The fact that she actually when through with it is really amazing. FGM is very mentally damaging especially if you do everything you can to avoid it. Early marriage is not an option its a requirement for most cultures. For her school to stop FGM and early marriages is amazing. You never really know just how many girls do want something better for themselves. To actually learn and to be seen. Not just go through with whatever they are "told" to do. Her school was the start of a new life for the 100 girls that came. Though they had difficulty staying awake and were hungry. She was quick on her feet and made some amazing changes. She noticed all of her students.

Its very disheartening knowing that children are still going through FGM. I even hear about it here in the states. No its not common but in a lot of documentaries its mentioned. I think that arranged marriage is kinda degrading in a way. Having your own parents pick your husband for you. You do not even know him or what he is capable of. A lot of arranged marriages come with abuse and cheating. The feeling of being helpless doesn't last for long. Its reassuring that a female decided to make a change the moment she saw something was still wrong or not.

I agree that empowering a girl comes from their knowledge but also from their experiences. If you want to see a change in a community, empowering half of the population is a great place to start. Building a school does something not nothing. Sometimes school is where many girls go to get away from home and to actually do something. Girls are bosses, they literally can do anything that they put their minds to. They have drive to be better than what they see other women are. School IS the starting place, its where everything begins. Its the stepping stool of the economy.

This is a great point. We are being realistic, because in today economy and the world we live in waste- free is not realistic, yes it may be idealistic but will we every get to that point? Home cooking, meal prepping and having the right amount of each thing that you need is a great way to lessen the waste you produce. Eating out or carry out is not that good either because you can not control what the restaurant will throw out and how much they waste. They could take on piece of chicken and fry it, if it doesn't come out fantastic then they throw it away. I believe that our country is very much a people pleaser. Everything has to look good in order to taste good, which is false.

This is quite the interesting thing to do when you are only a mere 15 years old but then again everyone thinks differently on how to feed their animals. It is really cool that he went all around asking for scraps and even to the baker and asked for their stale bread. It is a great way to reuse and recycle if you think about it, feeding a pig scraps that there is nothing wrong with and fattening them up. Then later down the read they end up becoming your meal and others meal. It was not something every kid thinks about but its a good way to make more money easily. The supermarkets are very picky as to what they will accept because they are too small or deformed.

This is something that no one really talks about. Supermarkets are very wasetful because they do not understand that that food could go towards other things. Orphanages that are over crowded, it can go toward the poor, those who live in third world countries. Food is not something we should waste and I think a prime example of being wasteful is supermarkets, grocery stores, clothing stores. What they do not sell they just simply throw out. But then again they're the ones who are "donating" to those in need, so I find it to be very contradictory. They simply just say the food is bad or expired when in reality you could freeze it and then unfreeze it and make a meal with it.

We are the victims of our own success. The literal definition is that we have problems due to our own success. You tend to always have a defensive way of thinking and fighting your way out of a problem because, your success, is how you got there. Using up easy wins and being left with the big boys is tougher than anyone seems to think. Doing one good thing can lead to 3 bad things that are caused by doing it. And fixing those 3 bad things only really help one thing. It is very give or take in this economy and it is a little messed up to say the least. Being the victims of our own success isn't a bad thing but it isn't a great thing.

Now a days everyone is a skeptic, a critic, a masochist, or a sadist. It all depends on how we see what is going on in the world and how we can improve it and make sure that life on earth is still a real thing in the next 10 to 15 years. Yes it seems like we are going backwards and not forwards even with all of the movements and the petitions we do. The question still remains... are we doing enough? Is what we are working so hard to achieve going to be in vein? I think that getting back to a "better place" is a bit of daydreaming. Even if we move forward things can always take two steps back, but in the end will it be worth it? I think that if we push harder than we are now and put in more effort it will make the world a better place.

I do not believe that we can make all of these changes in just 15 years, Even if we do manage to do these few things withing time there are always going to be more important issues that the governments and we the people focus on more. Ending hunger is that of trying to make sure no one is poor and I find it hard to believe that we will end it in totality, gender equality is something everyone has been fighting since the beginning, if it hasn't been solved by now who is to say that it will be solved or at least be made content in the next upcoming years. Climate change isn't entirely up to us unfortunately. We can try our best to slow down the procss but once something is occurring this rapidly how are we supposed to stop it completely.

It is such a refreshing thing to see/hear that we are all going to strive for interdependence. I absolutely love that we are all going to try and practice interconnectedness, I believe that its good for everyone to have/practice. Especially since everything is online nowadays, it is best to try and help one another and make sure that we form some type of connection. Whether it be respect for one another or the simple fact that we will help eachother learn and understand. We can also learn from one another, whether it be from a mistake or a success.

I do not believe that compassion has anything to do with religious aspects rather than the person themselves. Traditions may have something to do with them but I have first hand seen people who believe in nothing or do not have any religious beliefs have the most caring and kind hearts filled with compassion. It is very ethical to think that others would want to be treated the same way they treat others but alas we live in a society where that is very rare. Compassion depends on the person, the time, and the place.

I believe that knowing that one person is capable of compassion is more reassuring than someone who never shows it but has it. It is better to think of others at times but it is necessary to put yourself first, some may not agree but every one is entitled to their own opinion. People who fail may or may not learn from their mistakes simply because they do not know what they have done wrong and it takes them longer to understand than others. It is best to not call them names and say that they do not fit the criteria. It is best to think about how to better make the material easier to understand and comprehend.

What if some people in this class already think of others first and always put themselves last? What should those people focus on first?

In saying this does it mean that everyone must acknowledge that at some point they lacked the compassion that they needed in their lives.

I believe that even if we try to refrain from inflicting pain, it is inevitable. Pain is all around us whether or not we see it, sometimes we don't even mean to but we do it anyways.