Monthly Archives: May 2011

AAH Runners Go for the Gold

Doreen Watsema receiving her medal and 50,000 shillings

Running for enjoyment and exercise is not an activity practiced or understood by many people who live out in the hills of Bududa, Uganda. Many Ugandans in this area spend their days fetching water, digging in their fields, walking long distances to school or market, and grazing their cows. Therefore, the idea of spending energy on the task of running when it serves no purpose seems, well… silly. You can imagine that it was quite a sight, then, when locals began to see a group of AAH teachers and students running past their homes every evening for the past few months. But after a few weeks, this “event” became routine and people no longer just stared — they cheered everyone on up the hills, and a few brave onlookers even joined the runners.

The running started because AAH was asked to participate in a 5km/10km Fun Run Race, organized by the International School of Uganda (ISU). The race, held on April 3rd, required preparation. In the months before the race, Arlington athletes met every evening to run and train. This training created a great sense of camaraderie between all teachers, students, and community members.

Although this event was new for AAH, this was the 10th year the International School of Uganda held its charitable Fun Run. For 2011, Arlington Academy of Hope was chosen as one of the beneficiaries from the event and all proceeds would directly benefit AAH programs. This was a major privilege for AAH since it is one of ISU’s four partner schools in Uganda. This strong partnership has allowed AAH and ISU teachers to exchange teaching ideas and strategies through ongoing teacher trainings and exchanges.

The day of the ISU Fun Run was something truly magical for the 18 participants that ran on behalf of Arlington Academy of Hope. Each teacher and student felt important because they were representing AAH as athletes in Kampala. Lornah Bisiku, a seventh grade AAH student, remarked on UBC radio that the only time she had been in Kampala was last year for the AAH school field trip. She said she felt so special because she got to be an active participant. All AAH representatives performed well and made AAH proud by happily bringing home 7 medals — 5 students and 2 teachers came out on top!! A few students, who won medals and money, were motivated to continue running and decided to spend their prize money to buy their own pairs of running shoes to practice in.

A month later, students and teaches still proudly wear their medals to school. These examples explain the invaluable exposure these students and teachers experienced due to the ISU Fun Run. After experiencing Kampala and seeing a high-class school, such as ISU, the students were motivated and inspired to work hard to be able to reach such heights again and to continue proudly representing AAH throughout Uganda and the world.

Overall, the event was fun, exciting, and successful. ISU hopes to have brought in close to $5,000 for each beneficiary, a huge step in raising local revenue in Uganda.

Story Credit: Carolyn Edlebeck, Arlington Academy of Hope

[Editor's Note: Arlington Academy of Hope is the for our upcoming GIRLS WHO ROCK concert. Run on over to www.girlswhorock.org to get your tickets -- we'll see you June 10!]

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Tragedy at Afghan School, Global Education Challenge Launches, and Exams in India

Taliban Kills Head of Afghan Girls School

Government officials in Afghan have confirmed that Taliban gunmen were responsible for the death of Khan Mohammad, the headteacher of the Porak girls’ school. Mohammad reportedly ignored numerous death threats from the Taliban warning him to stop teaching girls. Education for women was declared un-Islamic from 1996-2001, and while women have regained many rights, girl who go to school—and the educators who teach them—still face threats and violence from hardline Islamists in the country. Read more here.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Launches Global Education Challenge

Have a great idea on how to improve education around the world? Global education company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has launched an international challenge to find the next big education idea. The company is offering a total of $250,000 in prizes for three winners with the best and most innovative education ideas. The goal of the challenge is to focus on three main issues: transforming student learning, fostering family involvement and enhancing educator effectiveness. For more info, head over to the Huffington Post.

Indian Girls Outperform Boys on National Exam

Almost 92.67% of students in India passed the commerce exam of the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education, a national annual standardized test. 96.38% of the girls passed, while 91.57% of those that passed were boys. Read more about the exams here.

 

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STF*{Hofstra} Girls Rock at Music Fest with Tie-Dye Cupcakes

She's the First*{Hofstra} super stars Chelsea Tirrell, Gennifer Delman and Kaitlin Cubria.

by Kaitlin Cubria

This semester, STF*{Hofstra} members made several collaborative efforts to create awareness and buzz about She’s the First on the Hofstra campus. Between residential housing programs and social media marketing, giveaways and BIG plans for next semester, STF*{Hofstra} became easily recognizable to other on-campus organizations and was able to recruit new members into the STF family.

To end the year with a bang, STF*{Hofstra} Founding President Gennifer Delman, Vice President Kaitlin Cubria, Publicist Chelsea Tirrell, and new e-board member Shea Molloy (who’s also She’s the First’s Summer Creative Associate!) decided to utilize the ingenuity of She’s the First signature tie-dye cupcakes at two music events at their college.

The cupcakes were a hit among everyone!

Hofstra’s Annual Music Fest features acts from well-known musicians, as well as established on-campus music groups, carnival-style rides and activities, hot dogs and hamburgers – free of charge! Naturally, this event generates a great deal of attendance. For such a fun-filled event, it made perfect sense to premiere the tie-dye cupcakes for fundraising.

Clouds and drizzle threatened the success of the program, but the colorful desserts managed to shine through the semi-darkened event. Students and faculty continued to show their support and generosity throughout the day – the cupcakes  were a hit! In fact, because the two hosts for Music Fest were so impressed by the organization, they encouraged the Hofstra community to go to the STF*{Hofstra} table for more information on She’s the First’s mission.

Cupcakes in demand!

The next day, the Hofstra chapter brought more tie-dye cupcakes to the final show of the semester for one of Hostra’s all-girl a’cappella groups, Makin’ Treble. In an attempt to sell more, the founding members were just about to decrease the asking  price of the tie-dye treats. Surprisingly, not one person in attendance was willing to pay less – actually, some members of the audience donated more without taking additional cupcakes, just to applaud She’s the First’s efforts.

It was incredible to experience such heartfelt contributions from the Hofstra community. If this is what could happen in one weekend, then the possibilities for STF*{Hofstra}’s future seem endless.

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A Letter from Mbithe in Kenya!

Today, I was thrilled to receive a letter, report card, and photo from Mbithe Pius at the Kibera School for Girls!

Mbithe is the kindergartner that She’s the First*{Syracuse} sponsored by holding a benefit concert, appropriately titled “Music for Mbithe.” We raised enough money to sponsor her for a full year.

We are happy to see that Mbithe is doing well in school and is enthusiastic about learning!

Here’s what she had to say:

We can’t wait to hear from Mbithe again. We’ll be writing her a letter soon, too. Do you have anything you’d like to say to her? Leave it in the comments!

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Thank You Note from Happiness in Tanzania

We just received a new note from our Kisa Scholar Happiness (below) — filled with gratitude! You may remember it was Happiness’ birthday on April 27th…for those of you who left greetings here, she saw them and is so touched! Last weekend, the girls received their copy of the She’s the First yearbook, and Happiness LOVED it!

Happiness, Grace, Elizabeth with their STF Yearbook

Later in the week, she received her autographed copy of Arianna Huffington’s book On Becoming Fearless. (This surprise came by way of her classmate Elizabeth getting published on the HuffPo in March; be sure to read the story here!)

We couldn’t be prouder of the Kisa Scholars, whom we sponsored with GIRLS WHO ROCK 2010, and are so grateful to have the means to email them directly…do you have any questions or messages you’d like us to pass along? Post in the comments!

hello everyone am glad and was very happy to see the post about my birthday..thanks
well on tuesday last week we had guests in our kisa lesson and it was fun…i personally got the 1st she’s the first yearbook its amazing and thanks to Arinna for the novel”fearless”its amazing too…
love, Happiness

Posted in AfricAid's Kisa Project | Tagged | 1 Comment

Are You a Student Who Likes Cupcakes? Sign up Here!

The She’s the First team is diving into our next big audacious project to sponsor girls — and it’s going to be so sweet, literally! We’ll begin shaping a MASSIVE fall campaign for colleges and high schools nationwide: a week-long tie-dye cupcake bake-off!

The idea is that students nationwide will bake the signature She’s the First tie-dye cupcakes, and sell them in dorms, student centers, and cafeterias to fundraise for sponsorships. There will be some friendly competition — prizes for the highest grossing and most creative high school and college bake sales — and a tremendous global impact!! This campaign is all about scaling the amazing events our campus chapters have done already (because who doesn’t love a cupcake?)

If you are a student and want to get involved this summer in brainstorming and helping recruit schools to participate, sign up here!

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By the Numbers: Ugandan Education Stats

Lunchtime for girls at the Arlington Academy of Hope

There are a ton of reasons to go to the GIRLS WHO ROCK concert on June 10: the incredible talent (JoJo, Eddy, and DJ Kiss, among others), prizes (Fender guitar, anyone?), and venue (Gramercy Theater) are only a few of the elements that will combine to make sure you have an amazing time.

But the real reason we’re doing this is because if we reach our fundraising goal, we’ll send 42 girls to school in Uganda. Yesterday, the founder of Arlington Academy of Hope John Wanda sent us statistics from a Ugandan news site, and I’d like to share them with you to show the odds these 42 girls are up against:

• Ugandan primary schools have an average retention rate of 25 percent between P1 and P7 — that means 75 percent of students drop out before the end of primary school.
• The reasons for drop out? Pregnancy, early marriage, lack of interest, and lack of money. Girls are the hardest hit.
• Uganda has a low rate of contraceptive use, at 23 percent of women.

The article states that education, especially for girls beyond primary level, would reduce the high rate of teenage pregnancies, which are as high as 25 percent, as well as help them make informed decisions about contraceptive use and child spacing.

John adds, “These are national averages. When you look at a specific rural area like Bududa [the location of Arlington Academy of Hope], the statistics are far, far worse. I can say with some certainty that less than 5 percent of the women in Bududa use contraceptives, and the average number of children per woman exceeds nine. Average age of conception is 14 years, and the drop out rate certainly exceeds 80 percent.”

We can stop 42 girls from becoming part of these jarring statistics. Join us June 10, and help us spread the word: Music is universal. Education should be, too.

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Arlington Academy of Hope Students Rock!

Here at She’s the First, we are counting down (just 17 more days!) to our GIRLS WHO ROCK concert. While we can’t wait to see the artists rock on, what we’re most excited about is the cause—proceeds from the concert will benefit the Arlington Academy of Hope in Uganda, a school that provides an education for students from rural areas and poor villages.

But our music artists on June 10th aren’t the only ones who rock—check out this video of Arlington Academy of Hope founder John Wanda as he shares the story of how students there went further than they ever dreamed at a national music competition last year:

You can learn more, buy tickets, and donate to the cause here: http://girlswhorock.org/

See you June 10!

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Girls’ Ed in Rwanda, Coeds in India, & Oprah

Champion of Girls Education Named Oprah’s Favorite Guest

“Education is the only weapon women have to fight poverty, indignity and hunger,” said Dr. Tererai Trent.  Despite enduring an abusive relationship and being a child bride, Trent relentlessly chased her dream of receiving an education.  Now, after being denied the opportunity to go to school as a young girl, Trent is a PhD. scholar.  During her last show on Friday, Oprah surprised this incredible woman by naming Trent her favorite guest on the show and donating $1.5 million to Trent’s efforts to build a school in Zimbabwe! To learn more, follow this link.

Co-Ed Schools Gaining Popularity in India

In Mumbai, a shift in education is occurring.  More parents are opting to send their children to co-ed schools in hopes that a more holistic education surrounded by peers from both genders will result in students feeling more comfortable with one another.  To learn more about the social change in India, follow this link.

Students in Rwanda Praise Equal Education Opportunities

Students at Rwanda’s Lycee de Kigali are praising the school’s efforts to promote girls education.  Nabella Umuhoza, a female student studying Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, remarked, “The provision of equal education opportunities for girls and boys allowed us girls to compete with boys in all subjects.”  Follow this link to read more about the growing educational opportunities in Rwanda!

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Shanti Bhavan Needs Your Help!


Amrutha, one of Shanti Bhavan's graduating seniors

Amrutha, one of Shanti Bhavan's graduating seniors

In the spirit of graduation season, we are so proud to announce that our partner school Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project’s 12th grade class will graduate this June 6th, 2011—and every child in the class will graduate with “First Class” marks. These are children who grew up in the Dalit class in India (a societal lower class who live in extreme poverty) who are proving, thanks to being at Shanti Bhavan for 14 years, what a difference a great education can make.

But despite the great news of the class’s high marks, the school is facing an obstacle in sending all of these bright, talented students to the top colleges in India, a major part of Shanti Bhavan’s goal in educating their children. It costs about $3,200 for each student’s college tuition and room and board, an amount Shanti Bhavan is struggling to support on their own. So now, they need your help to raise the $46,000 needed to send students like Amrutha, whose stepfather once tried to kill her, to get a business education, and Karthika, whose mother works in a quarry breaking rocks, to attend National Law School to fulfill her dream of becoming Prime Minister one day. Visit Shanti Bhavan’s website to learn more about the 2011 graduating class.

We all know what a difference a college education can make, so spread the word to your family and friends: visit Shanti Bhavan’s College Scholarship page to make a donation, no matter how big or small, or you can even host a fundraiser to raise money to send these students to college!

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Meet the Student We Sponsored via Poetry Month Ecards!

Annah Angeth Awan

Bright & early this morning, we received a warm introduction to the student sponsored for a year by She’s the First Poetry Month! To all of you who purchased a $4 ecard for a mother, friend, or teacher, please meet the girl whose life you touched, Annah Angeth Awan. We even have two special handwritten notes for you below! Please feel free to leave a comment and we’ll send it back.

The Executive Director of Project Education Sudan, Carol Rinehart, emailed us the following:

Attached is the Headmaster’s ( Lual Awan John) letter from Pagook Primary school, Annah Angeth Awan’s personal letter to She’s The First and an image taken by the headmaster. As you can read, Annah is a very eager and ambitious young woman who will be the first in her family to continue her education! Thanks to She’s the First and Poetry Month!


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Mama Wude, Selamta Household Mother

Wude (right) with Meseret, the house "Auntie."

The Selamta Family Project in Ethiopia has been recognized internationally for its family-based support model. In fact, at the 2009 International Conference in Africa for Children, Selamta was praised for being the only conference participant to implement this family-centered approach! Now, this model is the recommended standard for HIV/AIDS focused organizations.

At Selamta, the crux of this model are the auntie and head-of household mother. At every Selamta home, approximately 10 children are cared for by these two women. One of these loving Selamta mothers is Mama Wude, head of the Menelik House in Addis Ababa. Like the children living at Selamta, Mama Wude was also an orphan. She also lost her husband to AIDS. Despite these tremendous hardships, she has found happiness caring for the children at the Menelik House. This past Mother’s Day, Selamta interviewed Mama Wude to learn more about her incredible contributions to the family constellation.  The complete interview can be found here. Thanks to wonderful mothers like Mama Wude, the children at Selamta are growing in a loving, happy home!

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Kisa Scholars Receive a Surprise from She’s the First!

Happiness, Grace, Elizabeth

Ashley Shuyler, the founder of AfricAid, a partner of She’s the First in Tanzania, is now visiting the girls in the Kisa Project sponsorship program! When we saw Ashley in NYC last April, we gave her a copy of a yearbook we made on shutterfly.com, filled with photos of our first year as an organization. We ordered an extra copy for the Kisa Scholars, sponsored by GIRLS WHO ROCK 2010, and had the She’s the First volunteer team sign it like a yearbook during our leadership summit in January.

Today, the book arrived in Elizabeth,  Happiness, and Grace’s hands! Ashley posted the photo above to Facebook and sent us this note:

The girls could not have been more elated with their She’s the First yearbook today! They were truly on Cloud 9 and spent literally the hour after class looking through it and oohing and ahhing over every picture — several times. :) I have a dozen photos or so, but the one I attached was about 5 seconds after we gave it to them. They were so excited! I have yet to share the Arianna Huffington books — we’ll do that on Tuesday, when our large AfricAid group visits the school. They will be so excited! I’ll be sure to share more photos and send them whenever I can get a good connection!

All the best from TZ,
Ashley

Check out what the Kisa Scholars saw here (if you supported STF in 2010, maybe your photo is in it)!

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Flexible Learning Programs Help Girls in Bangladesh, Girls Ed Reduces Poverty Level in Nigeria and Aids Development Worldwide

Flexible Learning Programs Keep Girls in School in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, family poverty and poor quality state education forces millions of children out of primary school. Girls in particular lose out as they are often the first to be called on to get a job or help their parents at home. But a new project of flexible learning centres is hoping to change this. Read more here!

Girls Education Reduces Poverty Level in Nigeria
The South-eastern part of Nigeria has recorded significant reduction in poverty levels, thanks to wide spread education of females across various communities.UNICEF’s Associate Director of Education, Susan Durston, said “the number of out-of-school children has decreased from 115 million to 67 million between 1999 and 2008, with notable increases in enrolment in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.” Read more here.

Women, Girls’ Education Crucial to Development
A woman is more likely to get a job and earn a higher wage if she has a basic education: one percentage point increase in female education raises the average level of GDP by 0.37 percentage points. Every additional year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10-20 per cent, and an extra year of secondary school by 15 – 25 per cent. Read more here.

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7th Graders Start a She’s the First Chapter in Iowa!

Campus Coordinators Monica & Casey first skyped the students at VanMeter to spark their interest in She's the First!

She’s the First*{Campus} started with several highly motivated college students who wanted to help change the world. After several successful college chapters have been in place, a group of students at Van Meter is changing the game. They are now the first non-college chapter to be established, and I have had the privilege of working with them from the beginning.

The mind behind all of this, Shannon Miller, was preceded by her reputation before I met her, from winning a Shorty Award for social media. Shannon was incredibly enthusiastic about starting a chapter with a group of 7th grade girls she teaches, and I contacted her initially to help start this. At our first meeting, she assured me that these girls were something special, and they have already proven it.

Fellow Campus Coordinator Monica Townsend and I skyped with the girls before school one morning to hear their ideas for summer fundraising and help them choose a partner school from the STF directory. They have decided to sponsor a girl through the AfricAid Kisa Project with the hope that social media and technology will help them connect with the girl and share her story throughout their town in Van Meter, Iowa.

Within hours these girls were already well on their way to setting up fundraisers and giving talks to their school. I have no doubt that these girls will have great success with She’s the First, and already stand out as leaders for a new direction in STF chapters. Be sure to follow them on Twitter at @STF_vanmeter, on Facebook, and their brand-new blog: http://shesthefirstvanmeter.blogspot.com.

I’m proud to give you a little bit of the back story, but now you should read Shannon Miller’s point of view on her blog! Her students are not waiting.

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Differences Magazine Sponsors GIRLS WHO ROCK!

Differences Magazine. Never heard of it? You soon will! This new online magazine for young women ages 13-22 is set to launch this fall. In addition to providing young women with resources and information on education, finances, and health, Differences also hopes to raise global awareness amongst their readers. That’s where She’s the First steps in!

As their first public initiative, Differences is an event sponsor for the 2011 GIRLS WHO ROCK concert, helping She’s the First fundraise for girls’ sponsorships with our Uganda partner, the Arlington Academy of Hope! “This sponsorship will allow us to show our audience that a group of individuals together with small contributions can make a difference,” said Differences founder Glenda Campbell.

It’s Glenda’s hope that sharing the stories of the girls at Arlington Academy of Hope will be an inspiration to her readers, not only to continue their own educations, but also “to contribute to the global needs of teens and girls.”

Glenda and her daughter, the inspiration for Differences Magazine.

Glenda discovered GIRLS WHO ROCK through She’s the First on Twitter. After speaking with president Tammy Tibbetts and learning more about both organizations, Glenda knew she wanted to be involved. GIRLS WHO ROCK, Glenda said, is emblematic of many of the things that Differences represents: Leadership, education, and global awareness.

I am the first in my family to be involved and own a multimedia company. I would love to become a part of any girl being the first in her family to follow her dream. –Glenda Campbell

Be sure to follow @differencesmag on Twitter and like them on Facebook (they’re looking for writers!).

Posted in GIRLS WHO ROCK | Tagged | 1 Comment

Spread the Word — Set Up a She’s the First Info Table!

Tammy & Sanam at the She's the First info table at the library!

This weekend, the South Brunswick Public Library (hometown of She’s the First founder Tammy) invited us to have a table at the teen volunteer fair! Special thanks to Nora, the Girl Scout who hosted the event to earn her Gold Award, and YA library Saleena Davidson; and to She’s the First volunteer Sanam Ghanchi for sitting with Tammy for 3 hours at the table!

Tabling for She’s the First is a great way to raise awareness, if you’re given the opportunity to do in your school or at community events.

We got a graduation-themed table cloth, spread out She’s the First postcards, collect email addresses in a notebook, sprinkled the table with candy, and displayed our favorite books that people could check out. You can find these books on our online bookshelf here.

What are your favorite ways to decorate an info table? Give us some tips for next time!

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Be a Pen Pal: Write Back to Elizabeth & Grace in Tanzania

The Kisa Scholars in Tanzania are officially back from their vacation and ready to hit the books once again. We love being able to email back and forth with the three students whom GIRLS WHO ROCK 2010 sponsored—Elizabeth, Happiness, and Grace—and hearing directly from them how their time at school is going.

From the looks of their letters, the girls are busy and ready to start their studies! In the comments, leave Grace & Elizabeth a note of encouragement, or a question, which we can relay back in our response! We’ll post Happiness’ update soon.

Grace Lyimo

The following is a message from Grace:

hallow!
Sorry for taking a lot of time to answer you i was having some problems.
I real enjoyed taking economics. as other students i do experience some problems which are normal but i do my best to solve them as i have been taught by mentors that in order to live with people you have to know her weakness and her strength so am happy to be in kisa because its helps me a lot living with people as hear at school we are many people with different culture and comes from different places.
Hope we will communicate more
Have a nice time, till next time.

This is from Elizabeth:

Elizabeth David

how are you doing?I’m fine and going well with my studies,and Grace is doing fine as well.

It feels so good to be on my last year and thinking that soon am going to be in the university but it’s hard work too. It means studying hard so as to get good grades in my mock exam and especially my final exam.

How’s the concert preparation going?Well, I wish you guys all the best.

Lots of love,

Elizabeth.

Posted in AfricAid's Kisa Project | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Ready for Mother’s Day?

Don’t forget — this Sunday, May 8, is Mother’s Day! We’re sure you have something special planned, but if you’re looking to give Mom an extra surprise in her inbox, look no further. Our She’s the First e-cards feature poetry from girls around the world, and we even have a special Mother’s Day design. They’re $4 each, and all profit goes toward sponsoring a girl at Project Education Sudan.

Show your Mom your appreciation for all she’s done, and change a girl’s life.

Happy Mother’s Day from She’s the First!

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Kelsey Thorn

Love the Bruins, graphic design, creative jewelry design and metalsmithing, and the unexpected.
When I’m not on shesthefirst.org I’m surfing: HerCampus.com, NHL.com, Pinterest, and various blogs for creative inspiration.
Female Trailblazer I’d like to meet: Tough one — but up there on the list is Lizzy Janssen, graphic designer for Free People Clothing.
My first: First in my family to pursue a love for graphic design and metalsmithing.
kelsey@shesthefirst.org

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