Hi. My name is anything you want. My age is your choice, but I'm a kid. Roughing it out just like the rest of you out there. There are lots of kids like me everywhere in the world, each with their own personality, ideas, attitudes and view about life. I lead a pretty normal life just like the rest of you. My daily schedule must be a lot like yours if you are reading this. But compared to the lives of many, many other people, my age and your age and even older, my life and your life are lives of luxury and riches.

When I was younger, and sometimes even now, I thought that I didn't have a good enough life.
Somebody always had that toy I wanted, the dress I wanted, the house I wanted, the friends I wanted... I constantly complained to my parents that I didn't have enough, I didn't have everything I wanted. They always told me that I had enough, actually more than I needed. But I never believed them. Until I moved far, far away from the place I'd always known.

When I came here, I saw things I'd never seen before or things that were rare from where I came. I'd always thought that dogs stayed in doghouses or on leashes; here, everywhere I looked, I could see at least one dog running free without a collar or anyone chasing it. Sometimes even more.
I saw mosques, temples and the occasional church when I went on a drive with my family, at times on the same road or area. There weren't many fancy stores like the ones I was used to, there were just lots of little, dingy shops with only a light bulb hanging form a wire in the ceiling to illuminate them at night. But I got used to it all. I made friends, met new people who knew so much about things I'd never heard about. I liked my new life. But there was still something I couldn't shake from my thoughts.

On all the main roads, whenever my family stopped at a traffic light, there would always be someone tapping at our car window, dressed in skimpy rags that were probably the only clothes they owned. They may be old, they may be middle-aged, they may be kids as old as you or me, or even younger. Maybe a woman carrying a baby. Maybe an old lady turned out of her house because she couldn't work anywhere. Maybe a lame man with no money for treatment. Maybe a group of raggedy children, who look like they're only six or seven.

We may see ourselves as ordinary people living ordinary lives, but to those people, and lots of other people just like them all over the world, we are living like kings and queens. Hungry? There's always something in your kitchen. But when they are hungry, they have to bear it. They don't have a kitchen to go into and get something. Got in after a long evening of playing football with friends and are all dirty and sweaty? You can always take a shower when there's no one in the bathroom. Those people sometimes go for weeks without a bath.

I never knew these kind of lives existed until I moved. You and me have everything compared to them. We struggle to earn our living, they struggle just to survive. Please, please, please, spare a thought for these poor people when you have your next meal or when you get a new book or toy. Remember: They're lots of people out there who aren't as lucky as you are.