Is all of this really worth it?

Whilst teams taking part in the Oxfam Trailwalker UK challenge in 2011 will each have both individual and team goals that they hope to reach, whether it is completing the course in a particular time, or simply completing the course, it is sometimes easy to forget the underlying reason why the event is taking place.

That being to raise significant sums of money for those most in need.

With profits made (and lost) by large organisations being measured in billions, and companies which make nothing tangible being valued in similar terms, it is easy to forget what true life-changing value can be achieved for those who have very little or nothing to their name.

Farmville, the Facebook related "virtual" farm, that seemingly persuades real people to buy imaginary crops with "real" money, has been valued at $9 billion!!

At  a similar $10 billion, Twitter is valued at $105 for each of the 95 million tweets its users write every day. Now, I know that my tweets aren't worth 65p each let alone £65, but bizarrely (and I do realise that it has a lot to do with anticipated Revenue streams and the such like!) this is the value that has been placed on it.

So if virtual entities have such significant values, how much is education or hygiene or protection from deadly diseases worth?

Consider this: -

• £1,500 trains 24 teachers in Tanzania. By training teachers Oxfam can help to give children in Tanzania a better future.
• £2,000 buys 150 family hygiene kits. When massive floods hit Pakistan in August 2010, Oxfam provided hygiene kits including soap, sanitary cloths and oral rehydration salts to help families to stay healthy, and 
• £3,000 provides over a 1,000 mosquito nets. Nets like these save lives. They’re a simple and effective way to protect people, especially children, from malaria.

So do you want to trade 15 of my tweets for the chance to train 24 teachers? Or 30 of my tweets instead of helping 150 families to remain clean and healthy.

Or would you rather have 45 of my tweets rather than helping to save the lives of 1,000 children at risk of dying from malaria.

You know you wouldn't! 

Help people survive in the real world, before creating a virtual world that they have no chance of participating in!