So, a lot of my job at GirlAbout so far has involved a fair amount of budgeting, the occasional shopping trip and a whole world of emailing. Doesn’t sound much like I’m bettering the world around me, does it? Especially not when fellow World of Difference-ers are planning on how better to get water to African villages or help slum kids in Mumbai or other life-saving noble sounding activities. Where are all the benefits I should be seeing, sat in the comfort of my heated office?
I wish I could say I had some kind of epiphany or some inspirational moment involving a teary teenage girl thanking GirlAbout for changing her life (possibly with some heavenly music and autumnal winds blowing leaves around us), but I haven’t. What I have heard this week are some awful, awful stories about situations that young girls are in, even in the town around me. Especially in the town around me. These stories have reminded me to think past myself and past my immediate surroundings and consider the atrocities that go on every day. Young girls being abused; young girls having their teenagehood – their childhood – destroyed by the emotional turmoil that follows an abortion. These girls deserve to be healed; they deserve to be valued; they deserve to be loved. They deserve to have hope and a future. They deserve to laugh and have fun and feel good about themselves.
So yes, when I am ordering a million beads or drafting a letter to parents or any other activity that out of context seems dull or unglamorous or largely irrelevant (Vanessa, if you’re reading this, that doesn’t mean I’m bored), it is easy to get disheartened and ask: “what’s the point?”. But it is important to remember two things: firstly, the vast majority of charity work that’s worth doing is not glamorous. Secondly, there’s a higher goal and a bigger vision. It’s important to think beyond the immediate tasks to the ultimate difference you are making, even if a small one. Because really that’s what making a “world of difference” is all about; thinking beyond your little world into someone else’s and working to better it in whatever way you can. Roll up your shirtsleeves and get stuck in.
On a more superficial (but no less exciting) note: our GirlAbout t-shirts and lanyards should be arriving tomorrow! Once these two bastions of the English Charity Event turn up it’ll all be worthwhile…
