And you thought volunteering at a soup kitchen for one day a year was altruistic. How about giving up a lucrative career for a social cause?

Some 20-somethings are not only dedicating themselves to poverty-stricken areas, but are doing it by launching their own organizations, according to Tuesday’s Washington Post.

A group for orphans of AIDS, an intiative to protect civilians in war-torn areas and a program that provides insulin to diabetics in Latin America are just a few enterprenial projects started by Gen Y.

While all this is obviously stellar, one can’t help but wonder if giving up a regular job to rid the world of pain and suffering is the luxury of the rich.

Drew Chafetz, 25, got his idea to restore soccer fields in the poorest parts of the world while vacationing in South America and East Africa. He acknowledges that his well-off upbringing combined with the right people connections helped him build three new soccer fields in Guatemala.

“This is my reality, that I could do something about this, now,” he told The Washington Post. “Guilt is a big piece of it. . . . I’m sitting at my desk. I’ve got my laptop on, the AC is on, and I’m reading Nicholas Kristof’s [New York Times] column about Sudan and watching his video where he’s saying . . . ‘Look at what’s happening here.’ That has deep impact.”

(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)