Penpals

Be a Penpal with Kalkidan in Ethiopia!

Meet Kalkidan Girma, a 10-year-old girl in Ethiopia’s Selamta Family Project going into the third grade. She is currently being sponsored by Eliza, an amazing 8-year-old girl who donated her birthday money to girls’ education, and sent us a check in a envelope decorated with butterfly stickers!

Kalkidan finished third in her second grade class last year! We’re so excited to welcome her to the She’s the First family. She even knows already that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up!

Kalkidan came to Selamta four years ago with her brother Yohannes and sister Tigist after her father died. At Selamta she lives at the Minilik House with her eight Selamta siblings.

Kalkidan means “promise” in Amharic and with this sponsorship, She’s the First has promised Kalkidan an education. We’d love to hear some encouragement you have for Kalki as she starts third grade and then we’ll send all your comments back to her!

What was your favorite part of third grade? Do you remember a particular project or topic of study that inspired you? And take a look at her amazing report card. This girl is really going places!

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Can You Help Elizabeth Find Colleges in London?

Elizabeth David, a KISA Scholar in Tanzania sponsored by GIRLS WHO ROCK 2010, is enjoying a well-deserved holiday from school right now, and is using her time off to dream big about her future! She wants to go to business school in London, but needs our help!

In our most recent letter to Elizabeth, we told her about UN Week in New York and asked her what she thought about us sharing her letters with all of you – it sounds like she is excited to hear from the She’s the First community! Check out her letter below, and help us do some research on her behalf!

Elizabeth Says:

Hi,
Its realy nice to hear from you guys since i’ve missed your letters a lot. My holiday is going well but kind of fast though. By the way, I had a favor to ask, please when you have time can you help me to do a research on the net on good universities in London which provide scholarships and some other important info cause I was thinking about having my first degree of business administration there. I will be very gratefull.

Till next time,
Elizabeth.

Do you want to help out and do some research on London universities for her? Do you have any advice for her in her college search? We know you all have great ideas! Leave her comments below and we’ll send them back to her!

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Be a Penpal with Glory John from Tanzania!

Thanks to the funds raised from our Flip cams, She’s the First has been able to sponsor two more girls from the Kisa Project! Meet Glory John, one of the lucky girls, and and become her penpal by writing to her in the comments!

Glory John is 19 years old and the first born in her family. We recently received a letter from Glory John about what she’s doing in school and a little more about her and how excited she is to be a part of the She’s the First family.

Glory John says:

Hello She’s the first!
Am very happy to have you as my sponsors, friends and important people in my life.
I am Glory John, a form five student at ENABOISHU HIGH SCHOOL. Am glad that i got a chance to be here for my further education. My ambition is to work on big companies like UN since i really wish to help women,orphans,refugees and street children.
I fill sorry for my self because i did not make a digital story. But i wish one day to do that and you will get to hear it when am done. Is that fine with you my dudes?
guess what!I only stay with my father my mother passed away almost 6 years ago, i some time miss her allot and wish to be by her side but she is no where to be seen. Am sure if she could be around and hear everything about KISA she could be proud of me and you my sponsors. But God is good he has given me new friends{sponsors}who have been good to me always and they are very concern. IT’S YOU SHE’S THE FIRST.
I love you more than you can guess and i wish one day to see you all. You know what? Am proud of you all cause you told me some of you are doing music and is the thing i really love in life.
Will you mind to tell me which kind of music are you doing?

Comment below and tell Glory all about your favorite music, and ask the questions you want answered about her life. We’ll send your notes to her to answer!

[Editor's note: Letters from students are not edited for grammar, style, etc.]

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Be a Penpal with Eli from Tanzania!

Meet Eli! She’s one of the two new Kisa Scholars now sponsored in the AfricAid program in Tanzania. The $4,000+ raised from sales of the She’s the First Flip cam collection funded her education, making all of YOU her sponsors.

Eli wrote to us this week, letting us that she’s now the head girl and expressing what it means to her to have your support and encouragement. We’re so inspired and moved by her words, and we know you will be, too:

thanks a lot ladies !!!!

i am doing well in school and i am very busy preparing my self for the terminals exams next week !!!
i have good news 4 kisa members and you sponsors!!!most of us have chosen to be leaders here at school!!! we had election last week and i am THE HEAD GIRL!! Now i can make what i learn in kisa IN ACTION!!! Lovely!!!
at SCHOOL I am doing HISTORY ,LANGUAGE ,PHILOSOPHY & SWAHILI!!!! SO HOPEFULLY I WILL BE JOURNALIST !! I HOPE TO READ YOUR MAGAZINES!!!!!!!
AM HAPPY BECAUSE NOW I CAN STAND AND TELL PEOPLE WHAT IS WRITE AND WHAT IS WRONG IN LIFE!!I LEARN TO FORGIVE AND FORGET!! THERE IS WHERE YOU CAN MOVE ON!!!IN KISA WE LEARN ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER AND MAHATMA GANDHI !!THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVED IN LOVE! TEY SAY ,”LOVE YOUR ENEMY
!’”WHEN YOU LOVE AND FORGET & FORGIVE THEN YOUR LIFE BE PROGRESS!!!
IT IS GOOD WHEN YOU HAVE COURAGE!!!WHEN YOU HAVE SUPPORTERS!!! U FEEL YOU ARE NO LONGER A LONE !!!AND THERE IS WHERE YOU FIGHT TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME REALITY !!WE SHOULD NOT LIVE OUR DREAMS BUT WE ARE THE ONE MAKES OUR DREAMS LIVE!!!
KISA IS THE BEST FAMILY !!THE FAMILY THAT UP GRADE!!!I AM HAPPY BEING IN KISA !!I HOPE TO HERE BACK FROM YOU SO SOON!!!

Here’s the digital story she put together to tell us about her life. She’s already a digital storyteller!

Eli wants to be a journalist and help women and children, just like so many on the She’s the First team. Comment on her video and letter below and we will ensure she gets all your warm messages of support. Check back for her response!

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Grace & Happiness: Wishing to Meet Us Someday

Grace and Happiness in Tanzania this June

Grace and Happiness write to us shortly after their American visitors left Arusha, Tanzania, where they saw the Kisa Project in action [here are photos]. AfricAid is planning the trip again in 2012…maybe some of us will be able to go! In the meantime, Grace & Happiness are very loving, but seem a little shy in their letters –what stories do you want them to tell you about their lives? Ask them questions in the comments!

Grace writes:

Thanks for the concern [Grace was ill a few months ago], am doing well now. Am so happy to receive your book plus being visited by Ashely and her family…also there were many speakers from USA who inspired us…I wish that one day you will come…hope you had a nice concert
I wish you marvelous time
lots of love,says Grace

Happiness writes:

hi..well i was sick for some time but am okay now..
How is everything there?here things are alright we are about to close for 2weeks holiday and the coming exams so we are busy..i personaly enjoyed the time with Ashley and the guests…and i was inspired by there stories..

Also, check out AfricAid’s new video about the Kisa Project — a few girls were chosen to speak to how the program has changed their lives…and Happiness is one of them!

 

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Music Really Is Universal: Letter from Tanzania

Elizabeth is in the pink hoodie, flipping through the She's the First yearbook with Grace and Happiness.

Elizabeth David, sponsored in Tanzania by GIRLS WHO ROCK 2010, sends her gratitude for the She’s the First yearbook we sent her — and turns out she’s a big JoJo fan, too! Sounds like Elizabeth could use encouragement for her big exams coming up — leave her some in the comments!

I’m so happy to hear from you. The year book was so amazing it made us smile the whole day,and ofcourse we know JoJo and we were so amazed to see her in the book.She has grown up so much, I loved all her songs but my favourite one is baby its you featuring Bow wow.

It was so nice to see Ashley [Shuyler, the founder of AfricAid & the Kisa Project] again and to finaly meet her parents.This year in kisa we are going to base mainly on leadership immersion and like giving back so that when we finish form six we will teach the girls at our community.

I hope the concert went well and you had a lot of fun,thank you very much for year book,you guys look amazingly gorgeous and the she’s the first bracelets are very cute too. Also thanks a lot for the books and the article, the book is so interesting.
Hey gues what, am at home for a two weeks holiday. The past few months have been very challenging in terms of my studies and busy too since we have a MOCK exam on the late August. My mom even told me that I look a bit more skinny than before, even I think its true.

Pass all my love and thanks to all she’s the first and to the pretty JoJo.

Lots of love and thoughts,
Eliz.

Posted in AfricAid's Kisa Project, GIRLS WHO ROCK, Penpals | Tagged , | 2 Comments

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!


Posted in Penpals, Project Education Sudan, Voice Your Verse | Tagged , | 2 Comments