15/05/2015
12-year-old Mighty Girl Eunice Akoth enthralled the audience at the recent 2015 Women in the World Summit in New York City with a powerful spoken word performance. The young poet from Kibera, one of Kenya’s most impoverished slums, spoke eloquently about her unconquerable dreams for the future: "Every day of my life is a page of my history. Every step that I take is a step to my glorious destiny and so I dream my dream. It's not where I am but where I'm going that matters. My future has nothing to do with my past or present. The hard times I've had make me stronger and better... and so I dream my dream."
Eunice is a sixth grader at the Kibera School for Girls (KSG), the slum's first free primary school for girls that was founded in 2009 by Colorado native Jessica Posner and her husband Kennedy Odede. Kibera is one of the largest slums in Africa, an estimated one million people live there, with no paved roads, clean water, or sewers, in an area the size of New York City's Central Park. After she graduated from Wesleyan, Posner and Odede built the girls' school together using a $10,000 grant and Posner's savings from babysitting.
Determined to make the dream of giving girls of Kibera a chance to go to school a reality, they built the school, hired teachers, and opened the doors, all within a few months. Since the school opened, it has expanded rapidly and, at full capacity, it will serve 400 girls in grades pre-K through 8th grade. So far, the results have been excellent: while only 15 to 21% of second graders in Kenya can read an English paragraph and perform subtraction, 100% of KSG’s second graders can do so.
Eunice knows firsthand the challenges faced by children -- particularly girls -- growing up in Kibera and how fortunate she has been to be able to attend KSG. In an interview, she explained, “Most of the kids in Kibera are r***d, some are neglected by their parents, some are homeless. Most of them have dreams, but they don’t know how they can achieve them.” She added, “I want to go to a university, learn how to be a doctor. I want to help people living around Kibera.” Odede says that she is already helping. “People are now viewing women differently,” he explained. “[They say] I want my daughter to be like Eunice. That’s a change of mind.”
With her poem, Eunice hopes to inspire the girls around her in Kibera, as well as those around the world. “If you just work hard... you will find yourself being whatever you want to be,” she says. In her poem, she declares, “Every mighty king was once a crying baby! Every great tree was once a tiny seed! Every tall building was once in paper! And so I dream my dream!” Her dream seems closer by the day, so she wants others to know they can accomplish the same: “I had to write a poem that tells them that they can achieve their dreams.”
To watch Eunice perform her poem, visit YouTube at http://bit.ly/1cU9Dvk -- or read more on the NY Times at http://nyti.ms/1bG0Cp5
To learn more about the Kibera School for Girls -- and how to support their important work -- visit their website at http://www.shofco.org/project/ksg or follow them on Facebook at Shining Hope for Communities.
For a selection of our favorite books to remind your Mighty Girl that, even if it takes courage, dedication, and hard work, she can change the world, check out our blog post, "Chasing Your Dreams" at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=5781
For an excellent book full of ideas on how you can help change the lives of girls and women around the world, check out the newly released "100 Under $100: One Hundred Tools for Empowering Global Women" at http://amzn.to/1H9CoRl
For several books for young readers about girls and the power of education, we recommend "Razia's Ray of Hope: One Girl's Dream of an Education" for ages 7 to 10 (http://www.amightygirl.com/razia-s-ray-of-hope), "Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan" for ages 6 to 9 (http://www.amightygirl.com/nasreens-secret-school) and "A Girl Called Problem" for ages 9 to 14 (http://www.amightygirl.com/a-girl-called-problem).
And, for a highly recommended book for older teens and adults that discusses how girls and women are fighting back against oppression and transforming their communities, check out: "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" at http://www.amightygirl.com/half-the-sky
