The lecture began with a quote: "If we can conquer space, we can defeat world hunger" - Buzz Aldrin. This quote had already made me think about how incredible the feat of sending humans and animals into space is. If it is possible to survive in the infinite void we know as Space, how do billions of people who have difficulty surviving on Earth? This relatively simple idea caught my attention and made me feel sympathy for all the starving children and families around the world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay On a morning like any other, our guest professor gave a lecture that really touched me deeply. At the beginning of the conference I was surprised to learn how many countries around the world lack access to clean water, medical services and basic education. Every day around the world, around 22,000 children die due to poverty: around 8 million a year. Approximately 1.2 billion of the world's population today live in extreme poverty. I think everyone is aware that poverty exists in our world, but for me it was more shocking to discover the overall impact of that poverty on the likelihood of survival and how widespread poverty is in our world. Why did this depress me so much, and why did I feel so down when it seemed like many of the students around me hadn't felt the same way? Perhaps it was the underlying idea I had that unfortunate circumstances could materialize with anyone as a result of chance - perhaps an idea present only in my mind at the time as a result of the unfortunate circumstances I encountered in the past. It struck me as a little strange that I seemed more sensitive to the situation than my peers. It's relatively shocking to me to consider that in our country we all have access to clean water, food, medical care, education and more. . I felt truly saddened to learn the way these people are forced to live. Not only do people live this way in some countries, but in dozens of countries; mainly in South America, Africa and Asia. Not only that, but some European countries also live in extreme conditions. Our guest professor, Angela Jones of the University of Austin, has witnessed firsthand the kind of poverty we've been talking about. He showed us videos of him helping poor children in Djibouti. They were all very young and seemed to be made only of skin and bones. It was the first time I had seen people like that and I was quite shocked. I can't imagine what it must have been like for them, but I can imagine how shocked and sad the volunteers in the video must have been; that's what I felt just watching the video. During the conference Angela asked us to brainstorm how to support these children in Djibouti and other third world countries. When they asked me, I felt a sense of ease and relief, that thinking about how I could help save millions of lives would ease the pain I was feeling. I could hear some people muttering the same thought I was having: "what could we do to help them without physically going to that country to support them?" To me, these problems seemed a world away from us, with no solution. Angela showed us another video of a lady helping a two-year-old boy, who also appeared to be severely malnourished. Then Angela showed us another video, shot three years later. In this footage it was the same child who was now five years old. He was dressed and appeared healthy. He also had a backpack on his back for school. I was happy for the.