This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Must Charity Begin at Home?

How can we teach our kids that the $100 they want for Nikes could change the future for a Latin American family? How do we tell a college-age child to stop "milking it"?

Thanks to Al Gore – or whoever really invented the internet – I can communicate frequently with my college freshman. Families with far-flung kids now keep in touch through texts, emails, Skype sessions and Facebook posts; we’ve come a long way from the Sunday night calls from dorm rooms.

However, I’m still hoping for the “I miss you and the family” and “I’ve begun to appreciate all you and dad have done for me” messages. I know better than to hold my breath.

Instead, I receive frequent texts requesting reimbursement – for another pair of shoes, a jacket for fraternity functions, snacks for late-night studying and even water (although a friend suggested that might be a euphemism for a different kind of liquid).

Find out what's happening in Mercer Islandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

You can’t blame a kid for trying. Nevertheless, I’m waiting for my son to gain some perspective on all that he has, and all that others on this planet do without.

How do I help him understand that the $100 he wants for Nikes could literally change the future for a Latin American family? Is the typical teenage boy capable of that sort of appreciation?

Find out what's happening in Mercer Islandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I wish he could have attended the Global Partnerships luncheon in Seattle last month, where Albertina Calanchi, who lives in the Peruvian Andes, recounted (thanks to a simultaneous translator) how she used a series of microloans to expand her dairy business, which in turn has afforded a bus for her husband’s business and dental school for her son.

Every time I attend this annual fundraiser, I am struck by how women in Central and South American turn tiny loans – often as small as $100 – into life-changing livelihoods.

Global Partnerships focuses its energies on Latin America, where 94 million people live on less than $2 a day. (Many of us spend more than that on daily lattes or “water.”) The Seattle-based organization has invested close to $40 million in microfinance organizations and cooperatives that provide small loans, job training and services such as health care to a quarter million people in Central and South America.

Albertina, this year’s featured speaker, spoke of her journey to 1,000 Global Partnerships supporters. (Read more about Albertina's success in the full post, at http://permissionslips.wordpress.com/, a blog written in collaboration with friend and fellow Mercer Islander .

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Mercer Island