Asante sana!

Mary E. King, award-winning author, professor, scholar and lifelong activist for peace and nonviolent action, reminded us that peace is not possible without the involvement of women and women’s groups. Societies must include the community-minded issues and programs of women and listen to women’s voices on every level. Ms. King gained prominence in 1965 when she co-authored Sex and Caste – A Kind of Memo with Casey Hayden, a manifesto on the treatment of women compared with the treatment of African Americans. http://www.maryking.info/Mary-King-Sex-and-Caste-Memo.html I loved Ms. King’s wisdom about government deriving its power from the people. Much of the first day’s message was that each of us carries the power to create a positive, peaceful world.

I believe nonviolence begins with an understanding of creating peace within. Michael Nagler, founder of Metta Center for Nonviolence in Berkeley, CA (http://www.mettacenter.org/) said that, “right globalization comes from the people’s drive to create beloved community. The universe came from pure consciousness; we came from pure consciousness.”

As I listened to these very different supporters of social change and social justice, every part of my mind and body was awake and vibrating with ideas to do more to change the world and increase awareness about the possibility of nonviolence, consciousness, and peace. Yes, we live in a time of overwhelming self-indulgence with media that speaks of a “just war” in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there is no way to stop war without stopping war. Period.

The very animated and enthusiastic founder of Riverside School in India, Kiran Bir Sethi, (http://www.schoolriverside.com/team.aspx?&siteID=1&nodeId=66) teaches students to take charge and reminded us that we should teach for relevance and build relationships with our children, not offer a static, information-based curriculum. We can believe in a child and foment their individual gifts and talents from an early age, rather than force them to memorize and regurgitate facts.

Each speaker reminded me of the significant, inspiring opportunities I have everyday through my connections with the grantees of my Do A Little foundation. I was encouraged to search for more resources to support the Daraja Academy so that the girls will be empowered to take what they are learning out into the world and apply every morsel of wisdom to all they do. We can all extend our knowledge and growth to everyone we meet, and create a sustainable system of transformation and oneness as Dr. King suggests:
… today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of
change. The large house in which we live demands that we transform
this worldwide neighborhood into a worldwide brotherhood.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here?
16 August 1967

Read more here.

My intention was to raise funds for scholarships for 26 of the 52 students. With the gracious generosity of those who attended and some who did not, we raised close to $42,000. While we did not reach my goal of $65,000, some people have promised to contribute later, and I assure you that every penny will be used wisely. Some guests donated funds for cows, textbooks, health examinations, and field trips. It was an exciting night of sharing the beauty of the school through the film by Emmy-Award winning director, Barbara Rick, and personal stories told by board members, and founders, Jason and Jenni Doherty.

Last week, the film about Daraja Academy was uploaded to the Girl Effect Facebook page, and had over 1100 hits in two days. The concern for girls’ education is an international passion, and one that I am committed to expanding through outreach, sharing information, and highlighting the disparities between opportunities given to boys and those given to girls. For girls and women living in poverty, education leads to better health, and improved lives.
Facts are:
• More than 10,000 girls a day will get married before they turn 15.
• More than 60% of the 110 million children out of school are girls.
• One in three women and girls in the developing world live on less than $2 a day.

The Daraja Academy is providing leadership skills, exceptional teaching with Kenyan teachers, and role models to empower the students.

Thank you all for working with me to better the lives of these young women.

Asante sana!

About The Film:
Celebrating the unique and powerful Daraja Academy in Kenya: the first free all-girls secondary school in all of East Africa. www.daraja-academy.org

Executive Producer Deborah Santana. Directed & Produced by Emmy-winning filmmaker Barbara Rick. Cinematography & Sound by Jim Anderson. Edited by Ann Collins. Associate Producer/Assistant Editor Julia Wrona. Music by Salvador Santana, Rachael Sage, John Califra & Pearson Constantino. A Production of Out of The Blue Films, Inc. a 501(c)(3)

One of the many intentions of Daraja Academy is to house girls of different tribes together in the dorms so they can learn each other’s similarities and differences. It is part of the “bridge,” which is what Daraja means. Girls are from Masaai, Luhya, Kamba, Meru, Kikuyu, Kambu, Kuria, Somali, Kipsigie and Turkana tribes.

I interviewed the second year girls for the film, asking them to state a life wish. It might seem a lot to ask a girl who has just left a small village or a slum outside Nairobi to dream big, but I trusted that these bright, intelligent young women would have significant goals. And they did:

“If God wishes, I will start my own school for blind people.”

“My wish is when I am rich I’d like to help the needy – the orphan – to build for them a home as Daraja is helping me…”

“I want to be a mommy. I would like to unite all the people of my country and to teach them…to live with harmony and how they will share their things without being in corruption and fighting between them and sit as brothers and sisters.”

“I want to be a pilot because that is where I belong.”

“I wanted to be a doctor, but since hearing about the surgeries I want to be a lecturer.”

“I’m striving to be a doctor.”

“I will continue to work hard on my studies and I know that I will become an important lady in my community and also in my country, Kenya.”

In honor of these remarkable girls each setting a life wish, I include my own: to continue to journey with them, to support their educations and their dreams with all that I have.
Asante sana -
(many thanks)

These are the words of one of the Daraja girls I interviewed – three from Form 2 – in their second year of secondary school, two who had just arrived on campus. Their stories are similar. Siblings are unable to attend high school, like friends, because of the expense. The opportunity to receive an education at Daraja Academy is something each girl is grateful to receive and they want to be here in order to fulfill their dreams.

Kenya is the land that birthed Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Like the Daraja girls, Wangari Maathai was determined to get an education even though most girls in Kenya were uneducated. There are no limits to what the Daraja girls can achieve, especially now that they are in the nurturing environment of Daraja Academy. Their energies and their minds have access to an uncharted territory of possibilities. Classes are taken in Mathematics, Biology, History, Music, Physics, English, Swahili, and Chemistry. The students are in Study Hall from 6:30 – 7 AM and again from 7 – 9 PM; classes begin at 8 AM and end at 3:20 PM. I see girls washing floors, helping each other, cleaning tables, and hanging their laundry on clotheslines behind their dorms. Life is school. School is life.

I have one more full day here at Daraja and in the afternoon peace I listen to rain sweeping over the campus like hands on piano keys – a tender, powerful waterfall of beauty, similar to the magnitude of talent that I see in the girls. A song, a poem, a smile, words of gratitude for being with their scholastic sisters, the experience of being at this private, four-year boarding school this week has given me the gift of remembering what is important in life: Being in a community where growth comes from embracing another’s content of being and offering a hand to walk with someone into the future.

A Form 1 girl (first year student) said that she never expected to attend secondary school, but was told of Daraja by an aunt. She went to a church for an interview with the directors and two teachers. Her Class 8 scores were exceptional, but there were no family funds to send her to school. I asked her how her first few days at Daraja were. “A miracle,” she said. “Everyone is so welcoming and the campus is wonderful!”

There are many things that Daraja needs: water, solar power, laptop computers, textbooks, a new dorm. But there are many things Daraja has that cannot be bought: excitement to learn and every teachers’ dedication to expand these girls’ horizons, respect for humanity, and the promise that these girls’ futures will be brighter than their pasts. Daraja Academy is power and love and I leave with the smiles and love of angels.