During the beginning of the 20^th century, opulent Americans victimized immigrants. Since most of the new race groups arriving in the United States were non-English speakers, the high class exploited them to enhance America’s economy. In E.L. Doctorow’s novel, Ragtime, Doctorow describes the history of the harsh treatment of many Europeans living in America. As an example of a victim, Doctorow utilizes his character, Mameh, a Jewish mother and knee pants sewer who tolerates her male employer manipulating her. Doctorow also exposes the wealthy in general to depict their control over the immigrants. E.L. Doctorow delineates the significant gap between destitute foreigners and luxurious white Americans in society. Americans contradict themselves by discriminating against the newcomers, yet using them for their proper benefit.

Around the late 1800’s, the upper class often humiliated the lower class, but discreetly. Doctorow’s narration portrays prosperous homeowners residing in New York and Chicago conducting poverty balls. Although the royal events are for charitable purposes, the aristocrats mock the immigrant’s circumstances. Instead of the high class aiding the poor, the impoverished immigrants continue to face indirect insults. The white Americans degrade the immigrants’ position by mimicking the indigent lifestyle.

At the end of the 19^th century, American employers controlled the mental and physical states of their factory workers. Throughout Doctorow’s novel, Mameh allows her boss to handle her body so she can receive a higher income from him. Mameh’s employer takes advantage of Mameh because of her academic ignorance and financial disadvantage. Mameh does not refuse her boss’s sexual advances because she needs the extra money for her family’s sustainment living in the United States. The white employer victimizes Mameh because of her low social reputation.

E.L. Doctorow reveals the topic of affluent leaders dominating impecunious sufferers in his novel. Despite the arrogant elite’s view of the noncitizens as outsiders, extravagant whites still govern the immigrants for their own profit. Doctorow teaches his readers that although a country may seem to be full of opportunities and freedom, the assumptions can be deceiving. Unfortunately there are cruel superiors in the world who subjugate individuals with in dire need. And sadly the needy human beings have to pay a price to obtain liberty and happiness from the merciless oppressors of the nation.

Humongous tears of God’s sadness were dropping down from the sky. I smelled the filth of water flooding the sidewalks. The wind’s strong force made our skin pop up with goose bumps. We had no umbrella, rain jacket, or waterproof boots. All we had was our strength for survival. “Run over there under the roofed parking lot!”, my Mami yelled. My sister, Melissa, and I ran our fastest with our textbooks, backpacks, folders, homework, and other school supplies. The rain drenched us from head to toe. Our hair became crispy wet. As we ran, our shoes stepped on ponds of water that left our socks, pants, and feet damp and freezing.

Under the Interstate Five freeway is where we sheltered ourselves. “God please stop crying”, I kept on praying to God. “Please make the—”. All of a sudden we heard the sounds of dogs barking. Instantaneously my family and I turned our heads around. We saw a worn-out Volkswagen truck. Inside the half-open window, we saw a couple of pitbulls barking at us ready to attack. Melissa and I screamed and grabbed Mami’s arms. “Come on let’s move to the other side!”, Mami exclaimed. The miniature rocks on the ground made cracking noises as we were all running again.

Now we were next to an empty car. Thank God. But the weather was still the same. Waterfalls were created on the sides of the concrete freeway from the leaking pipes. The breeze was toughly blowing against my face, leaving my nose red and runny. Our teeth chittered and chattered. My family and I were huddled together. “I am going to call your Papi so he can pick us up”, Mami explained. Melissa and I nodded. Mami took out her cellphone and began dialing the numbers for our rescue. “Banh, come here to the Old Town Transit Center and pick us up”, Mami demanded. “It’s raining really hard! What do you want me to do?!...Ok…Come here fast!...Ok bye”.

About half an hour passed by and there was still no sign of my Papi. He was our lone necessity for our only desire: warmth. “Where’s my Papi? He is taking so long!”, I complained. “I don’t know we are going to have to wait!”, Mami commanded. I replied with silence. I continued waiting quietly, attempting to maintain my composure. Melissa looked at me with eyes of disappointment.

A minute after I checked the clock for the thirty fifth time, Papi came in his red Nissan Pathfinder truck. “Look I see my Papi!”, Melissa pointed out. Our huddle separated into a quick spread towards our savior. We all jumped inside his car and sat inside the heated up seats that were like heaven to us. Papi drove us home. We left our shoes outside the front door and entered inside with our bare, pale feet. My mom came in the kitchen and made us chicken soup and hot chocolate. Yes we were finally indoors in our home sweet home! But that didn’t mean that our situation was going to change. There was yet another day for us to go through that nightmare all over again.

The following scenario was a chapter of the “Dark Age” of my existence that occurred two years and seven months ago. Instead of walking home from school like other students did, I took three buses home for two hours with Melissa and my Mami. The climate in the Old Town Transit Center was always cold and gusty no matter what time of the season it was. I went through this miserable routine for two eternal years.

Every time I think about that part of my past, it slashes my heart into pieces. But then I think about my present. If none of that would have happened in the eighth and ninth grade years of my school life, I would not be the person that I am today. I would be the same foolish and careless amateur from seventh grade. I believe that God made that happen to me so that I could improve and transform my personality. Fortunately he was able to bring that upon me. Now I am a more open-minded, responsible, hard-working, mature, and appreciative individual. I thank God every day for his blessing. The “New Me” being the outcome of an unfortunate period of my life is worth more than being the grand prize winner of a lottery ticket.

For the past five weeks, I have not written a single EVSS article. It is not a good thing. But at least I have learned a lot from those past five weeks.

I have been folding and creating paper cranes ever since I discovered the “Paper Cranes for Japan” group on Facebook. Unfortunately I passed the deadline for that project. I think April 25^th was the last day for me to submit my cranes to the address of that project. But I didn't know until later that I discovered by an e-mail from them. So now I am going to send it to a similar project that follows the same purpose at Princeton University. Up to today, I have made 56 paper cranes. It's not very much for a month's time of making paper cranes. But unfortunately school and well my daily life in general doesn't let me to make more. But I still think with 56 paper cranes, I can't still fulfill a wish of a Japanese victim. 944 other paper cranes are needed from other individuals so that one human can make a wish with my paper cranes. (Yes I had to use the calculator on my computer to get the difference of 1000 and 56 equaling to 944.) Or I could just make more paper cranes in the future so less paper cranes will be needed for one person's wish. Even though I have to keep in mind that I have to ship my paper cranes to Princeton University by two more Fridays because their deadline to receive paper cranes to support Japan is by May 11^th. And it takes about 3 days to ship anything from San Diego, California to Princeton, New Jersey. So I have to keep track of my time.

About last month or maybe even two months ago, I contacted the Not for Sale organization via e-mail regarding the Rubio's fundraiser I had made for them at my local area. I asked if they had already received the raised money I got from the charity event. I was worried that maybe they hadn't because they never e-mailed me or contacted me if they had or not. A few days later, I received a response that they did and that they were so thankful for my help and support for their cause. Jamee Herbert, the individual who responded back to my message, made me feel very appreciated and proud of all my work and effort I had done for her organization. As I heard once in a movie I just saw yesterday called “The Dilemma”, “Great moments come from great opportunities”.

For the past couple of weeks, I was looking for any volunteer opportunities for this upcoming summer. I don't want to just stay home everyday, watch TV, eat junk food, and mess around in this future summer. I want to come out of my home and do something different. Something impacting and life-changing. I think that would be wonderful and nice for me to experience this summer. I just hate staying home and doing nothing productive. I feel like it makes my life boring and a little bit depressing. So this summer, I'm going to spread my wings and fly to new experiences.

Therefore last week, I searched for any available volunteer opportunities for this summer that I could possibly do in a daily basis. Although I don't really need community service hours because I will be attending community college or a California State University, I just want to do it anyway to keep myself busy and productive and learn more from others and maybe even about myself. I could actually learn more skills that I never knew I might have had with volunteerism. As in result, I found many different volunteer positions available from several organizations. Names of the non-profit organizations that I have had much contact with are: Alliance for African Assistance, Shakti Rising, Natural High, and the Women's Museum of California.

Alliance for African Assistance is like an office in San Diego where workers and volunteers help refugees coming from Africa and the Middle East. I already submitted the application to volunteer in the organization to a coordinator named Anastasia Nedelkina. She had contacted me when I had shown interest in the organization on VolunteerSanDiego.org. I think working for this association would be a great opportunity for me because it is related to my possible future interested career path I am striving for: Social Worker. Sadly I am still unsure of what I want to be and do in the future for my job. But one of my options is Social Work. Yet if I was able to work with AAA (Alliance for African Assistance), I could gain experience in helping others in real need of aid and support and I could determine whether it fits my interests and abilities or not for my future. Also I would enjoy helping immigrants learn American culture and the way of living in the country I was born in. And I could work here very easily because it's very close to my dad's work. So that helps a lot.

Shakti Rising is a wonderful organization that helps females that have gone through unfortunate circumstances in their lives. And they also help women and girls improve themselves and live better and healthier lives. Yet the location of the association is pretty far from my home and my father's workplace. Since if I worked in a community service building during the summer, my father would drop me off at the building every morning before he went to work and he would have to pick me up. Unless by that time I would have already received my Driver's License. But I can't even assure that to myself because I'm taking my Driving Test on July. And then I also have to buy a car for myself after I receive my license. So that may take a while. But well I'll just see what happens in the near future.

Natural High is an organization that raises awareness of drug prevention. The name of it means that it encourages teenagers to not do drugs and to instead find their “natural high” by other activities and hobbies they love to do to avoid drug abuse. I learned that it's founder is Jon Sundt, who created the association because his past two brothers had passed away because of drugs. So therefore he created Natural High for teens and adults and well actually anyone that is interested in supporting natural highs and not drugs. I just got recruited a few days ago by Kelly Rogers to join this organization's Facebook pages, which I find very convenient and fun because I am a big fan and user of Facebook. So that will be easier for me to be able to communicate with all of the members and leaders in the Natural High Street Team Facebook group page.

The Women's Museum of California is pretty much a museum composed of history of women in America and their impact and change in our society. Not that I'm much of a feminist, but I think this organization is quite interesting. I haven't found any volunteer opportunities where I can work with them in a daily basis in the summer. But they do conduct events all over San Diego that are pretty cool. For example, they might be having a fashion show at a Macy's department store in the Fashion Valley Mall or Mission Valley Mall, which are about half an hour from my home (driving of course!). I e-mailed Judy Altman about my interest in volunteering for the fashion show and she replied that she is not sure if she will be able to hold that event because she has to receive an approval by Macy's for that event. But if they do actually conduct the event, I will be willing to go there anyway even if I have my 2^nd Behind the Wheel session on the morning of that day.

I did show interest for other organizations in need of volunteers on VolunteerSanDiego.org but I just don't remember the names of them because I didn't really have much interest in them or they just didn't need much help from anyone or they just didn't reply back. A couple I remember now are Mainly Mozart and Difference Makers International. But they both are not sure if the have ongoing opportunities for the summer.

Before I navigated through VolunteerSanDiego.org, I was actually interested in taking college courses at my local community college, which is right across from my house. Pretty cool right? But unfortunately because of the budget cuts, I can't possibly attend any classes in community college for this summer. The San Diego Community College District is going to show more preference for college students or soon-to-be-graduates than high school students. I honestly do find that a bummer for myself, since I wanted to take Chinese classes so I could learn how to speak at least one of my father's Asian languages or maybe cooking classes so that I could finally learn how to cook by myself. But well I guess I will have to find those classes somewhere else. But I mean I don't have a problem with it. It just worries me of how bad and low education money has been given from the government and how it may affect me and many other young students in the future.

Despite the threatening I feel a bit scared of for myself, that won't stop me from enjoying my life and doing whatever I desire to do no matter what. Life is too short to not live it fully as one should. Faith and optimism has to always be keep inside one's heart.

Today for my Honors American Literature class, my English teacher assigned me to write a journal entry about bullying. I had to write about a time when I was bullied by someone else. Thinking back about my childhood gave me disturbing memories. I never knew that remembering about my first bully would be as painful and hurtful as I felt this morning when I was writing about her. She sure made my kindergarten a living hell. But maybe without her cruel torture, I would have never learned about the reality of life. Actually without her rudeness and evilness, I would not know soon enough about the negativity in life.

One time, my current Advanced Biology teacher talked to his whole class about bullying. He had a whole class discussion about it. From him is how I learned about the incident of the gay college student named Tyler Clementi that jumped off the George Washington Bridge because everyone in Rutgers University saw a streamed video on the internet of him having sexual contact with another male. Based on the article of that incident that my Biology teacher was reading during class, he spoke to us that what Clementi did was stupid. It may sound very rude to say something like that about someone who is already dead. But then he explained to us that by Tyler Clementi killing himself, he has hurt all of the people that truly love him and cared for him. And none of his loved ones or family or friends deserved to be hurt just because he could not stand the fact that the whole public discovered his true sexuality. My teacher encouraged us that we should never let anything bring us down. That no matter what happens to you that you should just move on in life, stay strong, and be confident of who you are. Suicide is just worthless. And I don't think those were the exact words he was advising us with. But his words were pretty much implying to those ideas and points. Therefore I agree with his opinion that Tyler Clementi made a bad choice of killing himself. I honestly think that Clementi should have just been proud of who he is and accept it and let others see him for who he truly is. But maybe he did not have the support he needed for him to understand that. Which then makes me feel sorry for him. May Tyler Clementi rest in peace.

Since bullies are the main topic for this article I am blogging in, I might as well write about my horrible experience of kindergarden. My experience of being the victim. My experience of being hurt. My experience of not living in peace. My experience of feeling like a miserable, crushed dove before a bunch of evil, dominant eagles.

My first year of school. It is supposed to be the year where it is the funnest and easiest school year of every child. But for me it was actually the most scariest and intimidating year of my life even before all the bullies entered my life. I will never be able to understand or explain why. But it just was.

I was a very timid and fragile girl. Since the first day of school, I did not talk to anyone. I could not talk to anyone. So nobody talked to me. During recess, I would just pick up a jump rope, sit in a sand box, and move the jump rope around the sand as if it was a slithery snake. Kids thought I was weird.

Once during class time, my kindergarten teacher was talking about some sort of lesson that you would listen in a kindergarten class. While she was doing her job as good as possible to get paid for it, I was trying to use the computer. But I did not know how to. So then I panicked and I started to burst in tears and yell with my long, depressing cries. All of my classmates turned around looking at me like I was a crazy child. I probably was in their eyes. My kindergarten teacher saw me and said what's going on? Then she asked me what was wrong with me and I could not even explain it to her. Or maybe I did but she did not listen to me. I do not remember.

During a break time to the bathroom for my whole classroom, I came out of the girl's bathroom. Then Boy 1 came up to me and said, Hey Dianna, do you know Boy 2? I looked at Boy 2 standing next to Boy 1. I shyly said, Yes. Then Boy 1 chuckled, Hey did you know that Boy 2 likes you? I think Boy 2 reacted with like a disgusted face and words. And then Boy 1 and all his other friends started laughing at me like as if I was a idiotic donkey. I just looked away and walked away as fast as possible embarrassed of what had just occurred to me. I could not believe what those boys that I did not even talk to or know had just done to me.

Later a girl classmate of mine began talking to me. I clearly remember her. She is the only nice, unforgettable memory I will always have in my mind. That is why I shall name her as Girl #1. She was not just a girl like any other girl. She was Girl Number 1. She was a miniature, tiny little girl. She kind of reminded me of like a ladybug because she always had pigtails with red ball scrunchies on it. She would also wear a red dress a lot with a bunch of mini apple printed on her white shirt under her dress. So one day she just started talking to me. And she is like the only best friend I ever really had in my kindergarten year. So I guess I was not completely alone after all in my kindergarten life.

Well after Girl #1, came Girl #2. She was nice too. But I consider her Girl #2 because she came later and she was not as great as Girl #1.

But then all of a sudden, another girl came to my life, whom I will never ever forget in my whole life even if I really just wanted to erase her from my mind. She was Bully #1. The first bully I had ever faced and suffered from in my whole life. If I had a time machine for me to go back in time, there is so much I can think of now for me to do to her back then.

Both Girl #1 and Girl #2 went along with her bullying because they were scared of her too. I even have a picture in my mom's room of me, Bully #1, Girl #1, and Girl #2 all together smiling as if we were the bestest of friends. Pretty ironic right?

Fortunately because of my strange mind not having many memories from my childhood, I don't exactly remember everything Bully #1 did to me. I just recall my feelings of misery, sadness, and trapping from being under her control. And yet I do remember one moment of torture I experienced from her.

As a kindergartner, I attended a school that was just for kindergarteners. Therefore the elementary school for students between the first and fifth grade went to a different school in a different location. So one day when my whole kindergarten school I guess went to a field trip to the closest elementary school around us, me and Bully #1 got to sit next to each other in the yellow school bus. And no it was not magical at all. I got to sit in the seat closest to the window. Bully #1 sat in the seat closer to the inside of the bus. And then just randomly out of the blue, Bully #1 just decided to grab my hair and push my face to the window. She began to laugh with joy and happiness of her ability to hurt me without me defending myself. As she cackled and cackled with her sinister smile, I just looked outside of my window hoping for me to be liberated from this dungeon of torture I was trapped in.

From that painful incident, I think that is how I finally told my mom of what was going on with Bully #1. My mom got so mad and pissed off that she went to go talk to my kindergarten teacher. She explained to my teacher of what was going on with Bully #1. But my teacher just defended Bully #1 and she did not help me or my mother at all. That's why I hate my kindergarten teacher. Even though this may sound evil and mean, I to this day hope that my kindergarten teacher's state of living and health is severely bad. That's all I wish for her for being so unprofessional and rude when I needed her the most.

Later I do not remember what happened after my mom's and my kindergarten teacher's their argument. But what I do remember is that in my first grade year, Bully #1 was not in my classroom anymore. I actually do not think she even went to the same elementary school as me anymore. I assume that she moved somewhere else later. But well no matter what happened to her, in a way I actually thank her for being part of my life. Because of her, I learned at an early age about the reality behind life. I realized that the world is not filled with rainbows and butterflies as all those Barbie commercials always show to us for the little girls to see and get excited of. There always has been, and there always will be at least a hint of black splashed in that wonderful world we live in. Yet everyone has to find a way to move on in life and to not be brought down because of a miserable bully that bothered you in your past. Except that now, whenever someone is looking for a fight, you gotta give them one. Yes everyone says that violence is not the answer to a problem. But I do not mean like a physical brawl. One can just verbally defend themselves against their opponent. And they automatically win against their enemy. Aren't I right?

           On Sunday, March 12, 2011, I received an e-mail from DoSomething.org about a cause to make paper cranes for Japan. You just make one and upload it to Facebook to help a victim in Japan make a wish. I have made 2 paper cranes so far. I just took 7 pictures of the one single paper crane because I just wanted to. I put all of the pictures under a photo album I created on my Facebook called “Paper Cranes for Japan”. Then I posted the link of the album to the Paper Cranes for Japan cause page’s wall. The cause was created a day before I made my first paper crane (Saturday, March 11, 2011). The information about the cause is stated as follows:

I am going to continue more paper cranes as possible so that other supporters and I can reach up to 100,000 paper cranes made to give 100 wishes for Japan. All of those victims and sufferers currently residing in Japan need hope. I want to give all of the people of Japan a positive outlook in their lives. I actually have relatives living there whom I never have met before. Fortunately they are in good health and in a safe location because they did not get to receive the earthquake or tsunami hit in their area.

In the past, I used to have a hobby of making paper cranes. During the 8^th grade year of my life, I just made paper cranes using whatever square paper I saw beside me. After a while I kind of got bored with using the same white paper to make my paper cranes. So then I started coloring each white square paper with color pencils to make my birds look more pretty, creative, and artistic. In the end, I had made about 50 paper cranes using post-it stickies and other square paper. Later during a room clean-up with my sister, my sister and I threw a bunch of them away. I feel pretty bad about that because I could have used them for this project that is going on for Japan. That makes me sad. But well if I really do try, I can still make more. I just have to find the time for it.

If you would like to know more information about how you can participant in this awesome project, just go to one of the following links. But the link where you actually upload your paper crane photos to help Japan is on the Facebook link.

http://www.dosomething.org/news/join-us-make-paper-cranes-japan

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/papercranesforjapan

The information contained below is an analysis of an article I read in the internet. I do this for my AP Spanish Language class. It helps others learn more of a certain, significant event that has occurred in the past. The assignment is not exactly in an essay format. But the labeling format is helpful to be detailed yet concise.

1. Name of Article: “Tell Universal Music Group and Kanye to Stop Eroticizing Violence Against Women”

2. Source of Information: From the Change.org website at http://news.change.org/stories/tell-universal-music-group-and-kanye-to-stop-eroticizing-violence-against-women

3. Published: On the date of January 12, 2011.

4. Who? Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nikki Minaj, Universal Music Group, Melinda Tankard Reist, and Sharon Haywood.

5. What? Melinda Tankard Reist and Sharon Haywood created a petition for Universal Music Group to withdraw Kanye West's “Monster” teaser music video and never officially release it in any capacity. Based on recent articles at Change.org, “MTV recently responded to the over 1,600 Change.org members who signed their petition, agreeing not to air "Monster." But Haywood and Reist's work is far from over, as Universal Music Group still hasn't responded”.

6. When? During the beginning of January 2011.

7. Where? The petition was posted and created via internet through specifically the Change.org organization website.

8. Why? Melinda Tankard Reist and Sharon Haywood think that the images and messages depicted through the video and the lyrics of Kanye West's new song portray a cruel, brutal satire of sexual trafficking.

9. Summary:

The video contains the following scenes:

– Corpses of lingerie-clad women

– Women dangling from a ceiling by chains

– A naked corpse, with her mouth open, lying on a couch behind Jay-Z

– Rick Ross chowing down on a plate of raw meat placed between the legs of a female corpse lying prostrate on the table

– Nicki Minaj doubling as a fanged dominatrix and her innocent victim

– Kanye West in bed with two scantily clad corpses, posing them in erotic positions and kisses one while stroking his face with her lifeless hand

10. Opinion and why: I view Kanye West's new song as disappointing because he portrays women as being things you can use and manipulate. I respected him when he created his song “Jesus Walks” because the lyrics in that song were more meaningful, significant, and they gave an insight of the reality on life without being unnecessarily offensive to a certain group of people. I think that he created the Monster teaser song to make fun of Lady Gaga because since she started the original Monster hit. But he just killed it with his lyrics and style of his parody song. Lady Gaga's original Monster song doesn't even demonstrate anything that Kanye West shows in his teaser song. That's why I just can't understand how can people can just listen to this song and just think that Kanye West, and the other artists In the Monster teaser video, are “cool”. I definitely do nto find that song cool at all in any way.

The information contained below is an analysis of an article I read in the internet. I do this for my AP Spanish Language class. It helps others learn more of a certain, significant event that has occurred in the past. The assignment is not exactly in an essay format. But the labeling format is helpful to be detailed yet concise.

1. Name of Article: “For a Smuggling Victim, a Precarious Quest for Refuge”

2. Source of Information: From the New York Times newspaper website at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/nyregion/30immigration.html?_r=1&ref=humantrafficking

3. Published: On the date of September 30, 2006

4. Who? The main individuals involved in this past event are: Ana Cristibel Sandoval

5. What? Sandoval was sent to an immigration detention in Phoenix, AZ by the IRS on September 28, 2006, separating her from her boyfriend and her young son, Jason Sandoval. Yet later at 6pm, a deportation officer named known as Mr. Perez informed Ms. Sandoval that she can continue living in America. Therefore she returned to her family and to this day still lives in US territory.

6. When? On the date of Thursday September 28, 2006.

7. Where? In the city of Phoenix, AZ.

8. Why? Sadly Sandoval was sold to pimps in the United States in 2002 as a 15-year-old teenager by her own family from Honduras, Mexico for sexual enforcement and abuse.

9. Summary: Sandoval was one of the victims of human trafficking in our modern society. The US government has tried to help her live her life without any trauma of her past since she was found of being sexually abused in 2003. Yet the government wanted her to be returned to her homeland because of the fact that she does not own any legal documents to reside in the US. The irony is that the Department of Health and Human Services wanted to help her with her emotional issues she was going through from her life-threatening occurrence. Yet the Department of Homeland Security wanted to deport her back to Mexico.

10. Opinion and why: I think that the final decision for the case of Ana Cristibel Sandoval is a blessing miracle because she has been through much suffering and sadness and it would be more tragic if she would have been forced to be sent back to Mexico where she has no family or love from anyone. At least here in America, she has created a special sense of care and passion from her spouse and her son. Also it is not as if she came here herself because she chose to. Her own family forced her to come here, which cannot give the IRS an eligible reason to send Sandoval back to her home country. But in the end, it's just great that she is not back with her miserable past anymore.

. . .Three days later, I checked online in my charity events account for the amount of profit I got to raise for Not for Sale. For some reason, it did not show. So I called the Rubio's restaurant where my fundraiser took place. And an employee answered, “Hello welcome to Rubio's. How may I help you?” I explained, “Hello I was just calling to know how much money I made for my fundraiser last Wednesday.” The female employee asked, “What's the name of your organization?” I replied, “Not for Sale.” Confusingly she assured, “Ok let me go look for it on the computer.” I said, “Alright.” When she returned on the line, she stated, “Ok so your organization made a total of $59 dollars of sales. But—” I excitedly interrupted, “Oh ok so I got to make $59 dollars for my organization?!” Then she explained, “No we take 20% of the sales we make with your fundraiser. So you only made about 15 to 16 dollars.” I replied deceptively, “Oh. I forgot about that.” The lady guilt fully apologized, “Sorry for the misunderstanding.” I replied, “It's okay. Thank you.” She said cheerfully, “Goodbye have a good day.” I just mumbled, “Bye.”

I hung up and stood still with bothering disappointment in myself. I felt as if all of the fundraiser fliers a peer of mine printed out for me to give out to my friends and to the people in the shopping center was a total waste of a gallon of her ink. All the walks and turns I made at the plaza were like a major disposal of my time. I believed that all the Facebookers that notified me that they would come to my event were all liars. For five whole minutes, I hated my whole world.

Yet later I remembered about the Hispanic old woman, the White lady, and the White man that showed major interest in my cause. The memory of those three individuals made me realize that not everyone is indifferent or careless about my passion. They made me learn that there are humans existing in our lifetime that care about the need of another human working hard to make a change in an issue that is meaningful and significant to society. The random strangers that I was destined to encounter in my life gave me hope in acknowledging that I had made an impacting accomplishment for Not for Sale. To this day, I now think that the whole process of me advertising my anti-human trafficking fundraiser in as many forms of media, publicity, and communication as possible was worth my time no matter how much of money value I gained for the organization. The amount of money that I donated to Not for Sale is nto what is important. What matters is the action, passion, and commitment I made to fight against human trafficking. I am proud and thankful that my own person was able to do whatever it takes to aid today's innocent, poor victims of human trafficking.

Dianna Ratsamy

Team 4: Global Justice

San Diego, CA

Grade 11

On the day of the fundraiser event, I went to the shopping center a street across from Rubio's to pass out my Not for Sale fundraiser flyers to people I saw. I went in front of Edwards Cinemas hoping I would find people to notify about my fundraiser. But the whole area was empty like a desert. I saw a father and son exit the theater. They were the first group I went up to to convince them to support my cause. But the dad was in such a hurry he didn't even let me start my explanation of why he should support my charity event.

I stared at my surroundings and found nothing. I walked all over the plaza in search of crowds. Yet the whole shopping center was lonely. Until I stayed in front of a Ross store, which was where I noticed most people entering and exiting from. For about an hour, I passed out flyers to people I thought would be interested in my fundraiser or would likely go to Rubio's on that day. The mean, ignorant groups of people would: ignore me, tell me “I'm broke”, or give me rude stares. The average person reacted with: just taking the flyer or simply saying “no thank you”.

But I did get to meet a few people that were truly cared about my event. A Hispanic female worker at first told me, “Oh I don't speak English.” Then desperately I translated all the information about my fundraiser in Spanish and the old woman happily told me she was on her way to Rubio's and that she would go there with my flyer to support me. I thanked her with much appreciation. A tall White lady heard me speaking with another person about my persuasion for my fundraiser and then she said, “Oh I just heard something about Rubio's here!” Then she asked about where would the money go to and I told her about my cause and she thanked me and walked away. Lastly, a White man randomly came up to me and asked me, “Oh can I take one?” Surprisingly I said, “Oh yeah sure! Thank you so much!” He smiled, nodded his head, and left.

After I finished passing out the fliers to various strangers, I walked to Rubio's to buy a churro with an extra fundraiser flyer I had for myself. I thought in my mind, “Yes one person down.” I smiled to myself as I was walking back home under the bright sun.

Later late at night, I went back to Rubio's again with my family to eat dinner there. I gave them each fliers so that “more people” can support my cause. Even though later I learned that it didn't really make a difference if I would have used one or more fliers for all of us. But as I sat down on the table where my dad was drinking his soda, my mom sat down with the salsa cups on her hands and she told me that the cashier told her that only about ten people came throughout the whole day with my fundriaser flyer. That was the first moment I reacted with so much distress and deception in my facial expressions and my mind. I just could not believe it. . .

Dianna Ratsamy

Team 4: Global Justice

San Diego, CA

Grade 11

                I noticed that on Facebook I did not gain many supporters for my Not for Sale organization fundraiser at Rubio’s. Even though I updated more information about my event continuously for at least every 3 days, not many people actually notified that they could surely attend my fundraiser event. So far I only have about 13 attendees for my event. Throughout the past few weeks, I have observed that a lot of people that sent an RSVP of “Maybe” changed to “Not Attending”. Yet there have also been an increasing number of Facebook friends that have assured that they can maybe attend. I find my observations quite interesting. I actually posted my anti-human trafficking event also on MySpace but I didn’t receive many responses from there since not many people today use MySpace anymore. Yet surprisingly, I still got 3 MySpace users that sent me an RSVP that they would attend my event. Two of the people are students I know yet don’t really talk to. And the third person is a stranger named Paul. I don’t even know how he found my event on MySpace. I am guessing since I set my event to “Public” maybe that’s how. But in the end it does not matter. As long as someone cares and helps Not for Sale, I am happy. 

                Lately, I have been speaking to people I know in person about my event. I discovered recently that it is probably a better idea to give my copied flyers to people I actually know than to strangers I am trying to persuade outside of my local Edwards Cinemas. I do not even know why did the unique method of notifying others about my charity event came so late to my mind. Nevertheless I have been, and still am, telling others with social interaction about my fundraiser event. I will just go up to people that I have done favors for, or are just generally nice to me, about the purpose of my fundraiser at
Rubio’s, what it is for, when, where, and why. So far this new way of convincing people to support my cause has not been very troublesome. I currently now have 5 extra anti-human trafficking supporters added to the ones I gained from Facebook.

The only person I had trouble persuading to support my cause was my Spanish teacher for some strange reason. (I am not going to display the name of my Spanish teacher for certain reasons.) I asked, “Hey Spanish teacher! Do you want to support my cause?” Then instantaneously, Spanish teacher replied, “No!” I reacted, “Wow Spanish teacher you are so mean! You did not even get to listen what it was about or what it is for!” But my Spanish teacher is pretty humorous and sarcastic like that with me. So I did not give up. Later throughout class, I went up to him again and told him, “Can you please support my cause and go to Rubio’s to help victims of human trafficking?” Spanish teacher said, “Wait so I have to go here?” I said empathetically, “Yeah you just give this paper to Rubio’s on this day and in this time period after you buy something from there. Please do it! The organization helps girls that are forced in prostitution and children forced to work”. Then Spanish teacher sarcastically exclaims, “You want me to be a prostitute?” I angrily said, “NO! The organization helps victims of prostitution!” Finally my Spanish teacher decides, “Ok I will go then.” I comment, “Yay you are my other supporter for my fundraiser!” My Spanish teacher just laughed and I walked away thinking, “God this guy is crazy.”             

Yes I finally got to get my fundraiser done at Rubio's. I'm still pretty glad about it. The event is going to take place on Wednesday, February 9^th, 2011, in the Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill Restaurant in my neighborhood, Mira Mesa. I am hoping that at least 35 people can come because if less people come, Rubio's can transfer their donation money to my organization, Not for Sale. Just like any other restaurant, Rubio's donates 20% of the sales it makes with the people that buy something from them and give them my fundraiser flyer. With 35 people attending my event, I'm pretty sure that will be a lot of money to be given to the NGO organization.

The process was pretty easy and straight forward too. I did my whole application to do my fundraiser online. The application just asked for my information and information about the organization I want to raise money for. And then the application showed me a calendar filled with days I can conduct my event and days I can't. The white days were the days I can't use. And the gray days were the days that were already taken over by a different organization. So that's how I got to pick out to conduct my event on a day where my high school had a minimum, short day. That way I can attract more teenagers to attend my event.

I've been spreading the word about this event everywhere possible over the internet. I have posted blogs and updates about my unique fundraiser on: Facebook, with e-mails, MySpace, and I have even communicated with the actual organization coordinators about it. One of the leaders of the Not for Sale Campaign, Jamee Herbert, posted my event on their Student Abolitionist Movement calendar in their Not for Sale website. I feel pretty proud that I am now considered a young abolitionist in the eyes of my interested organization. Change is great. And I now everyone can contribute to make change. But unfortunately I can’t force every single person in the world to help me. But that is not going to stop me. I will still work and try hard to persuade as many people as possible to join me and support my cause.

Yesterday I was cutting the sheets of the 29 copies of fundraiser flyers Tiffany's friend, Maggie, made for us. Well actually it's more like 58 copies because each page has 2 flyers so that you cut half of the page and save paper. But it felt like a sense of inner happiness and pride that I am actually doing something that not many people in my school so. Most of the student that attend my high school do sports, local community service, or just stay home and do nothing for those that don't care much about anything. But I feel proud that I am actually working hard and trying to make a difference for an NGO organization that work even more harder than me to aid victims of human trafficking. I want to be a contributor of helping those innocent, poor people that are suffering right now. I am willing to do whatever it takes to do that.

Therefore on the day of my fundraiser event, I am planning to go stand in front of the Edwards Cinemas across the street from Rubio's and pass out flyers to all of the groups of people I see coming out of the movie theater. I will say a brief explanation of what my organization is and what they do and why they should support my cause. I will be as concise as possible so that I can be persuasive yet emphasizing for the individual to attend my event. Unfortunately I recently discovered that on the same day of my charity event, my school is going to have a college night for the juniors. So maybe I won't be able to receive as many supporters from my school as I had expected to before. But that's why I am going to stay outside of the theater and try to gain attendees from different crowds and age groups so that I don't lose my number of supporters.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4: Global Justice

Grade 11

Phase 2: Life Upside Down

Here in Tijuana, Mexico, the streets are filled with waste and filthy dirt. The atmosphere is spread out with odor of excrement in the sewage and dead animals. The sun is gone. The dark night has overtaken the sky. Tijuana's stars are dimmer than the shiny, luminescent stars of Guanajuato.

Patricia looks out her stained window at an infant eating cotton candy and thinks, “What am I doing here? Why did Mama have to force me to do this? It's not fair. She's not fair.” “So where do I turn now Madam?”, the taxi driver asks. Mama replies, “Just turn right in the next two blocks and you can stop in the brown building with the apartments on the left.”

Mama comes out of the taxi, Patricia gets our of the taxi, Mama pays the taxi driver however many pesos she owes him, and the taxi drives off. Patricia and Mama enter inside the worn-out, torn building. As they walk upstairs, Lola Beltrán's “A Los Cuatro Vientos (To Four Winds)” is being played from an antenna radio inside a home nearby. Short, dark, stubby, round-eyed children are running around in the patio downstairs. A brown and black dog is laying on the ground on it's paws with solemn eyes of misery next to his empty food tray. Mama opens the black-holed gate door, then the brown-red door, and hurries Patricia inside. Patricia stares at her new home. Well not home. She views it as a dungeon that has no exit to get out of. Just a prison filled with deception and cold sadness. “Starting tomorrow, you're going to go and look for a job somewhere ok?”, Mama orders. “What about school?”, Patricia asks. “Well you're going to have to go to both school and work. Do you understand?”, Mama replies. Patricia obeys, “Yes.” “Okay then go to sleep. You need some rest. I'll bring you some blankets”, Mama suggests pointing at the cotton, colorless couch. Patricia walks away and jumps on the coach closing her eyes instantaneously. She feels Mama unfolding the blankets and laying one on top of the other above Patricia's cold, young body. After a while, Patricia's body temperature rises to the normal heat degree of a human. Yet the cool air continuously enters inside Patricia's nostrils like a straw sucking up a milkshake drink from a white, styrofoam cup.

Patricia wakes up in the morning. She walks to her siblings school and drops them off. “Bye Patricia!”, the playful children yell. Patricia words out, “Bye” and waves. She walks to her school with a depressing look on her face. All the girls and boys stare at her as if she's from another planet. Patricia's height is quite incredulous compared to the other students' shortness. The bell rings. Patricia walks inside her classroom and sits on an empty table seat. Throughout the whole school day, Patricia just dazes off and daydreams of her memories with Abuelo and Abuelita.

When the last school bell rung, Patricia walked out and went to her brother's and sisters' school and picked them up to take them home. She cooked beans, rice, and enchiladas for her siblings. Her brother was named Pablo. And her sisters (from oldest to youngest) were named: Elena, Celia, Carla, and Alicia. Each child was innocent and mischievous just like any youngster that knows nothing about life's reality. After she finished cooking, Patricia would jump on her couch and sleep. The chaotic kids yelled and screamed with much energy. Patricia tried to force herself to sleep. Until she couldn't resist and she yelled at them, “Can you guys shut the hell up?! I'm trying to sleep”. The kids stayed silent and just stared at one another. And so both Patricia and her siblings remained quiet with no complaints.

 Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4: Global Justice

Grade 11 

Phase 1: Against Free Will

            In Guanajuato, Mexico, Patricia was a young 15 year old girl who lived with her grandparents. Even though Abuelo prohibited her to go outside by herself, she still loved her guardians. Abuelita was a elder, diabetic woman who always obeyed Abuelo and loved Patricia very much. Abuelo also loved Patricia very much but he was a strict, mandatory man. Everyday Abuelita cooked for both Patricia and Abuelo the most delicious Mexican food made with true love. When Abuelo was out of work, he would slice fruit that he would ripe and pick out from his backyard for his niece to eat and enjoy. They all lived in a humongous, stone-made, Central Mexican home that was about five times bigger than a regular family home in America. Abuelo was the one who had bought and created the large size of his own house with his bare hands. Patricia kept her grandparents alive and happy despite of their old age. Abuelo and Abuelita didn't have anyone else by their side except Patricia ever since she was born.

            One day, Patricia's mother, Carmen, comes to Abuelo's home and asks, “Where's Patricia? I want her to come live with me now.” Abuelo asks confusingly, “Why do you want to take her now?” “Because I need her to come help me sustain and support my living with the other kids. Right now I don't have anyone that can take care the rest of her younger siblings while I'm working. So I need her to take care of them from now on everyday”, Carmen replies. “Why do you come until now to take her to your custody? No I can't accept this! She has to continue to live with us so she can be a somebody! I have to let her stay here so she can continue to go to school here. What are you doing Carmen?!”, Abuelo exclaims. Abuelita weeps, “No you can't take her away. I need Patricia. She is my happiness in my life. Without her, my life will be shattered. No Carmen you can’t do this. Please don't do this! I beg of you to let her stay here!” “I'm sorry Mami and Papi but I have to do this. I have no other choice”, Carmen explains. Abuelo suggests angrily, “Why don't you just move in with us and bring the other children to come live here?! I don't understand why you are forcing Patricia to live with you over there in Tijuana!” Patricia walks downstairs, gazes at everyone, and asks, “What's going on here Abuelo?” “Come here Patricia we are going to go now. You are going to come with me”, Carmen orders. Patricia replies, “No I'm not coming with you Mama. I want to stay here with my Abuelita.” Abuelita emphasizes, “You see Carmen! Patricia doesn't want to go! So why do you still want her to come with you?”

            Carmen yells, “Because I need her!” Then Carmen walks sternly to Patricia and grabs her yelling, “Let's go Patricia!” Abuelita cries, “No don't take her! Please I beg of you! For the love of God please don't take her Carmen! She's all I have!” Abuelito yells, “What in the world are you doing Carmen?! You are committing a very big mistake!” Carmen just keeps on walking forward stubbornly with her grasp on Patricia’s youthful arm. “You're going to regret this Carmen! This is going to hurt both Patricia and your mother! And when that happens, you will never be able to be forgiven to recuperate your guilt!” Carmen and Patricia drive off in the green, jalopy taxi. Patricia bursts into tears and lets out cries of a disoriented, imprisoned cub. The taxi driver asks, “Madam is she okay?” Carmen demands, “Just drive!” Patricia looks out her window and sees the streets where Abuelita walked with her every morning to buy her a sweet, strawberry milk shake. She realizes that her cherishing childhood has come to an end.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4: Global Justice

Grade 11

                 In my AP US History class, I am learning about the new sources of immigration arriving to the United States from the last couple decades of the 18th century to the first years of the 19th century. Most of the foreigners coming to America at that time were from Southern and Eastern Europe. A list of the major countries that the new ethnicities were coming from is the following: Italy, Greece, Russia (Jews mostly), and Poland. Yet there is a vast amount of other foreign races that arrived in America during this time period such as: Slavs, French Canadians, Slovaks, Armenians, Hungarians, and Netherlanders.

                The working conditions for all of the worker immigrants were severe, risky, dangerous, unfair, and prejudiced. The average working hours were from 10 to 12 hours per day for 6 days per week. The average salary for an immigrant employed in a working class occupation was $8 to $10 per week adding it up to $400-$500 per year. The environment in the factory mills and steel manufacturing jobs were so unsafe and unhealthy that industrial accidents were frequent and severe. It has been estimated that in 1907, about 12 men working in the railroads were killed per week. Skilled and unskilled workers lost jobs because of the advancement in technology or because of sudden “hard times” (recessions, depressions, or panics). The typical immigrant female worked in the textile/factory industry with $314 annual wage while the men working in the same job made $597 per year. Children did not attend school to work because the impoverished family needed as much money as possible to sustain and support the whole family. In the cotton mills in the South, kids worked all night with cold water thrown in their faces to stay awake and continue laboring.

                Although many don’t realize it, the abuse of labor rights has not changed very much at all. In the tea exploitation in West Bengal, India, Amanda Kloer explained that, “These children are prevented from attending school and work long hours, often in hot conditions with little clean water and less-than-adequate sanitation. They earn pennies a day for their work, when they are paid at all”. Regarding the recent Bangladeshi factory fire, Amanda Kloer states, “Garment sweatshops are often fire hazards, as they cram unsafe electrical equipment and piles of flammable clothes in with underpaid and overworked workers, some of whom have been known to work 12-18 hour shifts”. Benjamin Joffe-Walt said in his article Workers Burned Alive Making Luxury Clothes for US Brands, “That's right folks, the workers who were burned alive were likely being paid some $24 a month, less than $1 a day”.

                Now analyze the comparison between the late 1800’s to right now in the early 2000’s. If you pay close attention, our current era is actually facing a much worse economic and social crisis than the past. The female victims of the fire in the “That’s It Sportswear” factory in Ashulia, Bangladesh were being paid less than the women factory workers of our past century. Yet the Bangladeshi women were forced to work and additional 6 hours per day than the average female industry worker in America around 135 years ago. Like Amanda Kloer said about the excluded Dalit Indians being working in the tea plantations, “For many families, life on the tea plantation and the poverty-wages, mistreatment, and indentured servitude that comes with it has existed for generations”. Kloer’s statement proves that child labor, forced labor, violation of worker’s rights, and labor abuse has not improved at all. In the contrary, it has worsened to a point that our society in the past would have never imagined.

Works Cited

Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.

Kloer, Amanda. "Catholic Church Fights Child Labor on Indian Tea Plantations." End Human Trafficking | Change.org. 03 Dec. 2010. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. <http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/catholic_church_fights_child_labor_on_indian_tea_plantations>.

Joffe-Walt, Benjamin. "Workers Burned Alive Making Clothes for the GAP." Human Rights | Change.org. 17 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Dec. 2010. http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/workers_burned_alive_making_clothes_for_the_gap.

Kloer, Amanda. "Fire Exits Blocked in Gap Sweatshop Fire, 28 Workers Killed." End Human Trafficking | Change.org. 17 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Dec. 2010. http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/fire_exits_blocked_in_gap_sweatshop_fire_28_workers_killed.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4: Global Justice

Grade 11

My name is Sohelia

I am 7 years old

I will soon be a dulhaniya[1]

My father is very very bold

He always leaves me physically beat

He has no money for us to live

He has nothing for us to eat

He doesn’t care about the pyar[2] that I give

He’s the one that wants me to shaadi[3]

My heart breaks like a cement crack

It slowly affects the health of my body

I’m a marigold prone to turn black

I still remember Pitaa[4] before

When he was sweet as a ladoo[5]

After work, he would come to the front door

And ride me on his back saying “choo-choo!”

Now he’s a lochness monster

With a ball filled fully of fiery fury

His hands are stronger than those of a lobster

He always pressures me to do things in a hurry

Here I am now in a wedding hijab[6]

Walking seven circles around the fire

With my Hindu groom named Aftab

My father is a real truthful liar

He had told me I would be joyful

When I married the man I would live with

I thought “Now I’m away from someone hurtful

So I don’t have to worry of getting hit”

But soon I found out I was living in Hell

Aftab despised me in every way

What he wanted was so hard for me to tell

My zindagi[7] was full of suffering day by day

Aftab was an animal full of anger and destruction

Once I read from The Qur’an[8] an Islam prayer

It gave me hope of a possible life construction

It comforted me that happiness would soon be my face layer

Until Aftab saw me and abused me so bad

Scars, bruises, and blood covered my skin

The Qur’an was the only console I had

Yet Aftab still smirked a little sinful grin

Then one day while I was at the bazaar store

With my horrifying, terrifying nightmare

Right when I was about to walk out the door

I felt someone giving me a careful stare

I turned around to see who it was

“Khuda hafiz[9]” said the bearded Muslim man

I thought of all the violence my husband does

And I ran out to the street in front of a humongous van

I fell down on the ground and my eyes close

As my eyes open, I see a white light

I know what I did is the right path I chose

Allah[10] comes to my sight, looking strong and bright

He says, “Now you are with me

My child, don’t be scared,

Happy is what you can now be,

From all the pain you beared”

I have not initiated my EVSS Fundraiser yet for any progress to be taken in action. But my planning does feel pretty ideal and helpful to aid the Not for Sale Campaign. I've actually been able to get in contact with the main administrators of the Not for Sale organization about my idea of creating a fundraiser at my local Panda Express restaurant to raise money for their organization. And they have shown lots of appreciation and support for my plan. The names of the major activists of the Not for Sale Campaign that have spoken to me are: Nathan Beegly from the Not for Sale Facebook page; and both Jamee Herbert and Benita Hopkins from the actual organization itself.

Tomorrow I am going to visit the Panda Express where I am planning to do my fundraiser in to talk to the manager of the best day that I could do my fundraiser in. Because I don't know what are the manager's plans for his restaurant in the future. Also other organizations and people may be doing fundraisers at Panda Express soon too. And I actually want to do my fundraiser on a day when the rain stops. Because I'm pretty sure right now during winter break, not many students or people have been going outside that much because of this crazy rain that we've been having. So I'm thinking that it may be better if I do my fundraiser like on a day with fair weather and where many people will want to come. For example if I did it on a day when my school has minimum day, a lot of students that attend my high school would be going there. But I don't know. I still need to speak to and check-in with the Panda Express manager.

To promote my special event to support and help the Not for Sale cause, I am going to create a Facebook community group page for my fundraiser. I haven't even decided the title for my page yet. But I will try to make it as catchy and attractive as possible for more people to join. In this page of mine, I will write information about the Not for Sale Campaign, what it is, why I am doing the fundraiser for this cause, why they (people viewing my page) should "like" my page and go eat at Panda Express with my fundraiser flyer, and I think I might actually add MTV EXIT to my page since they work with the Not for Sale Campaign also. I'll just make my community page appear as organized, neat, and special as possible so more people can be interested and click "like". I will send invitations to all of my Facebook friends and tell Tiffany to send it to her Facebook friends too about my page. I will set her up as another Administrator for my page and we can both try to promote our event to as many people in San Diego as possible.

Later when I establish the date and time period of my Anti-Human Trafficking fundraiser with the Panda Express manager, I will create an event for it on Facebook so more people can know about it and go eat at Panda Express with the printed out flyer I will post on my Facebook as my default picture. I'll even e-mail people that I know that don't have Facebook. And Tiffany and I will pass out flyers to our friends at school and to other people with Tiffany's friend, Maggie's, help of printing out copies of the fundraiser flyer Panda Express will give to me for people to give to the Panda Express register when they purchase something to eat at Panda Express and donate 20% of their purchase to the Not for Sale Campaign. I am hoping that all of this will work out well and that I will be able to make a very awesome and great difference in the lives of many impoverished and suffering beings in our world.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team  4: Global Justice

Grade 11

It's ironic how there are human beings that are joyful during the holidays at the same time that there are lives in poverty that end because of the gift-giving season. While one person smiles amongst their loved ones, another soul suffers in the eyes of manipulators. The world cannot, and will never be, a perfect place for everyone. Each individual has their own destiny of living, either positively or negatively. Why is this? Nobody in this entire globe can answer that question except He who watches us all.

Based on an article in change.org, 28 workers were killed in Ashulia, Bangladesh because of a fire that was ascended in the 9^th and 10^th floors of the “That's It Sportswear” factory. According to one of change.org's writers, Amanda Kloer, a third of the exits from the building were blocked or locked from the underpaid employees to get out from so that the workers don't receive their rights of taking breaks. This factor is what lead to the injuries of dozens of other lives victimized from the fire. Nobody knows yet what is the actual reason for the burning of the highest floors of the building. But no matter what caused the factory to lead to a merciless disaster, the company still did not take any precautions or prepared safety aid for their employees.

Even before the fire that occurred earlier last week, The supervisors and directors of the company owning the burnt factory, the Hameem group, were already violating the human rights of it's workers much longer before it's unfortunate incident in the poor city of Bangladesh. The majority of the clothing-makers were young females with no other job available to them. They labored from a range between 12 to 18 hours a day. Based on a blog in change.org, each worker in the factory was paid to about $24 a month, dividing it up to about less than $1 a day.

Another change.org writer, Benjamin Joffe-Walt, explained that: “It (the “That's It Sportswear” Factory) produces clothes for a number of US and European clothing retailers, chief among them GAP Inc, which owns the brands GAP, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. It is believed that the factory was also producing Wrangler jeans. The Hameem group sells to H&M, Walmart, JC Penney, Kohl's, Sears, Target, Next and many more brands”. Therefore all of those women that died from the factory fire sacrificed their lives for many clothing and product corporations that we are all familiar of here in America. Well actually not just America, largely all over the world. Especially since everyone has been going crazy during the winter season to buy gifts and presents for all of their family and friends. Now because of the ambition of one greedy business corporation wanting to greatly increase their own profit from the Christmas month, a high number of lives have been lost and gone in a hazardous and heating factory. But now you can sign a petition in the following url address to halt the stores that we go to everyday in our lives from having any relation with any corporations that give cruel treatment and unsanitary conditions to impoverished beings in need of economic aid: http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/workers_burned_alive_making_clothes_for_the_gap

Thank you for reading my EVSS article.

Works Cited:

Joffe-Walt, Benjamin. "Workers Burned Alive Making Clothes for the GAP." Human Rights | Change.org. 17 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Dec. 2010. http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/workers_burned_alive_making_clothes_for_the_gap.

Kloer, Amanda. "Fire Exits Blocked in Gap Sweatshop Fire, 28 Workers Killed." End Human Trafficking | Change.org. 17 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Dec. 2010. http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/fire_exits_blocked_in_gap_sweatshop_fire_28_workers_killed.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4: Global Justice

Grade 11 

Life is not filled fully with the colors of the rainbow. Sadly, there has to be a taint of black inside of life. Yet that little spot of black is filled with the treacherous and monstrous actions our world makes. Either it be from a sin one person makes. Or a massacre a whole group of maniacs initiate. Unfortunately, there are various definitions of human trafficking. One form of modern-day slavery is the illegal selling of children or teenagers for sexual usage. But there is another unlawful act that is under human trafficking that is the forced, unfair labor of individuals.

Imagine yourself going to Marshalls because you want to go shop for gifts for your friends and family for Christmas. You find a cute, adorable shirt that your best friend would just love. You purchase it at the cash register and leave out the door. Truthfully, you would end up leaving the retail store without knowing where did your friend's gift come from. Or how it was created—or I mean—born. You would just move on with your life and act like nothing happened. Yet in reality, you had just bought a piece of cloth that a poor, weary, tired, depressed 9-year-old boy made back in a dirty, dangerous, unsanitary, filthy factory in Bangkok, Thailand.

In West Bengal, India, children and families work all day in tea crop plantations with the cheap labor salary of just a few pennies per day. And that's if they are even paid at all for a day by the plantation owner. Besides the economy level that these people face, there is another factor that contributes to their harsh treatment in their agriculture jobs.

The majority of the labor workers in these plantations are of the Dalit group, which is, based on Wikipedia, a certain type of beings considered as unfit and ignorant in the society of the South Asian region. The Dalit is defined and identified similar to the African American slaves of the United States during the early 1860's. I recognized the common trait that these two sufferers share since I was taught recently about slavery during the Civil War in my AP US History class. So you can visualize an idea of the way Indians and other Middle Easterns see individuals of the Dalit today as superior whites used to view tortured blacks in America's past history.

Gratefully, there are organizations in today's world that are trying to help the people in West Bengal to lead a better life. A couple of associations that are working hard to aid these humans are the Diocese of Jalpaiguri and Fair Trade. According to the C.B.C.I. (Catholic Bishops' Conference of India) website, the Diocese of Jalpaiguri is a religious Catholic group that originated from Bangladesh in 1911. Fair Trade is an organization that helps victims of forced labor by declaring tea, or any other imported/exported product, as an item that was created only by humans that work in their factories with a fair, monthly wage for each worker. “Social workers have been teaching Dalit families about the importance of education, paying school fees for children, and providing transportation to local schools. Since the program began in 2004, they've moved over 500 children from the tea plantation into school, almost a quarter of the total child laborers in the area” (change.org).

But the war is not over. They have only got 500 children to support and change their lives. But there's still thousands more waiting for their aid all around the world.

Works Cited

During this past Thanksgiving Vacation, my lovely friend, Tiffany, asked me on Facebook about my Anti-Human Trafficking Fundraiser that I'm going to do. She wanted to know how was the planning going for me and if I had it all down. I felt so proud and happy to have such a friend that cares so much for the same cause that I am very affectionate about. I told her all about what Janelle suggested for me to do (which you would know about if you read my previous article already) and she was just impressed by the idea. I finally got to know of which cause Tiffany is involved in that aids victims of human slavery. The name of the cause is known as the “Not for Sale Campaign”. The following campaign is an organization that I have been familiar and fond of from both Tiffany and MTV Exit.

Also my sweet, dear Tiffany also asked me if I wanted to join her in attending a global forum event for the Not for Sale cause next year. It is an yearly event that is a host of a seminar for anyone who is interested and determined to stop human trafficking. She actually wanted to attend the conference last year. But she was unable to because she did not have enough money to pay for her admission. Yet for this year, she suggested me of her idea for us to raise money for our own entrance in the conference for this year. I actually do want to raise money for that so I am planning to try raise money for me and Tiffany to go to the global forum this year. I can imagine the global forum to be a life-changing and great experience for me in my life.

Besides the wonderful conversation I shared with Tiffany for my Anti-Human Trafficking Fundraiser, I also created a birthday wish for myself on Facebook for raising money for the Not for Sale cause. I checked out the Not for Sale website that Tiffany sent me the link of to navigate and I saw their link for “Friend us on Facebook”. And so I clicked the link and on the top-right corner of the Not for Sale Facebook page, I saw that there was a link for making a birthday wish. The Facebook birthday wish is just a method for one who is interested in a certain cause to raise money and get the birthday person's friends and others to donate money to the cause. The friends on the birthday person's Facebook reads the birthday wish and if they really want to, they donate the suggested amount of money to the cause for the person's birthday. I find it a pretty cool and awesome way to raise lots of money for a cause. So in addition to the actual, physical fundraiser I will be doing for my Not for Sale Campaign at whichever restaurant in my local neighborhood I will be able to do it in, I will also have my birthday wish active so that I can spread the word about modern day slavery and persuade others to donate money to the Not for Sale Campaign to fulfill my birthday wish.

 Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4 Global Justice

Grade 11

Creating an EVSS+ event was actually quite difficult for me to plan. Well in reality, thinking of the actual event you are going to conduct is not very hard. But the research and the analysis of finding the method of gaining the most advancement and profit for the cause can be pretty complex, since I have never done such an event where you are aiding an important organization. Yes I have been part of non-profit organizations by working voluntary with them. But I have never coordinated or lead a non-profit event. This is a new, great challenge for me to accomplish and succeed in. Yet I am willing to not ever give up or to stop my commitment to create an EVSS+ event and help many of those in need.

Specifically the EVSS+ event I am planning to initiate is a fundraiser for the major international issue of human trafficking. I have thought of various ways that I could raise money for my cause. A list of the methods I came up with of fund-raising is the following: sell boxes of candy everyday for a $1 each candy, stand outside a department store many people usually go to and spread awareness of human trafficking with a request of the listeners to donate some money, and my last idea was to request multiple restaurants if they can possible have a day where a certain percentage of the store’s sales to go to my organization.

As in result, I decided to choose the third idea of requesting a restaurant to help me raise money for my cause by donating a certain amount of money that the restaurant makes for a day to my organization. Yes I finally got exactly the event I am going to conduct! But the problem now was to make the plan of the event to become reality and to actually occur and happen in the future. At first I was very worried because I didn’t know how to write a request letter to a store to ask them if they can help me raise money for my non-profit organization. Again this is the first action of leadership that I have ever done in my whole, entire life.

Recently I messaged my friend, Whitney, (who is a major activist!) on Facebook if she could help me, advise me, or suggest to me, of how I can request a restaurant, or even a fast food place, of utilizing their business to help make profit for my cause and if she had any other unique ideas of fund-raising. I asked her a couple days later if she read it. She told me that she did read it but that she was going to reply later to explain to me an idea she has for my plan. I kind of wanted to hurry her. But I didn’t want to pressure her to help me because it’s not like this is her task. This is my project that I am in charge of and I have to handle and be responsible for all by myself.

So I lessened my reliance of receiving information from Whitney and then I asked another student that attends my school. Janelle sent me an event invite on Facebook to go to my local Panda Express with her attached flyer document printed out so that 20% of my purchase of the Panda Express food I bought can go to the ROTC Department of my school, which is an extracurricular activity that she is part of. Right after I was notified about the special event she created, I wrote on her Facebook wall asking if she possibly knew how ROTC got to receive Panda Express’s help to raise money for them. And Janelle just explained to me to go see Mrs. Kvalvik (a teacher at my school), ask her for an application regarding local fund-raising, fill up the form, and return it to Mrs. Kvalvik so that she could give it to Janelle for her to submit it to Panda Express. When Janelle told me that, I felt so grateful and happy that someone was willing to help me out in this major project I have in mind. I thanked her for her patience and consideration for me.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4 Global Justice

Grade 11

According to a report in 2007 from the US State Department, for every 800 people trafficked in the year of 2006, only one person was convicted. Can you imagine only 1 out of 800 sexual trafficking cases being solved throughout the whole world? How many other women and children are not suffering of the pain and torture given to them by those filthy, monstrous prostitution owners? Sadly the number is massive. And what's more unfortunate is that there is an actual female in the United States that is experiencing this harmful issue in her own country. So much for “Land of the Free”.

Sara Kruzan is a 32-year-old woman who has been jailed in the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, CA for her crime of killing the man that was her pimp during her teenage life hood. Kruzan's innocent, pure mind would see G.G. as the father she never was able to have close to her in her whole life. As a child, she never imagined her pimp, “G.G.”, to be the sexual predator and abuser that would end up deceiving her personal views of him in the future. At the age of 11, Sara Kruzan got sexually raped by G.G. Two years later she became G.G.'s prostitute. Beginning in the age of 13, Sara Kruzan was forced to have sex with all of the men assigned for her by G.G. from 6 in the evening to around 5:30 during midnight for every single day of her life.

Until one day when Kruzan just could not resist G.G.'s torture and unfairness anymore, she murdered him by shooting him with a gun. The year was 1994. She was barely 16 years old. By that point in her life, she just turned exhausted and stressed of the pressure and pain of her 3 years of her involvement in sexual trafficking. And now, poor Kruzan has to live her entire life in a jail cell just because she took the life of a despicable savage for her own self-defense. Although that does not have to actually occur if Mr. Arnold Schwarznegger helps her.

Recently Sara Kruzan submitted a clemency plea to Schwarznegger so that he can release her from prison. There are many organizations I am familiar and acquainted with that are supporting Sara Kruzan's declared freedom, such as: change.org, the National Center for Youth Law, the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, and many more! Most of these associations create petitions so that Sara Kruzan can receive more citizens to fight for her rightful liberty. I happen to be one of those supporters of her cause.

And I completely, fully recommend you (YES YOU! I know you are reading my article!) to sign the petition for Kruzan's salvation at: http://www.change.org/petitions/view/ask_gov_schwarzenegger_to_release_human_trafficking_victim_sara_kruzan_with_time_served.

And also, you should join the Facebook page to “FREE SARA KRUZAN” at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=135555313406.

By you doing these two simple actions, you are contributing to changing the life of a woman who has suffered much more than the average woman in our society today. And also you are avoiding from other females to end up going through the same miserable life that this female tragically has been, and currently is, attempting to overcome.

Works Cited

                 On Muse's Facebook page, I saw a YouTube video they posted with their status commentary of “MK Ultra: MTV Exit have created this video to promote their campaign against human trafficking, which features MK Ultra as the soundtrack”. My heart begins to pound hard like Dominic Howard’s drumsticks that hit the drums constantly in every Muse song while clicking the play button for the video.

                 First I see a Chinese girl in a store examining a pair of jeans. But then the film demonstrates a flashback of where the pants come from. Under the rain, an Indian boy gets inside a car and waves a solemn goodbye to his mother. He turns around as the car drives forward to take him to a factory. In the factory, he works with a sewing machine and other manufacturing machinery to sow Levi pants.

After wards the video comes back to the Japanese teenager with the jeans on her hand and she purchases them. With her red shopping bag filled in with the child-labored jeans on her hand, the girl walks out the store. While she walks on the street, the camera zooms in to another Chinese man that looks at her. Yet he continues walking forward in the opposite direction of the young Chinese woman.

The Chinese man enters inside a building with another Chinese lady greeting him next to her desk. But after he passes the entrance desk, other young girls with numbers on their shoulders are dancing as if they are in ecstasy. The Chinese man goes up and places his arm around a young girl sitting in a bar table with the number 18 on her shoulder.

The camera transforms the situation to a memory from the “18 girl's” life. She enters into a bus and touches her window with her mother touching the same window with her so their hands can both meet through the thin, clear glass that separates them. The girl exits the bus and walks with a mustached, old Asian man. The mustached male brings her into an empty room where she is going to work in and she gives him her passport and all her legal identification documents. The mustached guy leaves and brings back another man. The two men begin to harass the female by forcing her to strip off her clothing.

Then the video goes back to the present moment where the “18 girl” is back with the Japanese man inside the bar. Sadly the Chinese man does the same action to the “18 girl” that the past men in the “18 girl's” life did to her. The “18 girl's” boss grabs the handful of money she displays on her hand and just gives her a single bill from it.

The Chinese man walks out to the busy street. The camera zooms in to a second Japanese male's face as he exchanges glances with the first Chinese man that came out of the bar. The second Chinese male enters upstairs to his home and grabs a girl's neck while she is cleaning the floor with a bucket of water and a towel. There is even a woman sitting on the table aware of the situation. But she just continues to read her daily newspaper.

The film changes into the past of the young girl cleaning the floor. The girl hugs her mother tight and leaves her. She moves in to a home full of strangers and is treated badly with their pressure of forcing her to work harder and clean more. Her family is not by her side and she does not have anyone. The next day she is selected by an adult to work as a servant for the house with the “angry man” and the “newspaper woman”.

As the video comes back to the girl's present, the Chinese man's hand is still grasped on her neck as he yells at her. He forces her to a room and locks her in there. The servant girl just obeys and looks out her barred window. She sees a man walking with a red shopping bag identical to the bag the first Japanese girl had when she bought her jeans during the beginning of the film. After about four minutes, the video ends with an animation of crowds of people walking in Hong Kong, and with the messages of “some things cost more than you realise” and “MTV EXIT: END EXPLOITATION AND TRAFFICKING”.

Based on recent articles I have read and researched in, the value of money, and the number of individuals being sold to sexual slavery, decreased dramatically in the previous month of September compared to the month before of August. Fortunately the business listing website known as Craigslist.org discontinued their adult ads section from their profit network. According to a human trafficking article in Change.org, the AIM group calculated that the number of major websites with online posts for prostitution globally has decreased down to approximately 48% annually from Craigslist.org‘s abolishment of sex ads in their website. “Before Craigslist’s closure, the group estimated the top online erotic services advertising sites would net $76 million in revenue from ads this year. Now, that projection has dropped to just over $39 million” (Kloer). This sure does make a significant difference of the amount of lives being affected in this cruel, unfair act in society.

Although unfortunately, there are still other websites active for child sex trafficking with the highest sex ad rated web page being Backpage.com. Others named in an article in aimgroup.com that also sell children for illegal sexual labor and slavery are: Eros.com, CityVibe.com, MyRedBook.com and Escorts.com. Based on statistics provided by the Advanced Interactive Media Group in Altamonte Springs, FL, Backpage.com’s profit from posts of prostitution in the United States increased 15.3% in September compared to August, summing it up to at least $1,671,685 from just nine months of this whole year (aimgroup.com). “AIM Group estimated that Backpage.com’s escort-service ad revenue increased $221,000 in September, which is a pittance compared with the monthly $3.7 million that U.S. sex-workers, pimps and traffickers had been paying to Craigslist for listings” (aimgroup.com). Therefore despite the danger of Backpage.com being the top website where many children are sold to illegal labor, at least not many victims have been exploited in web pages around the world for prostitution as if Craigslist.org would have continued to be allowing sex ads being listed on their online business market.

“And while Craigslist erotic ads are a thing of the past in the U.S., they are up and running in Canada, despite widespread criticism from the Canadian government” (Kloer). Unbelievable isn’t it? Craigslist.org is halting adult ads for the nation of the United States, yet the company still allows for sex ads to further occur being shown for the Canada section of their website. The actions that these “e-commerce business companies” permit are just monstrous and senseless. There are still actions of sexual trafficking occurring every single day despite the fact that Craigslist.org has abandoned their prostitution listings in just America. According to the aimgroup.com expository text, in some city close to Vancouver, a man was charged by the Canadian police for transporting females from Hong Kong to Canada, advertising them on Craigslist.org for prostitution (aimgroup.com).

Even though it is a grateful success that the amount of lives being affected further more has diminished greatly because of a meaningful change in the Craigslist.org corporation, there is still much to do to avoid future, other victims of human trafficking from suffering. For example, I signed petitions on the Change.org organization web page for various cases of human trafficking that are being processed of either they will be approved or rejected by the government, associations, and companies. One of the petitions I signed today for halting child labor is titled as “Ask Craigslist to Stop Advertising Human Trafficking Outside the U.S.”. Just by a click of the button “Sign the Petition” on, not just human trafficking, but for any petition of other causes that are important and meaningful, it is a contribution of helping many innocent souls in our society that always cry to everyone for “HELP!”.

Dianna Ratsamy

Team 5 - Global Justice

Grade 11

San Diego, CA 

           Human trafficking is an issue in our globe that needs to change. This illegal action in our world has affected many innocent children and teenagers of numerous nationalities and cultures to suffer living this type of life. Nobody deserves to be destined to be obligated to participate into this kind of human torture. There are many successful and rich men that are involved in these unlawful acts in various countries. Those men are deceitful liars that fool others of being great role models in our society. But someone has to reveal the truth to the public and somehow help avoid these cruel enforcements no matter how old you are or your economic status. These inhuman and unfair acts just cannot continue any longer.

            I actually was knowledgeable of this international issue from my dear friend, Tiffany. The fist time Tiffany mentioned to me about the term “child labor”, I did not even know what she was talking about. Therefore she explained and told me much of the impact and importance of it in our world. After she said all those words that defined the meaning of the two words “human trafficking”, my heart just sank down to the cold, heavy ground. I could not believe what I was learning about in our modern society. This is when my mind began to be interested in the prevention of human trafficking until this present day.

           During this past summer, I applied with the San Diego Youth Services to volunteer with the STARS (Surviving Together, Achieving and Reaching for Success) program. The following curriculum is a counseling place where adults assist teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 17 that are sufferers of sexual abuse to express and overcome their traumatizing chapter of their life. These unpaid helpers work hard to guide these females to progress in life, accomplish their wishes and goals, and to fill up a smile in their faces. Unfortunately I am not approved to work in this organization since I do not fulfill the requirement of being no less than 18 years old. Although I was not able to actually be part of this association, I still feel content that I at least attempted to bring all my whole-hearted passion to encourage other individuals around my age to lead happy, normal lives.

The experience I went through of learning more about this method of illegal trade between diverse nations from Tiffany made me feel more skeptical and unsure of all of the strangers that surround me. Since like Tiffany says, anyone can be an attacker that preys on youngsters and adolescents to take advantage and use them. I now have developed an additional goal in my life to apply again for the STARS program in the San Diego Youth Services when I turn 18. In a couple of years, I will feel glad of achieving to transform the lives of many girls to become thriving and joyous women in the future. Although as of the present, I will search for other techniques, or alliances I can be a member of, where I am able to try to halt this issue that is currently affecting several pure lives without many of us knowing it. And of course, I will create an EVSS+ event contributing to aiding all victims of sexual exploitation.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team Global Justice

Grade 11

          My hair was out of the ordinary. In the contrast of my usual, dull dark brown hair, it was dyed with red and yellow sparkle in three little mini buns out of the tiny, short hair I have. I was walking with one of my new friends coming from Mission Bay High, Jenny. I could hear live music played by different bands singing improvised Rock and Reggae. White men were shirtless, wearing beach shorts, and flip flops. Tanned men had dreads that imitated those that used to be Bob Marley's. Most of the young women had exotic and provocative bikinis on. The water appeared bright and exciting with it's amazing, lengthy ocean waves. Volleyball nets, rainbow umbrellas, and beach balls were all the sand was full of. The sun just made the day more perfect than ever.

          In the plant booth of the children's area in the Pacific Beachfest, my volunteer coordinator, Sherri, instructed us that all we had to do was offer the children that passed by the booth with their parents if they wanted a flower in a colorful cup (red, yellow, blue, or green) with watered dirt, and give them stickers with a black Sharpie for the kids to decorate and write on their cup. But for about half an hour before the families came, I decided to do what every little kid was doing on that day. Getting a washable, air-brushed tattoo from the clown woman with a red wig, red nose, exaggerating make-up, and humongous light-purple shoes. As soon as it was my turn, the clown girl asked, “So what tattoo would you like?” I answered her question with my question of, “Can I get one on my leg?” She stared at my leg and encouraged, “Yeah sure!” “Ok! Well I would like to get the long thorn one on my right leg and the Pikachu one on my cheek”, I requested. “Ok!”, the clown lady replied. After the simple process of receiving two removable tattoos on my skin, I jumped up and down and presumed my new tattoos to all my new Mission Bay High friends like a kindergartener.

         Soon toddlers and infants began to come to the plant booth, curious of all the plants they saw. For each kid that came by the plant booth with their parents I would say, “Hi would you like a flower? Here just pick a cup and tell me which flower you would like. You can also decorate it with stickers and write on it with a black marker here. And would you like a purple flower, a yellow flower, or a mix of both?” The adorable, cute young children would pick up a cup, request to me which flower they wanted, stick in pirate, star, animal, and smiley face stickers, and write their names on their cups. Throughout the whole day, Jenny would add the flower and dirt in the cup while I poured water inside the cup for the flower's enrichment. Or sometimes the work between us switched naturally. Even adults and seniors started to come in wanting to get a free flower from us! I would ask them generously, and in a way, teasingly, “Would you like to put stickers on your cup?” Most of them would reply, “No that's okay.” I just laughed.

          From working in the Pacific Beachfest on Saturday, October 9, 2010, I learned that in service anyone can be whatever, or whomever, they choose to be. It's all about being daring and enjoying yourself no matter what others think. Numerous individuals at the festival stared at me like I was a lunatic when they saw my red-yellow, twisted hair, my pikachu cheek, and my thorns tattoo on my leg. But I did not care for not even one single person in the crowd. Because I knew that I was enjoying myself and was proud of doing community service for a generous association filled with friendly and fun teenagers from various neighborhoods all over San Diego. The main volunteer coordinator, Karl, gave all his volunteers free food so we could have enough energy for the whole day. It was incredible yet appreciative because that showed his true care for his service workers. I look forward to continuing to work for the Pacific Beach non-profit organizations in the near future just so I can enjoy another wonderful day of serving the community with one of the greatest and vibrant societies in my city.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team Global Justice

Grade 11

          During this past summer, I volunteered working in my local public library as a tutor for young children in a program called, “Mira Mesa Summer Readers”. Inside the meeting room I waited for a child to tutor. About ten minutes had already passed. These summer elementary students were running very late. Yet I still waited since I seriously did not have anything else to do. The volunteer coordinator, Andrew, apologized, “I am very sorry for the inconvenience that you have to wait to tutor someone today. It seems that there are more volunteers today than summer readers.” I pardoned him.
          In the next five minutes, I saw a small Asian girl with her pink backpack and her miniature eyeglasses. Andrew said, “Ok well here is your student have fun!” “Thank you”, I replied. The little girl and I sit down on two spinning chairs next to a table. “Hello I'm Dianna”, I introduced. Then I asked, “What's your name?” “Cindy”, the girl replied. “Ok”, I said, “Well let's start on your reading then!” Cindy mumbles, “Oh but I don't have any books.” I suggested, “Oh well we can just go and search for some books you would like to read in the library. How about we do that?” Then she replied, “Ok!”
          I read to Cindy many books that I read when I was in elementary. I knew that if I read to her the books that I loved to read when I was little that she would love them too. Books that I pulled out of the library shelves for me to read to her were: Marc Brown's Arthur series, Dr. Seuss' famous poems, and Curious George books. I actually instructed her to read for me some of the books so that I could see her progress in her reading pronunciation and understanding. She proved to me that she was an excellent and eloquent reader. As I observed her reading aloud to me and trying so hard to pronounce each word accurately and perfectly, I smiled.
          Besides being highly intelligent, Cindy was also a silly and mischievous child. For the last five minutes of the tutoring period, I noticed something strange about Cindy. She did not have any shoes on her feet. Her white socks was all I saw. When I noticed that, I searched for her shoes and located them right below her spinning chair. I asked Cindy shockingly, “Why did you take off your shoes?” She shrugged, “I just wanted to because it was getting too hot.” I laughed and whispered, “Well Cindy you aren't really suppose to do that in public. So how about we put your shoes back on your feet because you have to leave soon.” She playfully said, “Okie doke!”
          After I helped Cindy put her shoes on before her mother came, Cindy asked, “So are you coming back next week?” I replied, “Of course! I come here every week!” Then she commented, “Oh well I hope I get you as my tutor then because I think you are very nice.” A sentiment of joy and happiness filled my heart. “Aww well why thank you Cindy! I'll try to be your tutor next week ok?” I said. “Ok!”, she cheerfully squealed. Then she ran off to her mother. I yelled “Bye!" to Cindy and she waved back at me with a sweet smile that made me feel wholly wonderful.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team 4: Global Justice

Grade 11

     I define service as a change you voluntary do to help another. Nobody forces you to start an action. You naturally commit to the activity because your heart wants to. Now when service is combined with community, it creates a meaning of supporting those in your neighborhood, city, or even in your county. Community service is a difference anyone can make in this whole world. Although the many teenagers in my school do community service hours because their school, or desired college, requires them to accomplish that task, I do not conform with those students. I volunteer because I just love to do that. I am passionate about helping others and doing the best I can to change their lives.
     During my sophomore year, I volunteered working at a Halloween entertainment site known as Monster Manor. It is a non-profit organization that gives many students from all over my city community service hours.For the first month of September, I worked in construction and in other types of physical work. I carried large props and moved massive furniture out of a truck to the one-story building. Teamwork was essential to be in this kind of volunteerism. Therefore I met lots of new strangers and people from all over my neighborhood that were unique, creative, humorous, and spontaneous individuals. We all sweated a lot and exerted much physical force together. Luckily with the marvelous generosity of the Monster Manor staff, we received a lunch break with free pizza for all of us workers to eat. All of our effort was worth it for the advancing and prideful outcome in the near future.
     Besides doing labor work, I also did short scenes of acting. Each of us actors were assigned to various roles of positions of horrific acting by my volunteer coordinator, Trey. He placed me as a “doll”. And it was not going to be an ordinary doll. I had to be a creepy, strange, strongly girly, and toddler-like doll, which was what I exactly wanted and perfected to be. For each day of the weekend during October, me and other “dolls” worked in the “Doll Room”. We all had to act like dolls and just “be” a doll when the guests would enter the room. I spoke, moved, and reacted like an actual mannequin with my complimenting make up, white bloody costume dress, and my red shoes. It was eerie yet fanciful.
     From all of the labor I did in this site, I met many other students in my school that I never knew were so original and admiring. My dominant insecurity converted to a powerful confidence that transformed my life forever. Besides the fact that I improved my social skills, I also helped raise profit for other needy organizations. Like my local elementary schools, youth sports, and other programs in my recreational centers. Through many projects I did in this association, I made a change for others. Such as my volunteer coordinator, his other supervisors, my co-workers and friends, and most importantly, those other associations in my community that are in much need for help and support from others too. All of the tasks I was doing for this voluntary group gave me recognition of being involved in an activity that wasn't just for fun. It was for the benefit of many of those in this world that need help and support. I am glad that Monster Manor happened to me. Without this epic chapter being in the “Book of my Life”, I would not be the outgoing and happy person that I am today in the eyes of others.

San Diego, CA

Group #4, Global Justice

Grade 11

My name is Dianna Ratsamy. I am an 11^th grader attending Mira Mesa High School in San Diego, California. I am a hard-worker that never leaves anything unfinished. I always like to complete my responsibilities as soon as possible so I won’t have to procrastinate or have any trouble accomplishing them in the future. I am a person that is actually pretty happy with her life more than many others that I know. I just like to see the positivity in things that bring me down or make me sad so that I can remain strong and move on in life. I laugh a lot and I have a very easy sense of humor towards funny and silly subjects. But as much as I can act with high spirit and energy, I am also very serious and studious about my school work.   For this upcoming school year, I am willing to work hard and do my best in all of my courses. Since all of my core classes this year are either advanced, honors, ROP or AP. I chose to apply for these types of classes because I wanted to challenge myself and prove how strong my academic ability is.

Dianna Ratsamy

San Diego, CA

Team Global Justice

Grade 11