"My name is Lukas,
I am that husband from Darfur who witnessed his wife be raped multiple times, and murdered.I am that child who saw his parents be burned alive by the Sudanese government militias, and now have no home, no parents, and is placed among thousands in refugee camps with little water, food, no bed and not even a blanket to cover himself with at night.I am that widow with 4 kids who had her legs cut off by the militias and now cannot take care of herself of her little ones. She is just sitting in the middle of no where with her children around, just waiting to die and hoping it happens fast.I am that 11 year old boy whose mom and dad were decapitated by the militias, and now has to find ways to raise his younger siblings, all on his own.I am that mother who is dying of AIDS in South Africa because she can’t afford medication. I am her kids who watch their mom’s body fade away every day under excruciating pain, look at her with heavy hearts because there is nothing they can do to help ease her pain.I am that single mother from the Bronx who works 3 jobs, 11 hours a day to feed her kids, gets home at night, bathes and feeds them, sleeps 4 hours then goes back to work again. She daydreams with a better future as she walks to the train every day.I am that child in America who is dying of leukemia because his parents cannot afford treatment, and the government won’t pay for it.I am that muslin woman who was burned alive by her husband because she dared to try to walk away from him. She now lies on a hospital bed in Damascus completely disfigured, while her evil radical husband is free because he is protected by a popular law called “honorable crimeâ€.I am every person who goes to bed hungry at night because jobs where they live are inexistent.I am every person who is sick and tired of trying and feels they are going nowhere. I am the hopeless who still refuses to give up despite falling flat every time they try to get up.I am everyone who feels trapped, nowhere to go and wish they were anything but there.I have personally met all the characters described above and feel as if they were part of me.But I also am a man who has been homeless, hungry, shot, terminally ill, lonely, depressed, lost, completely broke, friendless, unloved, forsaken and on the brink of losing hope, but overcame everything and went on to accomplish more than most.If you are privileged, share some of you blessings with anyone who needs a little. Whether it is your neighbor, the Darfur refugees, AIDS patients in Africa, homeless children in a third world country, a nursing home near you or a total stranger you come across with in the streets.
Share your blessings and you will get back from life in ways you never thought possible.
Darfur Genocide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn_DMkiD4x8
