World Vision, One.Org, Unicef ...

A few days ago, I got an e-mail from Josh Peck of One.org. As member, I get regular updates on the organization's activities. The group is leading the fight against global poverty and asking their political leaders to make a stand and support their cause. With active members like Bono, Matt Damon and a whole lot of other celebrities involved, the group is fast gaining attention and support worldwide.

When I was working for a business process outsourcing company some years back, I received a call from a representative of a Non-government Organization (NGO) called World Vision. The group was soliciting financial aid for me to sponsor a child from a depressed area so the child can go to school and be provided with the basic necessities in life.

A tv channel featured World Vision's projects. They showed children from remote areas who walk more than 10 kms to school everyday (some barefoot) through a mountain trail just to get an education. And when they get home...they don't play like other kids. They help their parents make bags or slippers from dried stalks of plants so they can sell them. Others are less lucky. They have to scrounge for things to sell like plastics and tin cans from garbage dump sites.

Unicef solicits funds for the same kind of support in the same way as World Vision...through personal mail. World Vision, One.org, Unicef and other similar organizations all have one thing in common...they want to help the less privileged and uplift the standard of living. Something most governments don't do enough of, maybe because they're too busy with their own political agenda.

These organizations strike you where it counts most...the heart. They make us realize just how far luckier and privileged we are than many of these people from remote and depressed areas without even the most basic things in life.

It especially touched me when months ago, Live 8 showed the picture of a little girl taken 20 years ago. She was from Africa and was barely the size of the palm of a hand...thin, malnourished and hardly alive. They showed that same little girl in the picture at Live 8, standing on tv for the world to see...grown up, healthy, strong and about to finish college. And they are people like Bob Galdof, Bono, and non-government organizations like World Vision or One.org that want to make a difference that can really make things happen.

Well, one good deed can cause a ripple of more good deeds, just like throwing a stone in still water...the ripple gets wider and wider until it reaches far. Each one can be that stone to start the ripple.