The DePrince Family

The story that I found to be most interesting was that of Michaela DePrince and her family. In the 1990's, Sierra Leone experienced a horrific civil war. An estimated 70,000 people were killed and 300,000 children were left orphaned. Michaela and her eight siblings were part of these 300,000. Michaela and her siblings were adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince. Michaela discovered her passion for dance at a very young age and is now at 18 years old is the youngest member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Michaela performed on both days of the conference and she and her mother were interviewed during the second. She is an amazing dancer with true talent.
During the Diane Von Furstenburg awards the DePrinces were seated in the section same as my mom and I. I talked to Michaela's sisters Mia and Justina while my mom spoke to their mom about our work at the orphanage in Kenya. Mia and Jestina were awesome. Mia is an amazing singer and musician, I suggest you check her out on YouTube.

Women in the World: Day One

The Women in the World Summit was absolutely amazing! We had the opportunity to listen to and meet so many wonderful people, all of who are making a difference in the world. On the first day the speakers who stood out most to me were Angelina Jolie, Khalida Brohi, and Humaira Bachal. There are so many other amazing people I want to tell you about and I will just not right now. Writing about all these people in one post would be insane. One of the first speakers was Angelina Jolie. She spoke to honor Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for advocating the importance of girl’s education.  After Angelina’s speech, Tina Brown, the editor of Newsweek, announced to us that Vital Voice has started the Malala Fund in which Angelina had pledged $200,000 that evening.  The money given to this fund will be directed by Malala herself and will help girl’s in Pakistan get the proper schooling that they all deserve. Malala is not alone. Khalida and Humaira are two other young Pakistani girls who are also making a difference.

What I want you all to know is that Malala was not just a victim of a random act of violence. She was singled out by the Taliban for her actions. In early 2009, Malala wrote a blog for the BBC under a fake name, describing her life under Taliban rule. These writings advocated the education of girls and angered many people. Somehow the Taliban discovered Malala’s real name and that she was just a young girl wanting other girls to receive the same education that she herself was getting. That theatened them so much that on October 12, 2012 they boarded her school bus, asked what one was Malala and shot her in the head.  She was shot at point-blank range in the head while on her school bus in an attempt to silence her, but this only made her stronger. Somehow she survived and is continuing to bring awareness to the lack of education available for young girls in Pakistan. Malala is lucky to have parents that are educated and that understand the importance of their children getting an education as well. Her father always thought that he would be the one with death threats, that sooner or later someone would come for him. He could never have imagined that Malala would be the victim.

           
 Later on in the evening, two girls from Pakistan were interviewed. Khalida Brohi is the founder and director of the Sughar Women Program and only 24 years old, she works to end the tribal violence against women in Pakistan, and Humaira Bachal is the founder and director of the Dream Foundation Trust, an organization that starts schools in her area. The two girls talked about the issues regarding women and girls in Pakistan. In the rural areas of Pakistan, girls are married off at as young as nine years old and then live the rest of their lives under the control of their husbands. These women are not allowed to leave their home except under very special circumstances and even then they must be escorted by a man. Brohi and Bachal told us that these sexist, often uneducated men do not want women to be educated because educated women become independent women, and independent women pose as a threat to their power. 

           
A documentary filmmaker, Sahrmeen Obaid, was interviewed with the girls as well. A clip of a film she made in collaboration with Khalida was shown. In the clip, Kahlida is seen talking to a group of men from a rural village in Pakistan. She asks them what their response would be if a women wanted an education, or went to market by herself, no matter what the scenario was, the men answered the same. While laughing, they responded that, “The answer would be a bullet.”

I had the opportunity to meet these girls and speak with them during dinner. Humaira reminded me of any other 15 year old girl. She reminded me of my friends and of myself. But I do not know if I would have the courage she and Khalida posses. I don't know if I would go to school knowing I could get killed. I do know that it made me realize we do not all live in the same world and I also know that after meeting them I feel more courageous to step out of my comfort zone and stand up for what I believe is right.

            

All the speakers from the first night. Angelina and Meryl are in there not that you can tell.

Humaira and I

America Ferrera and I

Watch Women in the World Summit Live!

We are having a great time!

Check out Women in the World Summit Live by clicking on the following link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw.html

Women in the World Summit

New York City here I come! I cannot wait for the Women in the World Summit, this Thursday and Friday at the Lincoln Center. Angelina Jolie will begin the evening with a speech honoring Malala Yousafzi. The Summit will focus on global issues and engage in first-person storytelling. The lineup for  the event includes Meryl Streep, Melanne Verveer, Diane von Furstenberg, Tina Brown, Barbara Walters, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dr. Hawa Abdi, Zainab Salbi, Eva Longoria, Ambassador Susan E. Rice, Oprah Winfrey, and on and on. All of these individuals have done amazing work in raising awareness for women's rights.

Below is an article on the Summit directly from the Women in the World website. I will be blogging while there so please keep checking for new posts!

Dedicated to spurring global change through sharing stories of courage, survival, and triumph, this year's Women in the World Summit will take place in New York City on April 4th and 5th. The impressive lineup of speakers and performers includes Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Dr. Hawa Abdi, Oprah Winfrey, and many more inspiring women and men from around the world. Topics will range from fighting the scourge of human trafficking to inspiring girls to become world leaders to celebrating female pioneers in the tech sector. Tom Hanks will present a tribute to Nora Ephron.

If you can't attend the event, Yahoo! Shine is proud to announce we will be livestreaming video from the conference on our special Women in the World events page and presenting highlights after each presentation.

The Women in the World Summit was launched by Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, in 2010 and is sponsored by The Daily Beast and Newsweek. "What's exhilarating since the first Women in the World Summit three years ago are the advances women have made, overlooked by our scurrying, insular media world," Brown remarked after last year's conference. In her 2012 closing remarks, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underscored what those advances can be attributed to: "Being a woman in the world means never giving up on yourself, on your potential, on your future. It means getting up, working hard, and putting a country or a community on your back."

2013 highlights include:

• Michaela DePrince, of the Dance Theater of Harlem, performing a ballet inspired by her childhood as an orphan in war torn Sierra Leone. 
• A tribute to one of the year's most courageous and inspiring young women, Malala Yousafzi, by actress, filmmaker, and Human Rights activist Angelina Jolie. 
• Eyewitness accounts of the atrocities in Syria moderated by Barbara Walters.
• A Keynote speech by the Honorable Hillary Clinton followed by a panel on the upcoming women innovators in tech moderated by her daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
• A discussion with Ambassador Susan E. Rice on how 21st century threats are changing the nature of diplomacy.
• Oprah Winfrey interviews one of her heroes, Dr. Tererai Trent, the Zimbabwean activist who is revolutionizing education for women and girls across Africa after being forbidden to attend school herself.

Our Last Day in Kenya

I woke up at 5:30am to spend one last morning with the older 6 as they left for school at 6:20am. I am really going to miss them. Then on to the 8:30am feeding with the infants and play-pen time with the toddlers. Back for one last feeding at noon while mom packed and then Timothy (our driver) arrived at 1pm.

If you remember Megan from our safari, the one who knows Alex Grant, we decided to visit her project before we left this beautiful country. Of course, Rachel accompanied us on our last day. When mom gave Timothy the address, he intensely questioned her. Advising mom this is not an area we should visit,  I think he actually thought he could change her mind. Obviously it didn't work. On to Mlonogo we went.

Megan met us outside her apartment and here is where you need to pay attention; she introduced us to Kate, Kate, and Kate. Yes, she lives with three Kates! Her house mom is British Kate, she came to volunteer 2 years ago and never left. Kenyan Kate is a social worker for Living Positive, Megan's project, and Aussie Kate is a GVN volunteer whom we met on orientation day. Their apartment was very nice but their town is definitely rougher than Roysambu.

British Kate and Aussie Kate started dinner as the rest of us left to walk to the slum that Living Positive has been working in. Living Positive is a social organization that works with HIV positive mothers, providing them emotional support, educating them on health care and started a day care for their children. After a 30 minute walk you could see the tin roofs of a large maze of shacks as we passed a beautiful new condo complex. It was very ironic seeing these two drastically different living conditions so lose to each other. The first set of shacks were hand painted with bright, beautiful colors, announcing Karibuni Shule!

I was not prepared for what we saw. Twenty-five beautiful, happy, children cramed in a 20x16 room. I'm calling it a room but it was a dirt floor, tin sides and tin roof. They were beaming at us! So excited to sing us songs and show us their work. They spoke beautiful English and enjoyed talking with us.

After visiting all three classrooms, we met with Peninah, a woman who has been living in this slum with her husband since 1997. She felt ill in 2001 and got tested for HIV. The result was positive. Instead of hiding from her diagnosis she did a very brave and unusual thing, she told people of her status. Living Positive provides weekly meetings to discuss, educate and support women with HIV. This support is also teaching these women how important education is for their children. The Living Positive daycare provides a school environment until the child is old enough to attend regular school. But now here comes the problem. Although education is "free" in Kenya, the fees for a uniform, books, and supplies are often to expensive for families to afford. I want Globally Free to provide the money that these families so desperately need.. I want this generation to have the choice of an education and escape from the slum. If this generation is educated the living conditions in the slum will surely get better. This was by far the most amazing experience in my life. I loved meeting these women and children and gained so much energy and spirit from their outlook on life. They see the future as bright and beautiful!! They see the need for their children to embrace education and to break out of the boundaries set in place by poverty.

Red door is the outhouse

The pre-school
Two rooms on right, one on left

The Students

B

Kenya Kate in red

Water Company

Rachel!!!!!

Final Good-Bye

Juja Farm

Hi guys, sorry I have not blogged in a while but I have been crazy busy since I got back. I still have several blogs from my trip so stay tuned and I will post them as soon as possible. Here is one now:

Last week I went to visit Happy Life's 2nd campus, Juja Farm. Three years ago HLCH bought 5 acres of land outside of Nairobi in the countryside. The purpose of this campus is to provide a home like setting for the school aged children from Happy Life whom are not yet adopted and do not have school sponsors. Kenya school is "free" but parents are responsible for books, school supplies and uniforms which amounts to $30 a month or $360 a year. The 6 older kids I talk about have sponsors from various countries like Kenya, USA, Canada, Switzerland and Sweden. But most of Happy Life kids do not have sponsors. This campus servers as a home and provides a home school environment for these children.

Juja is located 30-40 minutes outside the city in a small rural community. The campus is beautiful. There is one finished home housing 17 kids and one remarkable mum, Grace. The second home is halfway complete. Across from the homes is an all-purpose building which holds church services for the kids and community members and various gathering events. At this time the children are schooled in the large building but this is a temporary solution. Plans for three classrooms are drawn but are on hold until funds are secure. The goal for Juja Farm is to be an asset to the community as well as the children that live there. A place to provide jobs, a place to worship, a school and eventually a health clinic.

I have a great passion in educating children in developing countries, especially girls. Globally Free is not just a blog but I am currently forming a 501c(3) non-profit with the same name. My first goal is to raise the needed money to build three classrooms at Juja Farm. It was inspiring to see these beautiful, charming, eager to learn children showing me empty land with goats roaming and describing a building that will one day be built to educate and inspire them. The total cost of this project is $25,000. This will give our 17 plus community children a school and will provide about four jobs for community women. My goal is to raise money for the school so when I start my junior year in August, these students can also start classes in their new school.

Birthday in Kenya

It was quite a full day of birthday celebrations. We started off at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage. They currently have 22 baby African elephants, most of whom are orphaned by poachers. The orphanage is only open from 11am-noon. The staff are world experts on hand-rearing baby elephants with 24 hour care, including sleeping in their stables. I hope Ava does not read this part because she would be very jealous of the keepers. We then had lunch at Carnivore, a Brazilian-style restaurant. Yes, I did eat meat but did not try the ox balls. They sang me not one but three birthday songs and gave me free dessert.

We arrived back at the human orphanage and decorated for the party. We had cake for everyone and a special party for the older 6. Instead of presents for me, my mom and I had presents for them, mostly school supplies, books and candy. We watched Brave with the 6. It was a very busy but memorable 16th birthday.

The birthday cakes were quite interesting. No wonder there are no fat people here, no one really knows how to bake. Not to be cruel, but the cake decorating looked as if a small child had done it. Someone needs to teach these people about cake. And cards. There are no generic "Happy Birthday!" cards. There are cards for happy 1st - 12th birthday, and then "Happy Birthday from Specific Relative" (aunt, uncle, sister, brother, etc). It was very strange. The other volunteer here, Rachel, made this work by drawing in a 1 before the six on "Happy 6th Birthday" card.

The card from the older kids was the best though. Leah felt the need to write any word she could possibly spell on the outside of the card. She showed us her excellent rhyming skills. She started with luck, tuck, buck.... and so on until she reached the letter F. My mom caught her before she wrote it completely and convinced her that the 'c' should be an 'i'. Swear word avoided.