Do the children in Africa need likes?

 

The world consists of 7.5 billion people; 1.4 billion of these people are poor. They do not have access to clean water nor good sanitation, medical supervision or good education. In addition to this, 1.3 billion do not have electricity! This feels unreal for most of us. 

 While the Norwegian children were fed up with school and dreaded starting up after the Christmas celebrations, 57 million children in the world are sitting home with a wish and hope for a education to better their future. Half of these children live in Africa, south of Sahara and south-Asia. A huge part of the children is denied schooling. The main reason is poverty. Families do not have the money to send their own children to school, if there is even a nearby school to send them. A lot of household and families are depending on their children contributing and they cannot take them out of work in order to send them to school. Not everyone is as “lucky” as the children who has gotten a job. Some children stay home day after day without anything to do. War actions are also a daily threat for some of these children; therefore, it is not safe to send them to school. In some cases the schools get shut down, and do not open until things have quiet down, which can take up to many years. Unfortunately, education is the most important solution to get people out of poverty. Imagine living in extreme poverty, you do not have access to school, and you need education to get a job in order to get out of the poverty. How would you solve this?

 There’s no longer just a call for help, the numbers convey a loud and clear roar. We constantly hear about inhuman circumstances in media, and they don't dwell a second with writing long texts about how bad things are on the other side of the world. We share several posts on Facebook about different crises in the world, and then we close our computers and pat our shoulders, convinced that we have contributed to saving the world.  We’re good with words, but we need to take action.

 We are highly exposed to this every day, a daily life so far away from our own. Everyday life filled with hunger, pain and suffering. You can't just ignore it. You see it everywhere. Pictures, texts and videos giving us an insight and understanding of their situation. Children telling their stories, with a clear message. We wipe tears, and share the post. Maybe someone will sit down and think about what they just saw. It breaks our hearts seeing it. The small innocent faces, the emaciated bodies and the hopeful eyes. They tell a story we really would like to do something about. But do the children in Africa need likes? Do they need an engaging blog post, or are we the ones who really need it. We’re hungry to help, to do something. We have shared the posts, supported charity, we have put out our hunger, we’re no longer hungry. The question is, can the children in Africa say the same?