Poverty is an international issue which relates to me because I was born in Pakistan which currently is a third world country and has been since the time of its birth. Poverty is regarded as a huge issue because people have limited amount of education, medicine and food. I understand that it is difficult to eliminate poverty but it’s definitely not impossible.

I can remember when I was about four or five years old in Pakistan, and I was walking through the food market with my uncle and all I could remember were the poorly constructed things in the neighborhood. All the images that come to my mind play like a silent movie. Unfortunately, my family moved to the United States when I was seven. It was not hard to notice the differences between Pakistan and this new place where supposedly the roads were paved with gold and although the neighborhood was crowded it was clean while in Pakistan not so much of a effort was made due to the lack of materials, school was not a priority in Pakistan because of the status’s of the majority however in America school is basically free until you plan to go further, the opportunities here are enormous even though people are loosing their jobs now and there was health insurance which not everybody could afford to have in Pakistan. Every time the word poverty comes to mind “Pakistan” is the first thing that appears. I haven’t visited Pakistan in a decade, so I do not know what it looks like right now, I don’t know if the conditions improved in any way, but I do know that when I grow up I want to do as much as possible to help the poor living worldwide.

George McGovern once said, “I can think of no investment that would profit the international community more then erasing hunger from the face of the earth”. I couldn’t agree more with what he said and since this “man” has more power politically then the average person he can achieve a lot when it comes to a global issue like poverty. McGovern was the first director for the program called Food for Peace; he also helped create the World Food Program and helped bring out the importance of Poverty in America with the McGovern Report. The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program provides meals in school for millions of children in many countries. If everybody gives a hand like this regardless of your status then we can overcome poverty for sure.

I’m very grateful that my family got the opportunity to come to America from a struggling country such as Pakistan. It gives me a lot of encouragement to make something of myself that will make my family proud. Being from a third world country I know the exact importance of helping people that suffer daily and see no change coming, I know for a fact that I will never turn away from a beggar.