10×10 Weekly News Digest

Welcome to 10×10′s weekly News Digest. In case you missed them, here is a sampling of some of the week’s most interesting articles on girls’ education and women’s empowerment. Happy reading!

 

 

An Education Revolution

At last week’s Open Forum 2012–provocatively titled “Money, Power & Sex: The Paradox of Unequal Growth,” Africa’s leading activists, academics, artists, businesspeople, and policy-makers gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss the factors influencing and driving change on the African continent. During a “Google Zone” panel to discuss the role of storytelling in spurring a global movement for girls, 10×10′s Egyptian writer, Mona Eltahawy, and eL Seed, 10×10 Global Champion, discussed the ways in which their writing and “calligraffiti,” respectively, attempt to create revolution through art.

As it happens, this was not the only opportunity for us to discuss revolution during our few days in Cape Town — to me, revolution was the most powerful idea that emerged from the time I spent at the Open Forum. Of course, it was relevant during a plenary on the ongoing legacy of the Arab Spring on the eve of the Egyptian elections, but underneath these events capturing the world’s attention lies a less visible, but no less critical revolution: the efforts of young people all over the world to demand a quality education.

As a case study, take Equal Education, a grassroots movement of students, parents, teachers and community members working for high-quality and equal education in South Africa. This organization has tackled a number of persistent infrastructure and other challenges for schools in townships throughout Cape Town, including insufficient textbooks and poorly maintained libraries. But rather than charging in with a model for development and imposing it upon the schools and their students, Equal Education arms students themselves with the information and tools to advocate for the changes that they want to see happen. In 2008, for example, Equal Education asked students in Khayelitsha to go into their schools and take photographs of anything that they thought affected their learning. One young woman, Zukiswa Vuka, came back with a photograph of her school’s broken windows. It turned out that there were more than 500 broken windows at Luhlaza High School, which made it difficult for students and teachers alike to concentrate and moreover, to be proud of their learning environment.

Through a combination of meetings with school management, petitions, press, and the tireless efforts of students who mobilized their friends to raise awareness of the broken windows in their own schools, all of the windows at Zukiswa’s school were eventually fixed. There are many more schools and many more broken windows, in Khayelitsha, and in townships and slums and villages all over the world. But this small victory illustrates the power of students around the globe who are working to demand what they know is right; what they are entitled to, no matter what their circumstances: the chance to learn.

And what do these passionate and committed students call themselves? The Equalizers. Talk about revolutionary!

A Beautiful Mother’s Day Greeting

Send a Mother's Day Card

For Mother’s Day this year, we wanted to do something a little different.

As you may know, we’re creating a film focusing on 10 phenomenal girls and the barriers they face to education.

What you may not know is that we’re taking 3 different trips to 10 different countries to meet with hundreds of inspiring communities, teachers, organizations, and girls.  That’s 30 trips.

And that’s a lot of stories.

We’ve gone through our digital stack of photos and pages of conversations to choose the most beautiful visuals and moving quotes, gathered from the inspiring mothers and children we’ve had the pleasure to meet along the way.

This Mother’s Day card is a combination of our favorites. And you can customize it and send it to a mother you love, at no cost, as we hope to spread the word about the 10×10 campaign.  We love these stories, and we hope you, your friends and the fantastic mothers you all know might, too.

Happy Mother’s Day from 10×10.  Send a card now >

Girls With Courage: From Kenya to Tennessee

Bailey Frost with local school girls, in Lwala, Kenya.

I’m starting to learn that when it comes down to it, girls are girls, no matter where you are.

My name is Bailey Frost and I am a member of the class of 2012 at the Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, Tennessee, an independent girls’ school deeply committed to making education accessible to women and girls all over the world.  We recently created a partnership with the Lwala Community Alliance, a non-profit organization helping the people of Lwala, Kenya through girls’ education initiatives.

Marculate Akinyi lives in Lwala, and she wants to be a highly educated woman. She cooks and cleans for five younger siblings, but always manages to finish the homework she is assigned. At the end of her 7th grade year, Marculate’s uniform was too small and torn for her to continue attending school, so she began to sell vegetables by the road to earn money to purchase a new uniform. Fortunately, she was able to get help from an organization called Got Your Back, and continue on to the 8th grade. Marculate plans to go to high school and university in order to become a lawyer. When asked why she wants to be a lawyer, she replied, “So I can judge people fairly and help them have better lives.” Her comments reveal not only a remarkable maturity and wisdom, but also the perseverance and courage that keep her from dropping out of school.

Marculate is a great example for young women all over the world.  She, and girls just like her are making a difference in the Lwala community.  However, their education risks being compromised by illness, lack of sanitary towels, chores, early marriage, and countless other obstacles. But despite all, she holds tight to her ambition.

Harpeth Hall students are trying to help by hosting two fundraisers raising more than $3,000 to fund mentoring programs and provide scholarships for girls to attend Lwala High School. I was fortunate to travel to Lwala this past January to distribute new school uniforms to 6th- 8th grade girls. On one particular day, I was assigned to interview a group of girls from Kadianga Primary School. As I sat on the grass, hands folded, trying to think of what to say, 15 girls stared back at me, watching my every move and waiting for me to speak. Interviewing the girls about their lives and hardships seemed so simple, but I didn’t realize they would end up shifting my views.

Looking around, I asked who would like to go first. All the girls were silent for a moment, but then simultaneously raised their arms to point at the girl sitting directly across from me. Another student nudged her and said, “She is the brave one.” “The Brave One” was Marculate.

As I said, I’ve learned that when it comes down to it, girls are girls, no matter where you are. Our ethnicities, cultures, and economic backgrounds don’t make us different from one another.

What makes one stand out from the rest is that some girls like Marculate are courageous enough to pursue their education and better their lives, even when they face great odds.  We’re doing what we can to help, and I think you should too.

 

Director’s Notebook

10×10 Director, Richard Robbins sent us his thoughts from the field while filming 10×10 in Peru.

I haven’t made it up to La Rinconada yet – still trying to acclimate to 13,000 feet before heading up to 17,000. I have now been to eight of our 10 countries. I figure I’ve now seen enough to offer some general observations about the world. Mostly the not very profound things that have occurred to me over the last two years, from a tired American traveler’s perspective.

So here, in no particular order, are 10 thoughts about the planet and traveling it.

  1. The bicycle is a staggeringly important invention. Most of us don’t realize how this simple piece of technology transforms many millions of lives. The world would not function without it.
  2. It doesn’t take too much travel to realize that we Americans coddle our children, very often to their detriment. Children are truly capable, and basic responsibility is not a burden to them.
  3. When in doubt, don’t eat it. A little hungry is a lot more manageable than a little sick. And honestly there is rarely such a thing as “a little sick.” Oh, and you do not want to try the local delicacy. I promise.
  4. Dignity is the most precious human commodity. More than health, money, power or even education.
  5. Long-term planning is not a skill or a lifestyle or a cultural phenomenon. It’s a luxury afforded those of us with a somewhat certain future.
  6. The joy of children is universal. And there is no creature on the earth more adorable than a little girl. Little boys can be cute too but they have a nasty habit of throwing rocks at things they find interesting. Like me.
  7. The world has an extraordinary shortage of trash cans and a lot a lot of trash. Also, in most of the world there is really no such thing as clean, just degrees of dirty.
  8. When taking care of business, a careless squat (for those of us without a lifetime of practice) can be catastrophic. A mistake you will only make once (sober).
  9. There is more kindness and more cruelty in the world than you can ever get your head around.
  10. There is no national or cultural dominance when it comes to annoying ringtones. They are everywhere.

Life and Production in La Rinconada, Peru

The 10×10 film team is in production in La Rinconada, Peru, considered by some to be the highest city in the world. It’s also one of the harshest, most lawless, desolate places on earth.

Senior Producer Martha Adams walks us down the muddy roads of La Rinconada in this audio slideshow, a tough place to film if there ever was one.

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