Let me begin by saying that I am sorry for not continuing to write notes to you on my page. I guess these days it has become so hard to find a moment. Nevertheless, in this day of email that come with so many agendas and / or hopes that are never realized, I just wanted to share with you a recent email that came to me that in many ways, helps to make the work I do, as well as the work of the Forgotten, worthwhile. Below is a copy of that email as well as my reply:
Hello Mr.Nazario,
I’m Jemma, I live in Darwin, Australia and I’m eleven. I know you must get millions of emails and messages, but please I would just like to thank you for the work you have done, you have inspired me and I wish to be like you as I grow older. I have always dreamed to write a book about poverty and fill it with photographs taken by myself. I was born in South Africa and moved to Australia when I was three, but like you I have a memory of this woman carrying and weaved basket of potato/turnips on her head and holding her 3 yr old sons hand, her son was very malnourished and not in a state a regular child his age should be, and since then that thought had always stuck in my mind and I still have trouble trying to comprehend why is our world so unfair, that child and mother didn’t decide to be trapped in poverty. I want to change that. I just want to let you know your book and work is amazing and i am truly inspired by it.
Thank you, you are amazing
Jemma Beyer
Darwin Australia
———- My Reply ———-
Jemma,
Thank you so much for your very kind note to me and for caring so much about the plight of others. Are you really only eleven years old?! Hope we meet some day. Please continue to be the person you are!
PS: By the way, I only get about a hundred messages each day, but yours that day was the best of the lot!
Tom Nazario
President & Founder
The Forgotten International