Teen’s focus on Congo begins at home

David Taylor doesn’t see the point in getting emotional about the evils across the globe.

“What do I accomplish by being sad about it?” he asks.

Rather, he looks at human rights atrocities and thinks about them methodically — where and how can he make the most impact?

And he doesn’t let the fact that he’s 13 years old deter him.

Over the past year, he has convinced the executive board of Kehillat Israel, a 1,000-plus family congregation, to commit to purchasing electronics produced with conflict-free minerals and has mobilized the entire student body of New Roads Middle School in Malibu, where he is an eighth-grader,  to work for a peaceful Democratic Republic of Congo.

Taylor, who lives in Pacific Palisades, first learned about conflict minerals in Congo through a Jewish World Watch presentation while he was researching a bar mitzvah project. Residents in villages at the entrances to the mines are subject to rape and violence by marauding gangs trying to gain control of the tantalum, tungsten and tin trade — minerals used in computers, cell phones and digital cameras.

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