To the editor:

Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer recently provided an eyewitness account to South Sudan’s humanitarian crisis in the Kansas City Star. He spent two weeks there honorably volunteering with the International Medical Corps. Last year, Kansas University students traveled to Boston to compete in the Harvard National Model United Nations. There, we simulated the South Sudanese delegation to the United Nations and won an award acknowledging our representation of the country.

I also pay attention to what’s happening in my own country — and state. I strongly identify as a global citizen and adamantly believe it is necessary to be informed on events both far and near. Considering the recent developments here, I am left asking, “Why is Lt. Gov. Colyer not witnessing the growing crisis in Kansas?” The thing about universal human rights is that they apply everywhere. People should have access to clean water, education and health care in South Sudan, in Brazil and in Kansas.

While providing medical care in South Sudan, an admirable and entirely worthwhile endeavor, Lt. Gov. Colyer is part of an administration actively denying 80,000 low-income Kansans Medicaid. Despite their dire need, Gov. Brownback opposes federal money to provide relief to his fellow Kansans. A 2012 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture says 22.5 percent of all children in Kansas — 162,400 children — live in food insecurity.

I applaud Lt. Gov. Colyer for his work in South Sudan, but I invite him to volunteer his time for the people and children of Kansas next. They certainly need it.