I know at Touch A Life we talk a lot about what we do, but today I want to focus on why we do what we do. I have been asked many times why I work in Ghana, West Africa, when there are so many needs in the United States. I wish I had the perfect answer to that question, but honestly, I don’t.
My answer is simple… Because they breathe. Because exploitation and injustice towards children makes me lose sleep at night. Because I physically want to hurt someone who abuses an innocent child. Because modern-day slavery is everyone’s problem.
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves” – Abraham Lincoln
Maybe my answer or response should be to politely direct questions back for them to answer. Why would I not work in Africa when I can make a difference in a child’s life? Why would I not fight for humans enslaved when I am free? Why would I not stand in the gap for children who have been abandoned and rejected? Why would I not spend the rest of my life flying over the Atlantic Ocean trying to make a difference? Why would I ever want to ignore the stories of injustice?
My new answer for 2020 can be summed up in a few words by the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – that is to have succeeded” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
-Ma Pam