Speaker confronts poverty

from The Daily Tar Heel

By: Melissa Brown, Staff Writer

People who gathered in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium on Monday night sat in silence.

"We spend over $100 million a year on beer in the United States," said human rights activist and speaker Kimmie Weeks, "But we can't pay the $12 million it would take to feed people around the world."

Weeks, who was the keynote speaker for the Campus Y's Human Rights Week, spoke Monday night about ending global poverty to a crowd of about 100 students and community members.

He left many audience members shocked with descriptions of his life as a refugee and with his knowledge of poverty.

Though he graduated from Amherst College, the 25-year-old once lived in Liberia in a refugee camp.

Weeks said he never knew hunger or pain until he was 10 years old when Liberia was struck with war. He was kicked out of his home and forced to walk to the camp where he lived for six months.

"I've seen stuff. I know what it feels like to be hungry and sick and feel like the world turned its back on you," he said. "I know what it's like to be left to die."

The 10-year-old Weeks nearly died of starvation and illness at the camp.

He spoke passionately Monday about this period in his life, his voice often choking up, and the audience remained captivated by his words throughout the speech.

"I put on my television and hope that someone will be talking about some of these things," Weeks said. "I turn on CNN and they're talking about Paris Hilton losing her chihuahua."

But even though Weeks barely made it out of the camp alive, he said he can't imagine the horrors of what children today live through every day.

"I went on a trip to Uganda and saw children younger than two years old begging on the streets," he said. "And some young girls see prostitution as their way out."

Weeks came to UNC through funding by Campus Y, student government and the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, among others.

Junior Lindsey Witmer, who was in the audience, said she is starting a microfinance nonprofit organization next year.

"I like to hear people doing things to see that it's possible, rather than being discouraged by failure," she said.

Weeks spoke frequently of failure as well.

He said that so many people come up with ideas that could change the world and don't try to implement them because they're afraid of failure or time constraints.

He challenged every member of the audience to find a way to donate a dollar to poorer countries and to become aware of policies being made about poverty.

"Let's not walk out the door and go do something usual - find a way to become a part of a global movement," Weeks said.

"Let's not be the generation of video games, but the generation that truly makes a change."