Someday to Africa: The Beginning

Folks, I have this HUGE dream. I want to go to Africa and perform humanitarian work and get to know the people of that country. I know I can donate money. I realize I can eat all the food on my plate because some child in Africa would kill to have what I have... but that is not enough. Not for me. I want to donate my time and a big chunk of my life to this. Heck, I will find SOME way to incorporate musical theatre into this new endeavor if I can! But first, I need to put my foot through that door and not just dream of someday going to Africa. So here is my first step:

I am spending 5 days living on less than $1.50 a day in order to raise money and awareness for Unicef, who then gives and donates the money to starving countries, children especially, all over the world. Africa is just one of many. This charity/fundraiser is called:  Live Below the Line. If you click on that link it will take you to my profile. You can look around the site and get a feel for what Unicef does and then there is this big awesome button that says "Donate to Me". My goal is to reach $200 by May 3rd. That is just 20 people giving me $10. That isn't bad.

Ever since I can remember I have loved African music. It just resonated within me. I didn't even know it was African music as a kid! I just loved it. I remember once I was listening to some and I burst into tears because it was so beautiful and moved my heart. These people have a huge, long, painful, and beautiful story to tell and they can do it through music and their culture. However, there won't be many people left to share this tale if they all die of malnutrition, starvation, AIDS, and so many other troubles that plague this country. This cannot happen! We must be willing to help and give some of our time, energy and money to people that need so much more than we do.

These children need our help. Those bellies are not bloated from being full, they are bloated from starvation. Just seeing these kinds of pictures makes my heart weep. Every time I see the videos and hear the music or even read the blog posts of others who have been to these third world countries, I weep. Especially when I realize just how much I take advantage of the life I have. My family and I are by no means of the upper class or even the upper middle class, but we still take advantage of all of the wonderful things (food, running water, electricity, school) that we have in our lives. I complain that I don't have enough clothes... but at least I have more than just a sack to wrap around my body until it becomes worn to dust. Children do not need to be starving. We can all help. We just need to find something we can do and do it. And this is my beginning.

So I guess, this blog post is a plea. Please help me raise the goal I have set of $200 dollars. I know it doesn't seem like much to raise, but everything is a start. If I can exceed my goal I will probably cry from happiness and from the goodness in people's hearts. This is a worthy cause. This is real people helping a real cause in a real way.  Please help me, please help these children. Eventually I will go to Africa and I will help those in need in person and someday I will make a bigger difference and bigger contribution than I am now. But the help needs to start now and this is how I know how until I can someday save enough money to get there myself and meet the people I already love so much. I love you all so much, and appreciate everything you have ever done for me, oh, blog reader. Even if it was just give me another page view. So please... please help and donate as much as you can OR join me in the challenge and begin raising money yourself:

Live Below the Line