Dear Mr./ Madam President,

There are many kids out there with dreams. Dreams to be different, to make a difference, and dreams to make the world different. I aspire to live in a country where, no matter the dream, kids like me will have the platform necessary to allow their aspirations to become a reality. If kids have a passion to help people - a fresh way to make the world different - why not help them? This country needs to help provide women and children everywhere, all over the world, with a safe place to go home to, safe from mentally or physically abusive situations.

All over the world, nearly 2 in every 3 women have experienced abuse first hand (1). Of those 3, one has experienced the violence from a relationship that they are, or formerly were in(2). As a young woman in today’s society, I would like to do whatever possible to help, not only myself and my family, but also women all over the world. One way of doing this is to support and create shelters for women to rely on in times of need. There are around 1,500 domestic violence shelters in the United States, most of which could use donations, as well as support from the governing powers of this country(3). Although it may be argued that these shelters use the government’s money to provide aid to only a small portion of the population, without these shelters, women everywhere would be put at a tremendously greater risk of physical abuse, rape, or possibly even death. While this may be posed as an issue, anyone that has concern for basic human safety would see the need to provide this safe place for women in danger.

In addition to this, adding more shelters worldwide could save the lives and faith of many women and children, that may have otherwise been abused - or even worse - killed. This country undoubtedly has the resources necessary to contribute to this cause, seeing as over 601 billion dollars are going into the funding for our military(4). Think of what even one million dollars could do for countries like Afghanistan, Chad, and Iraq. Countries such as these could benefit tremendously from even the slightest of sacrifices that we can make, so why not put in that tiny bit of additional effort to help? By assisting these other countries in terms of the safety and well-being of their people, we can create a better reputation for this country, as well as form stronger bonds with them.

Along with the indisputable physical abuse that occurs all over the world, many women and children face mental abuse, every day, whether it be from a partner or a parent. In fact, more than 1 out of every 3 women has been mentally abused by a partner, and nearly one out of every 10 children has been abused by a parent in their own home. There are so many minor efforts that can be put into assuring safe, stable home environments for women and children everywhere, and these efforts can be as major as creating new laws against any sort of mental abuse, to even minor efforts such as being a stable companion to a friend if you are aware that their minds are being harassed. Any amount of effort can be put into this cause to truly make a difference. It’s simply a matter of how much you’re willing to contribute.

Another extremely unfortunate situation that comes from these places of abuse is when external abuse becomes internal. If women and children are forced to tolerate the abusive situations that are present all over the world, eventually this abuse is going to have an internal effect on the victim, possibly causing this victim to inflict harm upon oneself. Suicide is an issue commonly correlated with domestic violence, and by stopping this abuse, we could also stop the 43,000 suicides in this country that occur annually(5). Or the 800,000 that occur worldwide(6). Think of the lives that we could save. Each man, woman, and child that would’ve previously attempted to take their own life may now be faced with something different, they may now be introduced to something new. Hope.

What are we waiting for? The opportunities are right there in front of us. There is money waiting to be donated and shelters left to help, and hope left to give. Kids like me can make that happen. We can’t do it on our own, though. We need you to help us make extraordinary things happen with just an ordinary amount of help. What are we waiting for? Every day that goes by without change happening is another thousand suicide attempts worldwide, another family that is separated, another child afraid to go to sleep at night. We can’t put anymore lives in danger, or stand by and watch it happen. So, what are we waiting for?

1- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/04/glamour-relationship-abuse_n_857472.html

2- http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/

3-http://www.dvevidenceproject.org/focus-areas/services-to-victims/research-summary-shelter-introduction/

4- http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-us-military-spends-its-billions-2015-8

5- https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

6- http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/