The other day I was going about my normal day when I suddenly remembered something that Nelson Mandela once said.
“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, but an act of justice”, and to this day, his words still remain true. Aren’t we lucky to live in the United States where people have food to eat, and a house to live in, and clothes to wear. In third world countries, a majority of their people live on less than $1.50 a day.
And then I thought of a memory.
During the winter of seventh grade, I was able to travel to Bangladesh with my family and see firsthand what it’s really like to live in poverty. This experience showed me the truth about humanity. When I had arrived in Bangladesh, I remembered sitting in a cab and looking outside of the window. I was amazed at what I saw.
People who looked like they hadn’t showered in weeks. People who looked like they hadn’t eaten in weeks. People who wore rags and no shoes. Of course I knew that this was a norm, but seeing it with my own eyes was a shocker. In the slums of each neighborhood, there are dozens of impoverished families staying together in small unsanitary areas. That can be up to 40 people who eat, sleep, and use the bathroom in the same area. It’s hard for us to imagine, but for them, it’s everyday life. Since most of these people didn’t have access to formal education, therefore don’t have formal jobs, they rely on working as servants in upper class homes as a source of income.
During my trip to Bangladesh, I visited a cousin’s house that looked like a mansion. It was very large and had lots of narrow hallways leading from one room to another. That day, I got lost in finding my way to her living room and ended up in the kitchen. In the kitchen, I saw a little girl named Joyria I didn’t know who she was or why she was there. She didn’t talk at all, just smiled. But then, the little girl did something. She took my coat and hung it in the coat rack. And then she took my shoes and put them in the shoe rack. And then everything was clear to me.
Joyria’s mom worked as a servant in my cousin’s home where she spent most of her day doing basic housework such as cooking and cleaning. Joyria usually just stood in the corner with her sister and never sat down. At first my brain disregarded Joyria as I thought that I shouldn’t interact with “people like her”. But pretty soon, my heart gave in. Four year old Joyria stood under 3 feet and literally wore rags. She wasn’t wearing a shirt or a pair of pants, she had a rag wrapped around her body that she wore every day. She had a wheatish complexion to her skin, short hair, and light grey eyes. My favorite memory with her was one night when the entire neighborhood was playing hide and seek in the dark and Joyria played as well. She was extremely obedient and had very good manners.
The night I left Bangladesh, Joyria came running to me and said that she will never forget me. On the plane back to America I was thinking and thinking and thinking. I realized that no matter how much sympathy I had given Joyria, I knew her life wouldn’t have a so called happy ending. If you looked straight into Joyria’s eyes, you’d know that she was depressed. She sees her mom work tirelessly off in my sister’s home just to get one plate of food on the dinner table. In a few short years, this will be her life as well. Joyria is only 4. 4 year old girls are supposed to play with dolls, eat candy, and go to preschool. As a four year old, she is already doing basic housework such as hanging coats, and in 40 years she’ll still be hanging coats. I mean here I am complaining about the fact that my iphone wouldn’t charge last night and here’s this little girl on the other side of the world who’s not just dirt poor, she’s actually living on the dirt.
Joyria won’t be able to play outside with friends or go to school not because she doesn’t want to but because she has to. Because she’s in poverty. And people in poverty can’t enjoy the same things that others can. Pretty soon, she needs to establish a substantial work ethic for her family to survive. She doesn’t know what types of hardships she’ll have to face in the future, let alone how to face them. She doesn’t know where her next meal is coming from, or if she’ll even get one. She knows that this is her life, and there’s nothing she can do to change it.
I really don’t know what type of an impact I personally have made on Joyria’s life or if I’ve even made one. But what I do know is that seeing Joyria and how she’s in poverty made me greater appreciate the things that I have in life that others take for granted. It was through this experience and the courage of everyday individuals like her that ultimately taught me this: When someone has an opportunity that someone else does not have, he or she should use that opportunity to make a difference in others.
