Voluntary work

It could very well have been the eyes of the eight year old girl that ripped my heart. These eyes had a language of their own, a language that I found unfathomable and cryptic. They had managed to elude me ever since I became cognizant of the world around me. However, in a moment of inspiration, the truth descended upon me. Being poor is not a crime but life treats you like a criminal. This last statement rings out like an accusation.
It goes without saying that some incidents transmute individuals by instilling in them the realization that the purpose of life is not to amass wealth but to engender a situation in which the rights of the impoverished are not condoned. Such a metamorphosis ranks as one of the finest moments of my life.
One of the most misguided notions of conventional wisdom is that poverty is the culmination of ineptitude and a fatalistic attitude to life. This statement may hold some veracity but it does not serve to delineate the condition of every mendicant. Poverty is the result of exploitation by the ruling class as espoused by Marxism in the realm of sociology. As the saying goes’ some people are poor only because others have taken the wealth that is rightfully theirs’. This drove me to venture in the world of those people who have been stigmatized as noxious insects by the
affluent.
Statistics have corroborated the fact that education has a strong correlation with chances to secure a good quality of life. My voluntary work involved helping drop-out children secure education. It is an irony that economic conditions supplant human emotions of love and compassion, qualities that serve as a mark of distinction for our species. Parents would rather let their progeny be immersed in the inexorable cycle of poverty, as opposed to paving their path to
enlightenment and eventual success. Devoid of money and education, the poor children are trapped in an abyss, which means that they are in the middle of nowhere. My sole mission was to convince the recalcitrant parents that educating their parents is a plausible option. It is noteworthy to state the gender discrimination that was a pervasive feature of the mindset of many parents. In our culture, girls are married at a tender age and educating them is tantamount to wasting time
and money.
Of the multifarious examples that merit attention, the case of Fatima stands out owing to the resistance put forward by her obdurate parents. In line with ingrained belief of keeping women inside walls and the unwarranted notion that education would have corrupting influences on the girl’s personality, Fatima was not allowed to study after she finished primary school. In economic terms, this was the epitome of a human resource being squandered. It is worth mentioning that the boys had no such restriction, a stark reminder of the bigotry towards female rights that
plagues rural societies to the present day. It took days for our team to make any sense of the justification given by her father because at that precise moment, reason had lost its very essence. Despite the blatant obstacles that stood before us like a mountain, we gained inspiration from the fact that the worst evil occurs when good people do nothing. Of the torrent of explanations espoused by us, we will never know which one slit the father’s heart into a thousand fragments. He did finally succumb and agreed to contravene the local traditions that had decided the fate of
countless girls. Humans are strange creatures because they can be both rapacious and
magnanimous which in itself is a testament to the unique quality of the human spirit.
This experience left an indelible mark on my personality. It taught me that greatness lies in aiding God’s creation. Development has its own conspicuous benefits but this not overshadow its flagrant flaws. Growth is not a universal good. Just because a statistic is going up does not mean that the world is getting a better place. In light of these facts, achieving top grades does not
transmute you into a humane being. The whole point of education is enlightenment which can only be achieved if students develop the capacity to think out of the box. We should strive to be part of the solution as opposed to being the problem itself.