Liberation Through Education
In the Name of God,
There are many problems in the world, an inconvenient fact that we have to learn to deal with. Economic meltdown, international conflicts, terrorism, world hunger, and the list goes on. All of these problems are a part of reality and is something that we are certainly going to have to face sooner or later. Currently, the world has a tendency to either be ignorant of the problem or just wait until it gets very serious. I believe that there is a very simple and effective long-term solution to all of these problems and that, is education.
For me education has been, is, and always will be the solution to all of the challenges that we face in the world today. The book “Redemption” was written by a gangster on death-row in the U.S. and it talked about his life as the founder of the infamous Crips gang, his time in prison, and the transformation that he undertook simply by learning to read and write. He in fact became so well known as an outspoken critic of gang violence that he was nominated for a Nobel Prize. Giving the education a child needs, rather than getting that child involved in street crime, would do him a whole lot of good for the pen is always mightier than the sword. A basic crime prevention strategy that today’s governments may want to review.
Another classic entitled “Three Cups of Tea” was written by a mountaineer by the name of Greg Mortenson. Greg was lost climbing K2 and ended up in a village somewhere in the North-West region of Pakistan. Having seen the abject poverty of the place, he promised he would build them a school and today he now has almost 60 schools built throughout northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. With this magnificent act of kindness, he has changed the hearts and minds of a whole region. The walls of ignorance were crumbled in an instant. The very notion that girls should stay at home and that Americans are bad people was no longer a reality. Again, could education not tackle terrorism and change the hearts and minds of a population who has come to loath the West? I hope Mr.Obama is making notes.
A lot of the time, people agree with the above notions but don’t tend to do much about it. Arguments such as “Who am I to make a difference?” pop up time and time again. In my opinion this is ridiculous. Bobby, Laren, and Jason were three ordinary students from California who all had a passion for making movies. With $300 and three plane tickets to Uganda, they went on an African adventure only to witness the horrors of children being kidnapped and turned into child soldiers. A couple of years down the line and their charity, Invisible Children, has now won a $1,000,000 cash injection to help build schools for the children of Uganda. They have made the difference. At YourTwoCents, we have the privilege to write and express our opinions freely and openly, and now we want to share the gift of literacy with others.
Ismail Al-Buhaisi is a 19 year old student who lives in the Gaza Strip. After the recent invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces that left 1400 Palestinians dead, hospitals, schools, and offices were raised to the ground. Yet despite this, he still wants to continue his English Degree at the Islamic University in Gaza City. With the help of a UK based charity, we can now provide for his education until he graduates with the renewed hope that he will be able to get a job and provide for his own family. All he needs is £800 a year for the next three years. What he has to pay for in three years, doesn’t even add up to what UK students pay in tuition fees in one. Our commitment is to use the money that we gain from the website to not only continue expansion, but to provide for his education so that at least one more person is free from the shackles of illiteracy. A 10% cut in anything that we gain in monetary funds will be given in the way of helping Ismail complete his education. If you want to get involved, please e-mail any of the in-house writers at YourTwoCents.
Thank You.
“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve obviously never been in bed with a mosquito.”- Michelle Walker
