"KaKenya" Woman of Strength!

KaKenya is a young girl from Maasai, Kenya that decided to continue in school instead of dropping out at 12 years old and becoming a teen mother. She told her father that she wanted to continue school. He agreed if she goes through her woman ceremony. During her woman ceremony, she endured the most painful genital mutilation. She was in pain for weeks, but she did attend high school. After graduation she received a scholarship to a college in Virginia. She is the first girl in her village to attend college and earn her PhD. Afterwards, she returned back to her community to help her people. She found out that it was illegal in Kenya to mutilate girls and they had the right to own land. She founded an organization called KaKenya Center for Excellence. Girls were able to go to school and not get mutilated anymore and gave them their self-worth back (KaKenya Center for Excellence, 2016). Loved this story!

In KaKenya’s story she realized that education was important and would change her life for the better. Even though her mother was not educated she instilled in her children that they should have a better life than her. No matter what country you are born in education gives you a better quality of life (KaKenya Center for Excellence, 2016).

The fact that the men in her society felt like boys were better, KaKenya fought the odds and changed her life and the life of woman in her village. I hated the fact that men thought her scholarship was a waste because it did not go to boy. However, she found a way for her village to get her plane ticket to the USA to go to college. I hope today the men in her village are no longer sexist (KaKenya Center for Excellence, 2016).

KaKenya Center for Excellence. (2016). http://blog.teacollection.com/kakenya-gfc#more-18989?utm_source=GFC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2016MarGiveBackEmail

Watch her story on TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/kakenya_ntaiya_a_girl_who_demanded_school?language=en

Atlanta Community Food Bank: Our Story

There is no excuse for poverty in our society today. I think poverty is
breed by greed. We have to pay for our own housing, food, and clothes to companies
that are making so much profit to fund their comfortable life styles. Just
because most of us do not have the immediate means or the immediate opportunities
to succeed financially as they do, should not mean that people should stress
even more to live comfortably. Everyone cannot live rich. Somebody has to live
poor for someone to live rich. Why not everyone live on the same playing field?
Oh wait, that is considered communism. Ugh! Why don’t the world just start over
for Pete's sake!

Lagos Women Empowering Themselves

In Lagos, Nigeria there is an organization called Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND). KIND helps women and girls advance in spirit and education so they can possibly one day be leaders for social and economical change. They first are teaching women and girls to be responsible for their own lives, body, communities and eventually the nation of Nigeria. They live in a male dominant society and are trying to gain their basic rights as woman. The change in this regards is moving slowly (Global Fund for Children, 2011).

Looking at the video has opened my eyes to the poverty of Nigeria. What I know of Lagos was not that because I enjoy their movie industry. It is recorded in the nicer part of Lagos. Most of the characters in the movie were women. However, just like any city there is the poor and the rich.

Global Fund for Children. (2011). Empowering Women in Nigeria. Retrieved from http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/empowering-young-women-in-nigeria/

 

 

Hope House Summer Camp: A Father is Still a Father

Global Fund for Children is an organization that is internationally based but it included USA. They help children who are faced with choices of either working or going to school. They even have a fear of being military soldiers or slaves. Global fund for children helps kids go to school and achieve their dreams. They have reached almost 10 million children worldwide. They ask for donations which eventually turns into Cash Grants and Building Services that goes to helping the children (GFC, 2014).


One of the programs that GFC awarded is a camp called Hope House summer camp. It is a camp in Washington DC where children who has fathers in prison have the opportunity for 25 hours out of the year to go visit their father and spend time with their father. This privilege is used as an incentive for fathers in prison to be well-behaved throughout the year so they can see and spend time with their child. I think this is a wonderful program because even though the fathers are in prison they can still contribute to society by positively influencing their own child (GFC, 2014).

This subject did not have much to do with diversity but like I mentioned in my discussion, sometimes it is a bit hard for me to relate to diversity stories outside my culture unless I meet the people in person. It's weird I know. I know I should be learning about other children of different countries but I just have a heart for my own race first. That is just how I feel. You ever heard the phrase fix your own house first before you fix another? Don't get me wrong I take care of children of all nationalities now, white, black, Asian, and Hispanic all the same. I was just related to this story because it was within my culture because I grew up without my father much in my life. I am thankful we have a relationship now. Also, my son had a father that went to jail for almost a year or so twice I think. I am trying to push their relationship together because it is not as close as it should.

GFC. (2014). Finding Hope at a Summer Camp Behind Bars. Retrieved from http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/finding-hope-at-a-summer-camp-behind-bars/

The Global Fund for Children

I first explored the Global Fund for Children website.

I came across a blog about children in Hermanos Ayer in Peru (I think it was Peru) that talked about how they are trying to keep the children in school instead of starting work so young. They have one early childhood program. They are helping the parents with their education and working skills so they can better support their children’s education.

I them signed up on their email list to email me any information about what the organization is doing for the children. I did ask could I send anything other than money and what do children need educationally in the African and Middle East region of the world.

I next went their Facebook page to Like their page and to check out the comments to see if I could connect with a person. The organization is located in Washington, D.C. and they do provide a number and address. I called the number and left a message about how to give tangible donations instead of money. I have also emailed this request.

https://www.facebook.com/GlobalFundforChildren/timeline GFC Facebook

http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/ GFC Website

How a Child Processes Information

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
-Confuscious

Confuciuos. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/confucius136802.html

When I read this quote it lets me know how children really process information. I just can't tell them. I have to give them hands on activities so they can remember.

College Should Be in High School

I have always said that teenagers should earn their degree in high school and the state pays for it rather than going to college to learn your degree. To me it is a perfect opportunity for teenagers to focus more on what they want to learn instead of what the state say they should learn. For example, I do not use Algebra, Chemistry, Geometry, and most of World History in my day to day life. Only thing that was really useful was English or Language Arts. I would have been better off studying Psychology in high school. The point is that children should be measured on their own intelligence. If a child is good at music, measure that intelligence. If a child is an artist, measure them on that intelligence. I am good at studying behaviors, I would have rather been measured on that intelligence. This country would definitely would have less drop outs.

Meanwhile in China, they have developed a system called high-stakes testing centuries ago. They teach their children through intense rote memorization. They have long hours of school and tons of homework. Of course they test, test, and test to see who the best student is. The teachers keep their jobs based on how well their student’s academic achieve maybe (Mathews, 2014).

I would love to develop a school where they learn skills that can be used right out of high school like it used to be. No offense Walden University. You are a great school but I wish I would have taken these courses in high school 1996-1999.

Mathews, J. (2014). Don’t Go Overboard Praising China’s Schools. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dont-go-overboard-praising-chinas-schools/2014/02/09/bbd51248-8edc-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html