My next step is to share this Justice Cam Challenge as much as I can and really help it spread. Hopefully now that I've done it, people may feel more inspired and empowered that they can do it too. Also to keep sharing and spreading the song that I wrote and recorded for an orphanage in Uganda called the Home of Hope and Dreams.
Thanks for everyone who shared and/or liked these posts this past month. I look forward to seeing yours.
Awareness makes you stop and check your direction. You gotta look around and see how you continue with what you now know.
"Having heard all this you may choose to turn and look the other way but you can never again say that you did not know." - William Wilberforce
Compassion Fatigue- fatigue, emotional distress, or apathy resulting from the constant demands of caring for others or from constant appeals from charities (dictionary.com).
Whether you are the one getting too much or the one giving too much, there is a need for relief and restoration; there is a need for hope.
Isaiah 35:3-6 "Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, 'Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.' Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert."
When we are weak, we are no help to anyone. It's only when we allow someone greater to come in and be our strength that the very things were were striving to see, come about.
Darkness is not the opposite of light, it is the absence of light. And neither is injustice the opposite of justice, it is the absence of justice. Therefore the only way to combat it is to bring it...so bring it.
Without education people can be powerless and vulnerable, but with education people can fight back. Check out how this can work with girls:
Over a billion people lack access to clean drinking water.
I took this picture in a slum in Chaing Mai, Thailand. This boy and his family were refugees from Burma. The whole community got their water from this dirty spout. Not having clean water opens a door for so many barriers that can prevent people from leading a full and healthy life.
To learn more watch:
It's the small things that often have the biggest impact. Malaria, though such a small thing, has a huge impact on its host, claiming the life of a child every minute. "Malaria is an infectious blood disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria symptoms, which often appear about 9 to 14 days after the infectious mosquito bite, include fever, headache, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. If drugs are not available or the parasites are resistant to them, the infection can lead to coma, life-threatening anemia, and death."
Malaria has been in this race a lot longer than we have and it's time we join in this race that can be won.
Check out Malarianomore.org
Diarrhea is the 2nd most common cause of child deaths worldwide. In fact, diarrhea is the cause of 4% of all deaths worldwide and that adds up to around 2.2 million people each year (according to the WHO).
When you see a large crack in the wall, you have to be careful because you never know if the crack has gone down to the foundation. When impoverished people get diarrhea, it could just be a week long, surface level sickness, or it could have tapped into their foundation and be the thing that kills them.
Diarrhea is 100% preventable.
Female Genital Mutilation refers to the procedure involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or injury to the female genital organs. The term covers a range of procedures, which are also referred to as female circumcision and introcision. "Among communities that practise FGM, the procedure is a highly valued ritual, whose purpose is to mark the transition from childhood to womanhood. In these traditional societies, FGM represents part of the rites of passage or initiation ceremonies intended to impart the skills and information a woman will need to fulfil her duties as a wife and mother (In Depth: Razor's Edge... Article)." The ultimate function of the practice, however severe the case, is to reduce the a woman's sexual desire and ensure her virginity. If she refuses she is ostracized from the community; she will be considered as a child and will never inherit the roles, rights and status of a woman so long as she refuses. In practicing communities, there is no place for a woman who has not undergone the procedure.
Female Genital Mutilation poses as both the lock and the door. It's an open door into womanhood and the lock so that sexual immorality can't get in, but depending on which side of the door she's been shown it could look like that or it could look like an open door for disease and pain and the lock that keeps her separated from her freedom to say "no."
It only takes one wrong move for the whole thing to come down.
There are around 40 million people around the world living with HIV/AIDS today; more than half of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Everyday around 7,000 more people become infected with AIDS and everyday around 6,000 people are claimed by the disease; killing more than 3 million people every year. (statistics gathered fromSteps of Justice)
There are an estimated 100 million kids living on the streets.
Around 2 million women and children are said to be trafficked for sexual exploitation each year, some as young as 5.
16,000 children die everyday from hunger.
Around 15 million children have lost one or both of their parents to AIDS and there are around 2.5 million children who have the disease themselves.
Around 12,000 children are forced to work as slaves in the Ivory Coast on cocoa plantations.
Everyday around 26,000 children under the age of 5 die mostly from preventable causes. More than 1 third of children die in the first month of their life.
And they are more than that. You see? Children are at risk and it's our job to protect them. To find out more about issues and how you can help go to www.wcacentre.org and click on "issues"
Last year I was in Phuket, Thailand and during my 6 weeks in Phuket, I really got close with the kids that lived in the neighborhood where I was. These kids completely stole my heart, but especially this little girl.
One night her grandmother came over to me and, with the same ease that she would display if she were offering me a potatoe chip, she offered me this little girl.
There are an estimated 100 million girls missing from the world. (Half The Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof) This kind of disaster starts with the devaluing of women. Devalue them enough and then it doesn't seem so bad to deny them education, to exploit them, to sell them, use them, or kill them.
Go tell a woman in your life how much you appreciate and value her.
Human trafficking is not Europe's problem. It's not India's and the rest of Asia's problem. It's not The America's problem or the Southern Hemisphere's problem. It's OUR problem. It is a global issue of injustice that has covered our globe and distorted our world. This is not a problem to be ignored or even shoved off to God. God's answer to the cry of a broken world is His children. It's OUR problem and we see the infected fruits of it every day. What are you gong to do to be that answer?
Restoration is welding pieces together again. It's not easy, like welding, it takes One Who has the ability and understanding to make something whole again. But even though restoration is painful and difficult, just look at the beauty that comes from it.
I saw these two birds fighting with each other. The magpie was attacking this other bird. For what reason, I'll never know; I can assume, but I'll never truly understand why one was trying to destroy the other. From this picture, the birds don't look all that different from each other; they look the same. At the end of the day, they're both birds. No matter their differences, they're birds. Their feathers may look different, one may be stronger than the other, one may live differently than the other, but they are made the same way.
I'll never know why these two birds were fighting and why one was trying to destroy the other; and likewise, I'll never understand why humans try to destroy humans because of petty differences. But if injustice made sense, it wouldn't be injustice.
For more information about genocide visit Genocideintervention.net
