The Gift of Giving

            As we go to school, go to work, spend the day without the necessity to worry about living in poverty or injustice, there are others who are not as fortunate who live in the reality of such issues. There are children around the world who live under horrible circumstances and cannot escape from the brutal environment, and many of us are not aware of it. Fortunately, there are organizations that try to change this fact.

           One of the major NGOs that act toward these issues is World Vision. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian nongovernmental organization who help children and their families all around the world to fight causes of poverty and injustice. The organization carried a long trail of history behind in which they have changed the lives of many. In the official website of World Vision, http://www.worldvision.org/, there are ways in which people like us can influence the lives of many. The website allows you to take an overview of what the organization does and have done in the past. There are many ways to get involved from participating in an event to sponsoring a child. Many high schools and Universities around the United States take part in this organization by organizing fund raising, volunteer work, donations and raise awareness to the others around them. I was also an active member of the World Vision club in high school where we sold raffle tickets, went to city orphanages of the disabled to interact with the children, and raised funds through events such as the school food fair.

            I feel that there are many misfortunate occurrences in the world that could be changed by the shift of attitude toward the issue. Many feel that they already have enough to worry about in their own lives and that they do not have time to think about larger issues that may not have anything to do with them. However an individual’s action may change lives of many. I am not telling everyone to go and donate, but to consider the issues that are happening in the world and that they could make a difference in many ways.

Another organization similar to World Vision is a nonprofit organization called One. This organization is also a humanitarian and advocacy organization that fights against issues such as extreme poverty, better development policies, and greater democracy. The difference between this organization and World Vision is that One asks for the voice on individual instead of the money. The official website, http://www.one.org/ helps us understand the issues around the world, raise awareness as well as allows us to participate in contributions as easy as posting something on Facebook or Twitter. This organization reaches out to the general public to promote their message. Their approach uses media and social media sites such as MySpace, Flikr and Facebook to encourage action. There was a promotional clip posted on YouTube that drew the attention of many. The strategy took celebrities of a specific age range to raise awareness, which was targeted specifically towards college students. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTzfQLRP4kk. As the promotional clip may state, One makes it easier for students who are still dependant on their parents to participate.

There are many ways in which people like us can make a difference in the less fortunate people around the world. By the development of the high technology, it has made it easier for us to contribute and make a difference. I decided to bring about this issue in my because I know the power of social network sites and word of mouth.

The Top 5 Most Powerful Ways For Dancers To Build Wealth

http://www.dancebloggers.com/2010/11/the-top-5-most-powerful-ways-for-dancers-to-build-wealth-%e2%80%93-part-5/

In this blog post, the author Ashani Mfuko demonstrates the ways in which a dancer can build wealth. She states how people are capable of having different kinds of skills other than dancing and suggests dancers to take the time to examine what their other skills and talents with the initial investment as $0. She states, “Invest the time or money that it takes to develop those skills in a way that will allow you to build wealth”. I feel that this sentence is stating the obvious, where if one invests in something that will connect to their wealth, the options will be infinite. She backs up her statement by listing out the successful dancers over time and explains how they have been investing time and money into other skills such as graphic design, video editing, blogging, image consultant and so on. These are some of the most successful dancers who have had the time and money to invest in skills as such as well as being excellent performers and dancers. However, becoming a dancer and making a career out of dance takes enormous amount of time and money, with little guarantee of being successful or making a living. It is great to hear modern ideas such as using the internet to wisely invest and gain wealth as a dancer, however this may not be the source to rely on if one is debating what to do with their dance major or their talent in dance. I feel many of the potential dancers realize the percentage of being successful with dance or building a career in dance is very low. Not all students who graduate majoring in dance turn out to be great dancers and performers. I feel that the author should include more information of who she is speaking to, who the ‘dancers’ are that she is referring to in order to make a more precise statement. She should also take the time to do some research on what kind of people became successful dancers in comparison to the people who could not achieve their dream of becoming a dancer. I feel she would have a better post if she could list out the statistics of the people who have made a career out of dance and those who have not and what they ended up to be.