Providing foreign assistance to struggling continents such as Asia and Africa has been a cultural norm for the U.S. in the past ten years. We spend a large amount of money on military spending to prevent unrest and promote stability. However, appropriate preventative measures are not being taken. In other words, the U.S. is being reactive instead of proactive.

Communities in these countries are often taken advantage of by rebel groups offering a better standard of living. By increasing our presence in these countries instead of increasing military spending, our country would be actively promoting foreign development.

As a general public, we tend to believe that a majority of our money is given to these countries in the form of food, shelter and medicine. We prefer to think that guns and soldiers are not the only force working to advance our goals in already unstable environments; but the reality is that less than one percent of our federal budget goes to this type of aid, while military spending is larger than 20 percent.

As students, we have the opportunity to voice our opinions to the representatives that make decisions regarding foreign aid. I would love to see my peers contact their local congressman and state senators about increasing federal aid. Your voice does matter, so use it.

Foreign aid is an investment in the future safety of our country and the stability of the country receiving aid. In the words of Representative Kay Granger (R-TX), “Foreign aid must be viewed as an investment, not an expense.”

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