We fail to realize the majority of the time how fortunate we are living our day-to-day lives. How convenient is it to have a drinking fountain a couple steps away, that you can drink clean water from? I bet it's pleasant to have a refreshing, warm shower to take after waking from a comfortable place to sleep. When these concepts are thought of, it's irrelevant how fortunate we are to reside in America.
I have always made this mistake and took the luxury of my life for granted but I have always kept it in mind. I am for the most part grateful for everything that has been blessed around and towards me but after reading an article on this community service project for people in Africa, my eyes have slightly open wider.
I agree with the statement that the author wrote saying, "Americans are spoiled. And that is a fact." We are spoiled rotten. The author of article stated several attention-grabbing statistics that made me reflect on my life. The author stated that some children might have to walk six miles to get water for their families and on the way feel like collapsing because they are dehydrated their self. Most do not realize how polluted their water is because don't have filtering systems like we Americans do but they are grateful for just having something to drink. She also said that there is thirty-six percent of the population that survive off less than 1 dollar per day. Now in the reality Americans live in, how could anyone survive with less than 1 dollar per day as income? There is not a budget for 1 dollar a day in America. According to the author 1 dollar is used to feed families which include six generations. I know I could not survive on 1 dollar a day for food. This is just another thing I am appreciative of.
I can not imagine if I had to deal with the same things that go on over there in Africa for instance the diseases that are common here but deadly over there such as diarrhea. Three million people from the disease every year because of the food they eat that is infested with parasites because the animals that they eat around the open sewage that's not being took care of. I could not picture myself thinking that this might be the day that I die because I can either die of hunger or die because the only food I have is infested.
The author is involved with a non-profit organization called H2O for Life that fund raise money to help the deprived of Africa. After reading the article titled, "The Gift of Life", I realized how fortunate I am. I can go get food when I want and not have to worry about if it is infested. I can go drink water from a drinking fountain and don't have to worry about going six miles to obtain it or worry about the contamination. Therefore realizing that I am deciding to donate to the organization because I believe it is common courtesy for the fortunate to help the less.