I’ve always been a person who believes that I can make a difference in the world. I shut out the lights on earth day, do my part to give to give to world issues, turn down the a/c by 3 degrees… and that type of thing.
None of these are big deals in and of themselves, but I suppose the thought is that if we all participate then we can make significant change. The problem is that I know we don’t ALL participate, and most of the time my little contribution really doesn’t do all that much. All I did was sit in the dark for 60 minutes, send $50 to Haiti that was used up in administrative costs, and sweated the summer away while others stayed nice and cool. Don’t bother trying - it’s pretty well useless.
I got an email this week reporting that the micro financing loan I had sent to a lady in Togo had been fully repaid. What it meant was that the $75 I had contributed towards her textile business had helped her get her business started, and it was now functioning to the degree that she was repaying the loan. I thought it was super cool.
I know that there are still millions of people all over the world who will go to bed tonight without enough resources to provide themselves with proper shelter and nutrition, but not Fatimatou. She went to bed after a long day of selling textiles to the Togolese people - partly because I gave a few bucks last fall.
I might not be able to change the entire world, but at least I changed someone’s world.
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