A devastating earthquake slammed into Nepal on Saturday, killing over 4,000 people. That’s hard to wrap your head around I know. It’s such devastation, it’s such tragedy — it’s overwhelming. We want to close our eyes. We want to look the other way. We want to busy ourselves with first world distractions so that we won’t feel the horror of the loss of so many.
But what if, just today, we don’t close our eyes.
What if — just this once — we leave our hearts open to sorrow and compassion, and actively look for ways to help.
At the bottom of this post you’ll find ways you can give financially to help families in Nepal. But before you click there, I want to challenge you to consider doing something bigger and far more magnificent to help salve the wounds of international tragedy.
What if, just for today, we take steps to do something big and magnificent to salve the wounds of international tragedy.
Right here, today, I challenge you to find a way to bring inspired service to a hurting, broken world to a school near you.
Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or a student, I have a way for you to do this that’ll take you less than 10 minutes.
What if, today, we take a step to harness the power of young people to help meet these overwhelming needs.
You can do this by sharing this blog post with parents and teachers, and suggesting that they take a look at the inspiring two minute video about WE ACT below.
What is WE ACT?
WE ACT is an inspiring school-based program that “empowers young people to become active local, national and global citizens.” It provides curriculum, educational resources and action campaigns — but it does far more than that. It changes the lives of the kids who participate. WE ACT is “a movement of students and educators who believe that some of the most powerful learning experiences happen when you make a meaningful difference in your communities and for the world.”
WE ACT empowers and inspires students to take at least one local and one global action, and as a result helps students “gain diverse skills and perspectives that challenge apathy and encourage active citizenship.”
I can’t recommend WE ACT highly enough.
You can be a part of inspiring kids to change the world. Watch this 2- minute video here, then share this post.
Right now, today, thousands of high school and college students around the world are tapping on laptops, working on filling out scholarship applications. I’m glad about that — I’ve given special helpful instructions for getting students more college scholarships here. But just for today, students and parents, let’s set all the scholarship applications aside and move toward this broken, hurting world with empathy and compassion.
When we’ve done that, we’ll be changed. And then we’ll really have something to write about in scholarship applications.
Do this now.
Tweet this post out to a million people who can help us.
If you’d like help getting your child through college debt-free so he or she will have the time and resources to help a hurting world as an adult, I can help you with that for free. Just click on your child’s age in the “WHAT TO DO WHEN” section of this website.
You can help the people of Nepal financially by giving to one of these global service organizations:
What are your thoughts about giving to meet the need in Nepal? How do you feel after watching the WE ACT Video? Could you see yourself helping WE ACT get started on your local school campus? Comment below or find me on Twitter @JBurlowski.