3A Blog — poverty

The most staggering statistic to me in this infographic was that 48% of the world lives on less than $2 a day. I can’t even comprehend it. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Uganda and meet some amazing people that fall into this category. They’re amazing beautiful people, but they lead an incredibly difficult life, too. But they are some of the most grateful people I’ve ever met. Thankful for rain, for sunshine, for food, for shelter, for things we take for granted everyday. Curious what $2/day is like? Check out livebelowtheline.com.   Original article: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/the-world-there-were-only-100-people.html

If you follow this blog at all, you know that I struggle with depression. It hits at unexplainable times and often has the effect of making me like I’m failing at [fill in virtually anything here]. If you follow our Twitter account, you know that I tweet a lot about never giving up. Honestly, so many of those tweets are meant for me. They’re thoughts I tell myself, that I decide to share with the world. Over the past two weeks, I’ve had bouts of feeling like Three Avocados isn’t doing enough. That we’re not making a big enough impact....

Over the last 4 years I’ve been fortunate enough to visit Africa twice. I spent numerous days meeting people in villages, visiting coffee farms, and driving around the endless dilapidated dirt roads. I’ve seen thousands upon thousands of people selling their wares at roadside markets. I’ve seen many men and women manually working the fields, with nothing more than a shovel and hoe they fashioned themselves at home. I’ve seen countless houses without roofs. I’ve seen hungry street children watch me eat from across the street, hoping for scraps. I’ve seen mothers struggle to feed their children. I’ve seen the...

It didn’t take long today until I had people start asking how I felt about TOMS new one for one coffee product that provides clean water. I think the only way to answer that question is to be 100% real, open, honest, and vulnerable. I pretty quickly went through a couple stages: shock, anger, confusion, sadness, and landing on hope. In January of 2010, I traveled to Uganda with a group from my church. My life was forever changed by what I saw. I came back to the US and quickly launched Three Avocados as a non-profit with a dream...

My first real exposure to the poor came on my first visit to Uganda in 2010. I never realized there were millions of people around the globe that still relied on only what they could grow for food. That had no money for clothes. That lived without water, without sanitation, and without an education. This realization stirred a deep aching in my heart to help those in need. -Joe