For 10-year-old Amanda Moore, language was no barrier for reaching out to a new classmate from Mexico at her school in Temecula, California.

Moore does not speak Spanish, but when she observed that a boy in her class had no one to sit with, she used Google Translate on her smartphone to write him a letter.

“Would you like to sit with me today? Look for me and I will show you where I sit. We can color or simply tell scary stories. Thank you for your time, signed Amanda,” she wrote in Spanish.

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The support from those who have learned about the story has been overwhelming. Moore’s mother, Kimber Kinard received over 1,600 personal facebook messages sharing gratitude about her daughter’s act of kindness.

“I just wanted to tell him it’s OK if he could sit over by us,” Moore told ABC7. “Even though we can’t really speak Spanish together, I don’t really know Spanish, we could still hang out.”

Not only is this an adorable act of kindness, but her use of Google translater shows the power that each of us holds when it comes to using accessible technology for social good.

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Technology can complement social good and it’s important that we recognize when this happens. Moore used technology to demonstrate a lesson we all can learn from, “everyone needs a buddy.”

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Years ago, these kinds of connections would have been nearly impossible, but today we are fortunate enough to have technology that is so simple to navigate, a 10-year-old can quickly engage with it during class.

Millions of people have access to simple tools like Google Translate. Instead of searching for something personal, imagine if everyone in the world took these tools to connect on a broader level each day.

Moore’s act of kindness represents the kind of engagement that makes for a Global Citizen and we have no doubt that this 10-year-old is on her way to becoming just that.

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