NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania — Millennials, also known as Generation Y, is the term applied to people born in the 1980s all the way up through the early 2000s. While millennials are typically known for having confidence and an optimistic outlook, they are also negatively described as having an egotistic personality. But contrary to the perception that members of this generation can be self-absorbed, progress toward ending world poverty and hunger has been made by many of these millennials, proving that anyone regardless of age can make a difference in this world.
One such millennial is 11-year-old Aryton Cable. Cable serves as a Youth Ambassador for The 100Hours and traveled to Malawi last year where he met a young boy named Mapangano, who suffers from hunger every day. It was during this trip that Cable saw firsthand the amount of people who live without daily access to food and water and has since then worked to assist those affected by extreme poverty.
Cable was invited to launch the Liberation Campaign and the Humanitarian Water and Food (WAF) Youth Awards at the Central Hall in London on June 18. The Liberation Campaign gives children the opportunity to learn more about what they can do to help decrease the amount of poverty and hunger in the world through animation and gamification. The team or individuals who win the most points will attend the 2015 WAF Youth Awards in Milan.
To learn more, visit The Liberation Campaign‘s website. According to Cable on his blog, “Young people have the ambition, creativity and energy to find a solution but we need to talk and we need to work together.”
Demonstrating such creativity is exactly what 31-year-old Hugh Evans did as he, along with Global Citizen in partnership with the World Childhood Foundation, presented the “Thank You Festival” at the Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, Maryland on June 26. Featuring artists Tiesto, Above & Beyond, Krewella, Cedric Gervais and Alvin Risk, this concert was a fun way to celebrate the progress made in decreasing the global child mortality rate since 1990.
According to the U.N. Development Program’s (UNDP) 2013-2014 Annual Report, the amount of people living in extreme poverty (living on less than $1.25 a day) was halved between 1990 and 2010, which shows much promise that ending extreme poverty is a worthy and achievable goal.
To help further decrease this rate and promote millennials’ participation in the fight against extreme poverty, tickets for the “Thank You Festival” were priced starting at $45 and free flights and tickets to the concert were also distributed to applicants who entered the drawing by completing a list of charitable actions outlined by Global Citizen. Global Citizen is an organization that works to end extreme poverty by 2030, and this concert was successful in engaging millennials in that cause.
Especially with all of these millennials promoting an end to global poverty, the UNDP is confident that extreme poverty may end as early as the start of the next generation. Millennials like Cable and Evans are proof that there is more to millennials than the perceived egotism applied to this entire generation. You can bet that each these millennials asked themselves, “What more can I be doing to better the world?” which is a question that we can all ask ourselves as well.
– Meghan Orner
Sources: The 100 Hours, WAF Award, Huffington Post, Global Citizen 1, Global Citizen 2, UNDP
Photo: Wellthie