Brin Enterkin, the founder of the African [SOUP], invited me to join the volunteer team during my sophomore year of college. I remember that first meeting: In Abby’s dorm, all lit up for Christmas, with a small group of dedicated team members exchanging ideas. I’ve always been painfully shy in new environments and I don’t think I said more than a few whispered sentences, but the team were still enthusiastic about my ideas.

I left that first meeting feeling like I–at 5’2″ and hardly more than a kid–could change the world.

But even then, I struggle with apathy. Even then, sometimes I catch myself thinking: It’s just a fence. It’s just a classroom. It’s just mortar and brick and wire.

But I’m reminded that this is more: This is a future.

It’s safety in a country where safety is rare.

It’s being nurtured and grown in a country where opportunity is not guaranteed.

It’s you and me changing the world for one kid, one class, one village.

Maybe I can’t change the whole world. But I can make a difference.

And in a world that grows darker not by evil but by inaction, I’ll take that.

Please consider giving even $5 or $10. Even the smallest of people with the smallest of gifts can be a force for change.