It only takes one
I have always held a passion for educating girls.
Maybe it comes from the fact that I was once a girl wanting to be educated. It
could have been that amazing all girl school in the mountains of Berkshire
Massachusetts where I fondly spent a lot of time. It could have been my strong
willed, Italian mother who insisted I would be different. I would be an
educated female in my family. All I know is that a fire has been burning
inside of me for years that girls need a real education. Not something they
just slide through but an education that awakens their soul and opens their
eyes to possibilities that they never felt possible.
So it should be of no great surprise to anyone or
myself that I attended a screening of a movie last night on just this topic. I
made sure I brought my husband and daughters along. It is always a good idea to
share knowledge with others if you want your passion to spread.
So there we were in a beautiful, new movie theatre
in Downtown Hartford getting ready to watch Girl Rising. If you go on www.girlrising.com the website describes the film as groundbreaking with 9 extraordinary
girls from 9 countries. The theme is educating girls to eradicate poverty. As
you can imagine these nine girls live in extreme poverty. Conditions that even
one would consider not possible living in 2013. Yes, they may be stories we
have heard before. We have seen the pictures through the years. It is not
really unheard of it is just unimaginable. As I sit in this theatre living
through each girl’s heartfelt trauma, experience or plainly their everyday
life, I can't stop glancing at my three daughters, my daughters whom represent
the ages of the girls in the movie.
I wonder to myself, how has it all come to this?
How is it that parents are selling their children as slaves, wives, and
prostitutes? How is it that elementary aged school children are forced to have
sex and birth babies but they can't read or write? How is it that as humans we
have fallen off the course of what is right and true and betraying not just strangers
but our own? Where has our humanity gone? Can we really be this lost as a race?
My children like so many others who, have a nice
home for shelter and attend schools that express the importance of educating
the individuality of a person. What do they really have to worry about in the
morning? "Does my shirt match my pants? Is my outfit in dress code? Did she
really say that about me? Do you think he really likes me?" Trust me I am not
trivializing the problems of the young. I understand that it is relative and to
even my own children what is happening to them is important to them at the time,
but it doesn't stop me from wondering.... I think of Sokha living in Cambodia an
orphan child that was forced to live in a dump. I think of Ruksana living
on the streets of Kolkata. Yasmin living in Egypt, who was raped at the age of 12.
Senna living in Peru and has the heart of a warrior but speaks and writes
poetry. Azmera living in Ethiopia, and thanks to her brother has not been a
child bride. Amina living in Afghanistan was married at the age of 12 and bore
a child. Her dowry money was used to buy her brother a used car. Wadley in
Haiti, who literally fought for her seat in the classroom after the earthquake.
Only 8 years old but her desire to learn outweighed anything else she could do
with her time. There is Mariama a girl in Sierra Leone who has the bright
future ahead of her in radio. Lastly, I think of Suma a beautiful girl living
in Nepal. She was forced into bonded labor at the age of 6. Forced to work from
dawn until the middle of the night. No food, no rights, no love and yet a heart
full of hope and strength. She now rescues other girls from a fate that was
once her own.
These girls that live in the worst possible
conditions but have a light inside of them that glows of pure strength, beauty
and resilience. A smile on their faces a persistence that they can and will
beat the odds that were handed to them just because they were born a girl in
their country.
Then there are the unspeakable crimes, the rapes,
sexual assaults, trafficking, and these girls with no rights. No rights over
their bodies, because they are girls. Some of their parents try to be strong
for them but what can you do for your child when your own government doesn't
give you the power to protect your own. It all sounds so hopeless, maybe too
big to even contemplate some sort of change. And yet there these girls are with
hope all around them, the spirit of the fight strong and bold. You could almost
sense the change around the corner. I think it only takes one, save one
girl and she will pay it forward. One will multiply into hundreds, hundreds in
their communities, in their families, and than in our entire world. It only
takes one! Somewhere along the way I always knew that. Even when I was young, I would try to help a stray animal or give the only money I had to the guy
in front of the grocery store who collected for others in need. It only takes
one. I think my mother worried about me that I was too sensitive to the needs
of others. She would often say, "You can't save the world!" She was
right in a sort of way that mothers try to teach their children a lesson. Know
who you are giving your money away too before you do. Is your money going to whom
you want it to and helping the right people? These are important lessons that
as a child I did not think of, as I would give what ever I had to whoever asked. As a logically
thinking adult I do truly understand that.
Yet, there is a nagging inside of me saying if we
all had that innocence of a child would we be living in a better world? If we
as adults took care of our kids to the best of our abilities, not because that
is how generations did it before us, but because in our hearts we knew it was
the right way to treat another human being, another soul. Just because we grew
up a certain way does not mean that people should continue down the same path of
history instead of progress. We know this about so many things but seem to lose
it in raising our young. Our young girls are the hope, future and promise of
tomorrow.
I ask that if you can see this movie, donate or
learn more about the work that 10x10 is doing please take a look. I ask that in
parenting your kids show them how they can be an ambassador for humanity and
the betterment for all. I ask that you remember the importance of educating
girls to be all that they can be, leaders, mothers, doctors, and lawyers. Film
makers, writers, artists, and whatever they aspire too. The importance is
education. When you educate a girl you change who they are and who they can
become for them, their village, their country and for our world.
Ciao
Sally
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