"Support Africa" by my 6th grader

Caleb has been working HARD on this writing project at school. Today he wrote his rough draft, asked me for advice, re-wrote his rough draft, and typed it. This is NOT done. But I thought it was worth sharing! He does not enjoy writing but when you have a fire in your heart for something you work hard at it. He has a fire in his heart for the people of Africa.

Here is his editorial:
(Remember this is still a rough draft.)

Support Africa

The country Africa is a place filled with poverty and we need to send money to support them and their families in their time of need.

Basic needs of people are not being met. One out of six Africans do not have enough money to cover basic needs like water, food, and shelter. The average income of someone who lives in African is less than one dollar a day. A way to save money to send to Africa is to skip two trips to Starbucks every week this could save you $5 a week which equals over $250 in a year. You could send your savings to the needy in Africa. In East Africa alone there are 86.8 million people that are undernourished. One person dies every 2.43 seconds (worldwide). 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean or safe drinking water and often have to walk miles just to find water, most of the time this water is not clean.

I believe that the opposite of poverty is not being rich but instead simply having enough. This means that you have enough of what you absolutely need to live happily. You might be wondering how you can help. If you have two video game systems you could sell one and send the money to a charity that supports Africa. My family is sponsoring an 8 year old girl in Ethiopia named Efrata. She lives with her mom, her dad has passed away. Her mom makes $17 a month when she has a job. Efrata has to find water and carry it to their home every day. She sleeps on the ground and doesn’t have enough food. I am selling items in a garage sale to raise money to send to Efrata.

In Africa alone there have been 28 civil wars since 1980. From 1998 to 2002, 4 million Africans have died because of these wars and that totals up to 13 million refugees. There are hundreds of different diseases like AIDS, polio, and malaria, and one million people die each year just from malaria. In Sub-Sahara Africa there are 34 million orphans. To compare there are 24 million more orphans there than the entire population of Michigan. Could you imagine your life without parents to lead you in the right direction?

So go online to find a charity that supports Africa and donate as soon as you can.

Good Job Caleb!! Mommy is proud of you!