Southeast Missouri State University junior Haley Henson and sophomore Karen Maramatsu have a passion for helping others. And they're not just talking about helping in Cape Girardeau or the state of Missouri or even within the United States, but making an impact globally.

Maramatsu decided the best way to do this was to create Unified Young Leaders, a new organization dedicated to making a worldwide impact and creating a network of young international leaders. She asked Henson to be the vice president for the organization.

"Last year I had this feeling that I wanted to do something for the world," Maramatsu said. "I wanted to improve the world in some way. I wanted to make a change, and then I decided if I only think about doing something and I never actually do anything, that's not going to bring anything to the world. So I decided let's start this organization. Let's encourage young leaders to make something good to the world, to make a positive impact to the world."

At the time of publication, Unified Young Leaders was still awaiting final approval from the Student Government Association to become an official on-campus organization. However, Henson and Maramatsu said they already have about 10 to 15 members brainstorming project ideas and who are ready to help once the organization becomes official.

"We kind of have the idea that people see there's something wrong and a lot of times people just kind of look at it and they're like, 'That's wrong,' but all of us are pretty driven people," Henson said. "We're like, 'No, I see that. Let's do it, let's get it now,' and she [Maramatsu] just started recruiting members and she found a whole bunch of people who had the same kind of drive and dream for this and here we are slowly growing it."

The first project Unified Young Leaders will launch is Project Hope. Project Hope is a two-part project that will focus on providing education and medical assistance to children in lesser developed countries and promoting awareness of human trafficking in the United States, Henson said.

Maramatsu is originally from Brazil and moved to Japan at the age of 5 years old. Because of the connections she still has in Brazil, Project Hope will begin with providing aid to children there and then branch out to other countries. Henson also has connections in Colombia and another member has connections in India, Henson said.

"I went to Colombia last winter with my boyfriend, and it was just shocking to see how the world is just completely different and turned around because we're here and we don't see it because it's outside of our minds," Henson said. "You see pictures in books, but they don't do it justice to see kids barefoot in the street in a dirt house. I think that was a big motivator for me to want to try to help people in other places."

As for the second part of Project Hope, Henson said she realized human trafficking was an issue many people are not aware of or don't like to talk about after watching a video about it in her social work class. According to the U.S. Department of Education, human trafficking is "a form of modern slavery" and has been reported in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories.

"Just kind of getting out the word about what's going on, what it is, because, personally, in my social work class, whenever this video was shown about the trafficking network, everybody was kind of like, 'That's hard, I don't want to watch this,'" Henson said. "We kind of want to present it in a way that 'No, it's important. It's important to hear about it. It's difficult, but it's still such a big thing you can't just shove it under a rug and say it's not fair.'"

While Unified Young Leaders wants to help people in other countries, Henson and Maramatsu won't be neglecting the Cape Girardeau community and members' hometowns in the St. Louis area. They plan to take part in local projects as well.

"As much as we are wanting to help globally, we of course are part of the global community, so we have lots of little ideas of places in Cape we can help out," Henson said.

The organization is still looking for members to join, and if interested students can refer to its Facebook page at facebook.com/UYLHope or Twitter page at twitter.com/UYLHope. Members should be leaders or people who want to improve their leadership and are passionate about helping others, Maramatsu and Henson said.

"It's kind of one of those things where you can't be halfway," Henson said. "You have to, like, really want to do what you're doing. You just have to have a heart for people."