Ecuador - Yasmin

Quito is about 50 kilometers wide and divided into two parts, the north and the south. Whilst being in the north, which offers all the parks, attractions and beauties, you easily forget that you are in a developping country with lots of poverty and problems, located in the south of the city - where people just pay 90 bucks for a 3-room-apartment a month, but where there is a lot of traffic and violence.

On tuesday last week, I was walking along a street coming from a tennishit, when a little girl overtook me with a huge smile, pointing to her pocket and offering me a bunch of candy. I shook my head, but she was explaining me that it wasn't a question, but an obligation. She put the candy in my hand, asked me for 25 cents and ran off happily and lighthearted.

On friday, she wasn't happy anymore. When I walked past her, she was sitting in a dirt corner, her head hanging lifeless on her neck, with a sad and hopeless look. Again she offered me some candy, which had been as oversugared and horrible as expected, and again I shook my head. If her expression was hopeless before, it was the saddest look in the world I've ever seen afterwards. It really touched me, so I took out a dollar, bought one of these delicious fried bananas, walked back, shared it with her and gave her the change. We talked a little, her name was Yasmin, 12 years old, orphan, living in the south, comig to the north to sell candy every day.

There is a lot of poverty on earth. Especially in south america, there is this huge difference of wealth and poverty in such a little space, in order that you really have to ask what is going wrong in this world. And you can't help it. Giving money, charities, whatever - these things are not gonna change anything. They may be able to support idividuums, give them a little pleasure or hope or just quiet their hunger. But in the longterm, there is only one thing that can help: If humanity stops thinking that money is the most important objective and starts putting in an effort in giving everbody food, water, warmth, education and hope for the future.