I help impoverished Ugandan women. I found out about this non-profit organization called Beads for Life, which teaches starving Ugandan women how to make beautiful beads out of recycled paper. With the profits from these beaded necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, the women move from being starving and homeless to feeding their children, owning their own business, and owning their own tiny beautiful brick house. When I found out about the organization, I immediately mailed away for the beads. The first day, I only sold one bracelet, and I felt pretty discouraged. I tried again the next day and sold five more, and each day that I tried, more and more people bought until over the course of a few months, I eventually sold a hundred bracelets, a couple of necklaces, five handmade silk bags, and a pair of earrings. I raised $550, which in a country where people live on two dollars a day is a pretty helpful sum. How did this project make me stronger and more confident? Well, helping people gives my life meaning. After all, Buddha once said, “Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”