A colleague of mine recently had the opportunity to attend the Zenith Global Citizenship Conference, and was thrilled to share a piece of the wisdom and inspiration she gained from it. The Keynote speaker, Shawn Smith (who inspired Global Agents for Change and Education Generation) spoke on his own accomplishments as a young entrepreneur who was passionate about making a difference in those who do not have the opportunity to receive an education. His passion was the result of EdGen, a fabulous non-profit organization, dedicated to providing students in developing countries with grants to attend school.
In their own words:
We bridge the gap between supporters and students in need using technology. We eliminate the high overhead of child sponsorship, partnering with existing not for profit organizations that understand the communities they work in, and have a track record of success.
This allows you to directly help motivated students, with 100% of your money (after paypal processing fees) supporting their studies. We bring communities of people together with contributions as low as $20, to collectively support individual students. These are real youth with real dreams and unlimited potential. You can unleash this potential and help bring these dreams to reality.
Shawn shared many inspirational stories with the group, but there is one that really hits home for me. (I am going to do my best to give it the justice it deserves).
There was an awful drought, which posed a threat for the extinction of Starfish. Where there once was water, was now sprinkled with millions of Starfish dying in the hot heat. An old man taking a walk along what was the beach, saw a young boy dancing along the shoreline in the distance. As the old man got closer to the young boy, he watched as the boy picked up a Starfish one by one and tossed them into the scarce body of water. The old man says, “Boy, why are you wasting your time? Can’t you see there is not way you can make a difference in these Starfish. There are millions!” But, the young boy wasn’t the slightest bit bothered as he reached down and picked up another Starfish, tossed it in the water and says, “Made a difference in that one.”
The EdGen website adopts exactly this principle. Education for the world will not take place over night, but each donation through the EdGen website will make a difference in one individual, somewhere.
