Uncommon, unselfish: Uncultured.com

How’s this for an inspirational story? It can be hard enough to find the gumption and resources to travel the world. But how about giving it all up to personally fight poverty in Bangladesh?

That’s what 27-year-old Torontonian, Shawn, did when he started The Uncultured Project. He was originally inspired in 2006 at Notre Dame, where he heard a lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (author of “The End of Poverty”). What Sachs stressed and what Shawn took away was the importance of creating change with small, simple steps.

So Shawn withdrew from grad school, liquidated his savings, and took off for Bangladesh, to roll up his sleeves and do as much as one person can to help end extreme poverty. It’s amazing what he’s been able to accomplish so far: he has handed out disaster relief and school supplies, reconstructed homes, helped to prevent malaria, provided scholarships, and created jobs. With the help of YouTube videos, he shares stories from this journey with us.

It’s definitely not the easy path to take. Others might’ve stayed on at Notre Dame, where he was pursuing a Masters & PhD degree in Sociology. Others might’ve run away after witnessing suffering and death, or after finding out that they face organ failure because of water contamination; or after getting the 3rd degree from relatives who don’t quite understand their motivations.

Shawn has essentially given everything he has for this project—tapping into his entire savings, and now tapping into his parents’ savings. The donations that he collects goes directly to the people he’s helping. If you’d like to give your support, you can contribute via PayPal. Let’s hope that he can keep it up for a long time.