Dissipating clouds: Why I volunteer with PWRDF

By Cara Robinson, justgeneration.ca Diocesan Ambassador for the Diocese of Toronto

The first time I learned about poverty, I was five or six years old. My mom was doing an overnight fasting event with the church’s youth group and my dad had a meeting downtown, so I went with her. In my mind, I remember it like hanging out with friends older than me and playing lots of games, until we all sat down and talked about poverty. I don’t remember much after that.

The idea of poverty floated away like a cloud for a few years, along with all the other problems in our world, something that only existed in lands far across the sea. I didn’t put together that the homeless people in my own city were living in poverty until I saw one of those tear-jerking TV ads featuring people in small African countries – images typically associated with poverty — were doing exactly what the down-on-their-luck folks just a short walk away were doing.

All of a sudden a switch flipped, and my world view changed overnight. But I was only 10, just old enough to join the youth group but getting settled in my third of seven schools. I felt like there was nothing I could do, no matter where I looked.

Yet the feeling of wanting to help stuck with me. Fast forward six years and two more schools, and I learned about PWRDF’S justgeneration.ca Diocesan Ambassador program. Finally, I could get involved. I now had resources to tell me how to help, a way to tell other people what the problems are and how they can help.

PWRDF gives me (and other people my age who often get ignored in the church) a voice to say “I can help” to people who say “You’re too young”. It gives me the opportunity say “This is why” when people say “Why bother?”. It helps to show me that the clouds of problems are closer than we think, and much closer than some would like. But finding small fixes to some of the contributing factors of poverty means that I can slowly help make those clouds disappear.