"Poverty is not PRETTY....but it can be BEAUTIFUL"

"For quite some time now I’ve been having some sorts of a moral dilemma. I want to be as open and honest with my supporters and donors as I can possibly be because I know that I am their eyes and ears for realities that they will probably never get to witness, however I'm extremely conflicted. I know that the images that I choose to upload, share or speak about will be the ones forever associated with this organization, however my only apprehension is, what type of image it is that I should portray?

Let me first start off by saying that I have this unwavering desire to travel. In the past three years, I have traveled to dozens of countries, seen a few of the seven wonders and I know this might sound crazy but I can honestly say that Ethiopia is host to some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been able to witness, I mean seriously. It perplexes me that I have been traveling this entire time when I could have been experiencing all that is Ethiopia. Don’t get me wrong I will forever continue to travel but to know that everything I had been in search for was in my backyard has truly left me speechless. Not only is Ethiopia the only African country with it's own alphabet system, but it is also only one of two countries in Africa that has never been colonized,.

That being said, Ethiopia is also a host to some very real misfortunates. Of course engrained in our brains are the images of the feed the children infomercials shown late at night on our television screens. We have that immediate reaction of “oh how sad”, then a few seconds elapse and our program starts back up. Immediately the guilt fades. I too, am guilty of doing this. I would love to be able to say that, that isn’t how it is in Ethiopia but to be honest that would be a lie. I would love to say that most kids in public schools are given free lunch if their parents can not afford it, however that too would be a lie. Most of us have never experienced extreme poverty. The type of poverty that makes parents have to choose between sending their kid to school or sending them to retrieve clean water. The type of poverty that never allows kids to daydream of pretend worlds because the sound of their bellies are louder then their own thoughts. 

Here, extreme poverty has been reduced to 20 seconds on our television screens at 11 o'clock at night. We squirm as we have to watch the uncomfortable images, however there is this one sobering fact, we have the luxury of ignoring it. We can switch off our television screens, look the other way or even change the channel, however they can’t.

The truth is simply this: Poverty is not pretty. 

I never want to mask the ugliness of poverty because it is ugly, BUT I also don’t want anyone to ever think that those dark images are the only ones associated with poverty either, because their not. There are so many more BEAUTIFUL images, one's of hope, of laughter, of smiles. AND those are the images I continually depend on to keep me going whenever I feel as though the task at hand is too great. The future of these kids are bright. They are resilient and they are  beautiful and it is our duty to do our best to help that beauty radiate. Poverty is certainly not pretty.......but we can make it beautiful