Readers respond: Uxbridge citizens must come together to tackle poverty! At the corner of every street in Uxbridge, poverty is present. How often do you come across a homeless person begging for a morsel of your income? Now, ask yourselves ‘how often do I give to the poor?’ I’ve been an Uxbridge resident for a year now, and I have learnt that Uxbridge citizens are the future generations' next politicians and activists. At the heart of the Uxbridge pavilion centre, residents are spreading messages of peace and harmony and donating to the needy, but we must do more when it comes to seeing people on the floor in the wider economy, especially during this cold time. Around the globe more than 1 billion people are living on $1.25. And contrary to the common myth that foreign aid consumes high percentages of the UK’s GDP, the reality of this statistic sits at a mere 0.7% of budgetary spending.   Volunteering at The Borgen Project has been life changing. I have been able to regularly meet with Members of Parliament to build support for life-saving legislation and effective poverty-reduction programmes. Knowing how much my community likes to give back, I know you would be of great help when ending poverty. So what does The Borgen Project do in particular? It is a non-profit that operates to make global poverty a focus of UK foreign policy. The NGO serves to educate, mobilise and advocate important legislation to be passed through Parliament such as the Official Development Assistance (ODA) in order to improve living conditions for people in poor countries. Legislation like this is crucial not only to raise the standards of life for those most in need, but equally, because they can have beneficial, localised effects within the UK through diplomacy, development and defence, such as the generation of new jobs and markets, or the strengthening of national security via political stability abroad. Ultimately, foreign aid can be viewed like an investment of some sort, into a country or place of need, with the prospect of lucrative long-term return investments and well-fortified rapports. In this respect, relating to our current economic downturn in the UK, we can see the mutual benefit of helping people abroad in order to generate prosperity and wealth on both ends. It is important for us here in the UK to look outwardly and uphold our moral duty to take care of fellow human beings around the world. As a Borgen Project ambassador, I am trying to do right by others and assert my moral responsibility for other human life in even the smallest of ways to make a change, such as by contacting my local MP to support acts such as ODA. I hope you will consider all of the above and do your part also to look after the fellow man. Zanobiya Ahmad, Uxbridge Borgen Project Ambassador

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