Christina LeNoir
6th Grade

Helping the People of Africa

My name is Christina Danielle LeNoir. I am 11 years old and I'm in the sixth grade. I have one older sister that is 15-years-old, her name is Camille. My mom's name is Sylvia and my dad's name is Marcus. I have one dog her name is Justice.

I feel very sorry for the kids in Africa who have to go through with having the measles. I wish that no one would have to suffer from this deadly disease. It makes me very sad to know that mothers and fathers are losing their children to a disease that Americans don't have to be afraid of. No parent should have to suffer losing a child simply because they cannot afford to have the medicine they need. To me it does not make sense that more people in countries all over the world are not doing something to help these children and their parents. Would you like it if you lost you child over a disease that could be controlled by just getting a shot? How would you feel? Most American people including myself take things like getting medicine easily for granted. For instance, when you have a child you are 99.9 percent sure you are not going to lose that child from the measles. You don't think about the poor people in other countries who lose their loved ones to this disease all the time. It makes me feel worse to know that people who share my ancestry are losing their children over something that I can help with.

If I were to talk with a child in Africa that had the measles, I would tell them that I would try my hardest to prevent measles from affecting anyone else. I couldn't promise anything, but I'd sure try my hardest. You know how kids are scared to get a shot; well we could put the medicine into a candy bar or Popsicle so they wouldn't have to suffer the pain.

In the future I would like to come up with a way to make the measles vaccination far less expensive and more readily available to Africa and all other countries in the same situation. This process would help wipe out the measles and save the lives of their precious children in Kenya and other poor countries. Also, if I were a doctor, I would donate as much of my time as I could to going to Africa and giving the vaccinations free; and I would convince as many other doctors as I could to go with me and donate their services as well.

I believe that in Africa they should make it a law to get the vaccine to prevent the measles; like we do in America. I feel very fortunate for living in the United States of America where it is very unlikely to catch the measles.