Key Club/Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program.

10. Visit local stores and ask them to leave a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF box on their counters for the week of Halloween. Ask if they want to send the donations they raise directly to UNICEF, or if you should come back to pick them up.

11. Going to a Halloween party? Bring your box with you! Have a job? Take your Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF box to work during the week of Halloween.

12. Sign up to become a UNICEF volunteer at www.unicefusa.org/volunteer, and check out all the projects or fundraisers you can start to help save kids around the world.

How to Get Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF box:

Order boxes online at www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat. They’re free! In a time crunch? Log on to the “Download Center” of the UNICEF website. Scroll down to their Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF canister wrapper, which you can print out and use on any container. Once you’ve raised money, follow the directions on the back of your UNICEF box and send in your donations via Internet, mail, phone, or Coinstar machine.

For more information about Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, log on to www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat or call 1-800-4UNICEF.

A version of this article previously appeared in Teen Ink magazine’s “Extra Ink” online newsletter.

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Poverty Awareness Week isn’t the official name, but it might as well be: this week is the most jam-packed with poverty-related days/events.

Today, October 15: International Day of Rural Women (the first ever)

Tomorrow, October 16: World Food Day

Friday, October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Today is even Blog Action Day for…guess what cause? Poverty. I’m sharing a story about poverty today at the end of this update.

In honor of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Stand Up Against Poverty is planning to break another Guinness World Record October 17-19 by encouraging millions of people worldwide to stand up and speak out. You can even get involved through Facebook.

Also new this week, the Call and Response rockumentary, a film about the world’s 27 million slaves, is coming out in select theaters. 100% of the profits for this film are going towards projects that combat slavery, since the film was funded by donations. How cool is that?

Bands and artists performing in the film include Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, and Rocco Deluca. It’s rated PG-13. I might not get a chance to see this, so if you do, let me know what you think!

Fact: 50,000 kids die every day because of poverty.

Response: “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”
-Nelson Mandela

And finally, here’s the story about poverty I promised. It was originally published on IgniteYourFaith.com about a year ago; Ignite Your Faith is a teen magazine I write for.

Helping Hurting Kids: Let Your Love Blaze

“That’s me,” my little sister Jessica said between bites of a chocolate chip cookie. She pointed to a photo on the refrigerator.

My mom put down the gallon of milk she’d been pouring into Jessica’s glass and glanced at the refrigerator. “The girl in the pink shirt?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“That’s not you, honey. That’s a picture that came in the mail.”

Confused, my 8-year-old sister left her chair and walked up to the refrigerator. Looking more closely, she saw that the picture wasn’t her at all. She furrowed her eyebrows, and I could almost see the thought running through her head: Who was that girl?

The photo had come with a letter from a child sponsorship organization, asking me to sponsor one of the many impoverished kids like her. This little girl lived in Guatemala.

And Jessica was right: The girl in the photo did look a lot like a younger version of my little sister. The girl’s smooth brown skin was just a few shades darker than Jessica’s milky brown complexion. Disheveled strands of black hair, which Jessica must have mistaken for her own dark brown, framed her face and small shoulders. She had a round face and soft cheeks. She wore a fuchsia shirt Jessica would love.

Although they looked alike, as I sat at the kitchen table and compared the girl to my sister, I realized how strikingly different her eyes were. They were deep brown—the same color as Jessica’s eyes—but they were sunken and glossed with tears. Poverty had made her eyes so sad, so unlike my sister’s dancing brown eyes. And according to the letter, the girl from Guatemala didn’t even own that cheerful fuchsia shirt. It had been given to her for the picture.

Seeing this girl who looked so much like my sister made me wonder what I could do to help kids like her, kids who gazed hopelessly up at the camera. I was reminded about how dramatically different our lives are. As I sat in the kitchen and ate cookies, kids like her hunted through garbage for scraps of food. My life—and my sister’s life—includes a warm, safe home, plenty of food, and the chance to go to school. I knew I couldn’t assume this girl had any of these things that are so basic to me.

I’ve discovered there are so many ways teens can make a difference to kids living in poverty. I’m sponsoring a kid, and I get to hear about his life through his letters. His name is Faizo, he’s 18, and he wants to be a doctor. Sponsorship has made a difference to him and his dreams. If you want to sponsor a child, check out World Vision, Compassion International, and Kenya Children’s Fund.

I’ve read that nearly half the world’s kids live in poverty. So now, I’m working to make a difference in their lives—and Jessica helps by collecting money to donate to UNICEF, an organization that helps kids in developing countries. We believe that our generation possesses the compassion to care for impoverished kids and the dedication to erase poverty from our earth–but compassion and dedication like that need to be awakened.

If you liked this story, read my friend’s moving story about her encounter with an impoverished child’s eyes on Mary Lou Song’s Huffington Post blog.

Amy Leigh posted an interesting blog today about the economic crisis, which you can read and comment on here. She argues that Democratic House representatives who pushed banks to lend money to those who couldn’t afford it are to blame for the failing economy rather than the Bush administration. I’ll remain neutral on this one (as a journalist, I try to be objective regarding political issues), but I’m curious to know what you think. How have the recent changes in the economy changed or reinforced your political views?

Clearly, the economic crisis is having global repercussions–which probably won’t aid the global food shortage. More on that in the previous blog post.

It also made me wonder: how is the economy affecting you as a teenager?

As a high school senior, I’m looking into applying to more colleges than I originally intended, in hopes of getting financial aid. I have my heart set on a couple of schools in particular, so at first I wanted to apply to just three or four colleges total, figuring that I’d at least be able to afford my second choice school, if not my first. But the current state of the economy is forcing me to acknowledge that I may not even have that luxury if the financial crisis worsens and impacts me personally.

What about you? Are you spending less money, applying to more colleges/scholarships, or trying to get a job or a raise? What are your concerns about the economy and how the next president will handle it?

Today is not a good day to be picking up food from a food pantry, or receiving a meal from a soup kitchen. Due to the increasing cost of food, more people who need the assistance, and less government donations, food pantries and soup kitchens across the United States are facing a crisis.

“This is as bare as I have ever seen the shelves,” said Melissa Travis in a press release this past March on the People’s Resource Center web site. Travis is the Director of Food Services at the People’s Resource Center food pantry in my hometown of Wheaton, Illinois.

“We just can’t buy the quantities we need to keep the pantry full,” she added, “and that, coupled with a 40% drop in the commodities we receive from the Federal Government and the weakening economy, makes a ‘Perfect Storm’ of circumstances.”

Susannah Rosenblatt from the Los Angeles Times reported in January 2008 that there are 44.7 million fewer meals for the needy in California. Meanwhile, the New York Times said the Food Bank for New York City–which used to distribute 5.5 million pounds of food per month to food pantries and kitchens–can now only provide 3 million pounds.

But this food shortage isn’t just in the U.S.–it’s global, hitting developing countries particularly hard. And the current economic conditions have only worsened the situation.

You can help your community during this time of need. The solution is simple: run a food drive.

Deliver fliers to your neighbors and pick up the food from their doorsteps the next week. Pass these fliers on to your Key Club or other volunteer club at school, and ask them to encourage members to join your efforts. Need a flier? Copy and paste this food drive flier into Microsoft Word, fill in the blanks, and print out it out for distribution.

It’s official. Mark your calendars. The economy of not only America, but many countries around the world, has gone begun to collapse.

Every morning I monitor the news over a cup of strong black coffee. Then I blaze a trail of fury on my way to school for my second period class. One such morning I asked one of my friends, “Did you see what the DOW closed below?”, they promptly asked, “What’s that?”

It’s vitally important for everyone, especially teens, to understand what is going on in terms of our economy. On Wednesday, June 13, 2007, Washington Post writer, Steven Pearlstein wrote an article entitled, “The Takeover Boom, About to Go Bust” which concerned the extraordinary amount of debt vs. operating profits of companies currently subject to leveraged buyouts.

In language remarkably alarmist for the usually ultra-bland pages of the Post, Pearlstein wrote, “It is impossible to predict when the magic moment will be reached and everyone finally realizes that the prices being paid for these companies, and the debt taken on to support the acquisitions, are unsustainable. When that happens, it won’t be pretty. Across the board, stock prices and company valuations will fall. Banks will announce painful write-offs, some hedge funds will close their doors, and private-equity funds will report disappointing returns. Some companies will be forced into bankruptcy or restructuring.”

So what has really happened? Back in the nineties, a significant amount of House Democrats pushed for direct lending, urging banks to lend money to people who could not afford to buy their own house. Back in the old days, loans were given to those who could prove a steady, paying job, good credit history, and trustworthy character. If people couldn’t afford to buy the house, why lend them the money? Disregarding custom and common sense, loans were lent out easily to millions of people who couldn’t make the payments.

There’s the trouble. When millions of low-income individuals couldn’t pay the exhorbitant payments on these loans, the banks defaulted. If people don’t pay back the loans, the banks don’t get their money back, and can’t fund Americans who keep their money in those banks.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Frank, his Senate counterpart — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., were leading the forefront of this crisis. These men pushed for the loans, stating that they were “helping the poor” and at the same time gained a generous amount for themselves. It was basically selfishness that drove these men.
On July 14, 2008 Barney Frank stated, “I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They’re not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward. They’re in a housing market. I do think their prospects going forward are very solid. And in fact, we’re going to do some things that are going to improve them.”

Well, this statement is obviously NOT TRUE. It misled the public and many Americans lost money due to this, seeing as the housing market has just recently bottomed in the last two weeks and stocks have plummeted.

Several years ago many Congressional Republicans, including John McCain, saw that the housing market was failing and proposed a reform legislation. Consequently, many Democrats who were benefiting, blocked it, voting against the bill.

And since the market has plummeted, Congress proposed the 700 billion dollar bailout bill, which appeared to be a weak attempt from a frightened and shaken Wall Street to patch up the mess. The bill was oozing the money and tax cuts, with no one knowing where the money was going. This bill was turned down.

The bail out bill was cleaned up, polished, and then filled with pork, tax cuts for various parties who would not vote for the bailout bill without these selfish provisions. Wall Street is full of selfish and foolish people.

So if anyone still believes that the economic crisis is due to the Bush administration, think again. Just because something has begun and escalated under a certain administration, does not mean that it is at fault. Firstly, the President only possesses 1/3 of the government power, and he is set upon by an entire cabinet of advisors. Secondly, the Senate, who passes the laws, is currently run by the Democrats, who are a majority. Thirdly, we know that reform was proposed, and the Democrats blocked it.
So what would I encourage? I’m not encouraging any particular candidate. I’m voting for McCain. But I would encourage you to snatch up houses. They are cheap as dirt at the moment and once the economy is running smoothly again, selling them or renting them out would be genius.