Impressions of Cambodia

Most of our time in Cambodia was time spent in conjunction with my job. We traveled from Siem Reap down to Balang to visit our first orphan home that receives meals from Stop Hunger Now.  Over the next 3 days we traveled down to Phnom Penh, stopping at different orphan homes along the way in Pursat, Kampong Chnang, and Tumnup Island.  Each of the homes were really interesting, having some great sustainable practices such as growing gardens and raising animals. They also re-used our meal bags and boxes in very creative ways which was awesome to see. Overall it was a really great experience, traveling through the countryside and getting to spend time with people that are living day to day life there. It's a completely different scene (as you could imagine) to what tourists normally see in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, or at the beach towns on the coast.

When we arrived in Phnom Penh we saw our partners headquarters office and then they took us to a museum, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The museum was actually an old high school that was turned in to a torture facility during the Khmer Rouge.  I think this was one of the most important stops we made in Cambodia. As mentioned, you can go all through Cambodia the tourist way and never understand the country. Now I don't feel like I realllly know the country (I would need way more than 2 weeks to be able to say that) but I do feel like I know it better than most.  As a child, I was never taught about the Khmer Rouge, and if you're like me, and had never heard about it until now, I highly suggest you Google it. It was a very horrific time in our recent history, key word being recent. The Khmer Rouge happened from 1975 until 1979, however the government party responsible didn't dissolve until 1999.  Some say it was around until the early 2000's in the remote places of Cambodia. During those 4 years an estimated 2,000,000 Cambodians, a quarter of the country, were killed.  And just at the facility we we saw, it was estimated 20,000 were tortured and killed.

The museum we visited was the site of S-21, one of 150 execution centers in the country. The museum isn't like you're normal American museum, it wasn't filled with facts and figures, it was almost 100% imagery.  I've never in my life felt such bad energy. I walked in to one of the rooms of the school and instantly felt like the happiness was being sucked from me. My heart sank. My eyes welled up. It was the strangest, saddest feeling I've ever had. It is absolutely mind blowing that something that horrific happened in our recent past.  Even more mind blowing is that no one really did anything about it - no one seemed to care. Cambodia was eventually saved from the Khmer Rouge by the Vietnamese but it wasn't out of "this is bad we should stop it", it was more out of the fact that the Khmer Rouge was trying to take over Vietnam as well so they decided to put the kibosh on it all. I don't think I'll ever forget that day at that museum. I started to understand the people of Cambodia a bit more - and understood their recent struggle and why they are going through what they are today.

There was something odd about the people of Cambodia. They were wonderful, sweet, and a joy to be around, but it was a strange because people treated us as superior.  I rarely received eye contact from people, and a lot of people lowered their heads in your presence. We also noticed that the government and officials were corrupt and easily bribed. It was all about who you know and who you can pay off, which I think is the case everywhere but here, it was extreme. At one point while driving through Phnom Penh we were stopped for no reason...when our driver (who was American) started speaking in Khmer, he let us go.  Our guide told us that it happens all the time, and basically all they're looking for is people to give them money to go away. Police and teachers are paid as much as factory workers so they themselves become corrupt just to get by.  So strange. However, after visiting that museum, I started to understand why. The people were forced in to labor, the educated were killed, they were brain washed in to thinking the Khmer Rouge was improving the country and there was no one could stand up to them. Horrifying. The children we had met in the orphan homes were so shy. They were malnourished (like the 14 year old girl in my picture, left), doing bad in school, and we were told that school is just not a priority for people in Cambodia - surviving is. Such a different way of life...

After the museum we went down south to Kep City to visit another partner. This partner...oh my...beyond amazing! We visited the Salesion Don Bosco Technical Schools in Phnom Penh, Kep City, and Sihanoukville. The schools are technical colleges for kids from Cambodia. They have programs ranging from electricity to cooking to welding. Each of the classes are taught by previous students or volunteers that come from around the world (if you're looking for a place to retire and pass on wisdom, do it here).  The students were all SO impressive! We were shown around by many of the kids who used to go to that school and now are department heads. The people we met were so welcoming and kind. They let us stay there, fed us, and we even got to see their first day of school celebration where they had cultural dance and singing performances! It was so amazing and the campus was absolutely beautiful! It was right on the water with the mountains behind it...stunning. They have such great dreams of turning the program in to something that changes the country. They want to make everything sustainable and green, they try to grow their own food and use solar energy. It was fantastic!!

On one of the days in Kep, they took us to the caves. The caves were a place that some Cambodians came to flee from the Khmer Rouge back in the seventies. There were all kinds of crevices and caves to hide in. Now it's a Buddhist temple, where people come to worship. It was a bumpy ride past homes and rice fields and we even had a few kids jump on to our truck and ride with us up to the caves. When we got their, the kids assumed their position and became our guides for the trip. "The throat of the dragon...mind your head!" they would say as they pointed to the different rock formations. It was the cutest thing ever! They had learned just enough English phrases to become tour guides and get a few extra bucks for their families.  It was a bummer that they weren't in school though...

After the trip to the caves we went to one of the teachers childhood homes in the rice fields. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. There's something about those rice fields up against the blue sky. I've never seen anything that green. Gorgeous. We arrived at their home and they had an adorable set-up for us of fruit and coconut to drink. We sat and talked to the student who grew up there, Sehya, about his life and how he used to walk about 5kms to school each day and how he has like 10 brothers and sisters. He said that the girls couldn't go to school because it was too dangerous for them to walk that far. There is still a big fear of the girls getting raped on their way to school...which I knew was an issue in some places around the world but it was different to hear about it happening first hand.  He said that when he was a child, he decided he wanted to be an electrician so that he could bring electricity to his home. So he got a scholarship (like most students there have) to go to the Don Bosco Technical School and studied electricity. He is now the head of their department and though he hasn't been able to bring electricity to his home yet (he said it was much harder to do than he had hoped), he has been able to bring water and a toilet to their home. So inspiring.

I think that my final impression of Cambodia is that the country is corrupt and suppressed...yet filled with hope. The people we met along the way were so amazing. They were doing all they could to empower the children of Cambodia to make a difference in the world. They knew that the adults were a bit broken, and the government is still quite corrupt, so the children were the only way to really turn things around. We met so many people that had dedicated their lives to empowering these children. It was beyond inspiring. I'm so glad that we are working there.  Though it is a difficult place to be, it is the right place to be. And I cannot wait to go back.

The Mountains of Vietnam

Our last day of visits was an early one. We were up at 5:30 and ready to go by 6am. We got to see two more kindergartens, my favorite! The drive was a long one, almost 3 hours up the winding mountains of Vietnam towards the Laos boarder in to Tây Giang Province.  I had thought I would nap all the way up but man was it a bumpy ride! We stopped halfway up at what looked like someones home to have some banh mi and a coffee. That sure helped! Strongest coffee I think I've ever had haha. The drive was a pretty one but Andrew was very disappointed in the lack of natural plant-life. They cut everything down for timber and re-grow it but it's definitely not the same.  As we got further up we were able to see a few natural trees but you definitely had to get off the beaten path.  A little over an hour later and we were up at our first kindergarten in a small village. Much more remote than anything else I had seen.

The first school was really nice, especially for being so far out in the country. The school had over 100 kids and the principle said they had 4 more schools in the area which I was pretty impressed with.  I think they're At both schools we got to see the kids eating their snacks. Most of the places we visited used our meals as a breakfast or a snack and almost all of them served it as a soup rather than a rice. It's pretty neat to hear of all the ways they prepare the food. As we walked around, one of the teachers who was younger asked me to take a photo with her. She was quite tall and she thought it was just awesome that she was as tall as me. We took a few photos then the principle jumped in on a few as well. Kind of funny. I also got Andrew to take a photo with me and the kids which was quite a feat. Andrew is more of an observer, and we got him in two photos so YAY!

For lunch we went to a little restaurant in a larger, more modern town (a bit modern, not very haha). When we got there, the food was already prepared and on the table. We had some local greens (we couldn't figure out what they were because the translators didn't know the translation), some bitter melon soup, baby palm (delicious), whole fish (no thank you), and of course, rice. It was a pretty good meal but unfortunately I was still having heart burn so I couldn't eat too much. A cliff bar after lunch for a snack was my saving grace but I was almost out!

The last school was in the same town that we had lunch. It was similar to the first school we saw and the Principle there was gorgeous (the men definitely noticed haha). She told us about the school and then showed us around. It was a huge facility and there were 3 other schools in the area that were a part of their system as well.  They had a lot of things to play with out in the courtyard including a merry-go-round which I hadn't seen yet at a school. The kids were all very shy as we went around to take pictures, especially the younger ones. I felt a bit invasive taking photos and watching them eat but then by the end of it we found a classroom of kids that loved the attention. They were a bit older, I think 5 years old, and they had no problem hamming it up for the camera ;)

After our visit we took the long journey down the mountain back to Da Nang. Man was that the SCARIEST drive ever. The driver must have been in a hurry because he was passing everyone and literally squealing tires. I thought we might just go over the edge! We asked one of the girls that spoke English if she could tell the man to slow down but she was so car sick she couldn't really speak. Thankfully, we made it down the mountain and in to the city in about 3 hours. You would think he would have got us there quicker with all of the speediness but somehow, it came out to be about the same length of time it took to get there. Oh well...

That evening we decided to go out for one last dinner with Nancy. We wanted to go local so Nancy looked up a place online that she thought would be good that was located right across from the beach. As we pulled up, it looked a bit toooo local and Nancy was a bit confused but we decided to go for it. It was a pick your own seafood place...so we walked up to this big row of seafood in buckets filled with water and bubbles that kept all the creatures alive. A bit out of the box for me but we went for it! We got lucky and the owner actually spoke English so he helped us pick a few things to eat. We ended up with clams, prawns, scallops and red snapper. The beers were cheap so we each had a beer and then out came the food. It was definitely interesting! Not the scallops I was used to but I found some things to eat. When the fish came out, that was really interesting. It was whole of course, and pretty good, but I needed Andrew's help maneuvering through it haha. At the end there were two little eyes left and Rebecca and Andrew decided to eat them...gross. Rebecca said it tasted like eating a marble haha. No thank you! After dinner, the owner called us a cab and we chatted a bit while we waited. He was so surprised that we came to eat at his restaurant because only locals eat there. It was pretty cute.


After the restaurant we split off from Nancy with the goal of going to the Sun Wheel, a large ferris wheel in Da Nang that was just a few months old. It's the 4th largest ferris wheel in the world! Before we went, Rebecca wanted to do a bit of shopping so Andrew and I went to our favorite Bamboo2 bar to hang out while she shopped. The girl there, Mi, saw us coming and got all excited. She's the cutest. She remembered us every time we came and when we left she gave us big hugs and wished us all the best.  We played pool and foosball for a bit as we waited and then Rebecca showed so off we went.  We took a taxi over to see the Sun Wheel and as we walked up we really got to see the enormity of it. We stopped at the bathrooms and they had the cutest signs ever. Little people "holding it" haha. Hilarious! They were also doing lots of construction below the ferris wheel.  It looked like they had some big plans for the site, making it a bit more of a money making attraction with games and food and an amusement park feel.  We bought our tickets and got right on to the ferris wheel. It took 15 minutes to get around and there was some elevator like music at first but as we got hire, the music stopped. The view was wonderful. You could see all of Da Nang. I think it might have been nicer to go with a bit of light out so you could really see how far the city spread, but it was still really neat.

The next day we went to do some site seeing. We started out in the local market in downtown Da Nang. We all split off and Andrew and I bought some coffee because Vietnamese coffee is the BEST. After shopping we went to Marble Mountain - one of the biggest tourist attractions in Da Nang. They don't use the mountain for marble much anymore, but it is still used as a worship site for Buddhists. There are all kinds of caves and little temples and statues throughout the mountain. It was a small hike but as we went around it was really interesting seeing all of the statues hiding in the nooks and crannys of the cave. Below the mountain was rows and rows of shops, all selling the same thing. We were starting to feel much more confident with our haggling skills and went for it, getting a few things for friends and a bracelet for me :) Our last lunch was at Kimdy's again, the little Vietnamese restaurant across from our hotel. It's cheap, and good, so it was a nice place to end the trip. From there we took a taxi to the airport and did a bit more shopping once inside. Then off we went to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Which is surprisingly much different from Vietnam.

Overall I think the trip was lovely :) Vietnam treated us really well (besides being ripped off in Hoi An) and Andrew is pretty convinced he wants to live there for a bit in the future. Loved the food - even the regular food for breakfast.  I could eat pho all day (and did haha). Everything was pretty fast-paced but that could have been because we were in the city most of the time. Traffic was scary, drivers were scary, but the people were great. Everything was really cheap, and though poverty was pretty wide spread, it seems like there are resources for people through nonprofits and religious communities which was nice to see. The government was also more supportive than I had originally thought, at least in schools and some of the orphanages we saw. I would definitely come back - especially to see a few more places besides Da Nang. I think Vietnam has a lot to see and we just barely hit the surface. Can't wait to visit again!

Amazing People Doing Amazing Things

Wednesday's visits were with two different places of worship, a Catholic church and a Buddhist pagoda. One of the many reasons I loved Children of Vietnam - they serve everyone! We started out at the Catholic church, where we visited with an amazing woman, Mother Mary Teresa. The church is located in downtown Da Nang and they support a variety of programs including a kindergarten on site. They also take orphans and they support a feeding program at a local hospital that we got to visit. The woman is just amazing. She drives this little truck full of soup mix twice a day to hospitals to feed patients and caregivers. She was the sweetest thing! She has family in Australia so she spoke a bit of English. She was such a joy to meet.

After chatting with her we went to the hospital to see the meal distribution. The hospital was packed...lots of people everywhere. Not the hospital I'm used to but the facility didn't look too bad from the outside. We didn't get to see inside because the feeding site was in a courtyard area in the middle of the structure. They rolled in the meals on a cart and Rebecca and I actually got to participate in the feeding which was pretty neat! Andrew didn't want to do it, so he took pictures (he's funny like that). We had two big pots of "soup mix" (as they call our meals) that we served until they were all gone. Mother Teresa said we were to serve 1.5 scoops but it was quite hard to follow the rule when so many people were lined up to receive food and they kept coming back for more. It's pretty amazing that she does this every day...

For lunch we went back to the hotel to do our own thing, so Andrew and I split from the group and checked out a donuts shop around the corner that had good wifi...we were needing some sweets. It was an interesting experience, having donuts in Vietnam haha. They were really good though! There was a buy 5 get one free special so of course we had to do that.  We each had a Vietnamese coffee and of course, Andrew had himself a $0.50 beer haha. After lunch we met back up to do our next visit at a Buddhist pagoda.

The temple was a bit outside the city and very colorful. We took off our shoes as we walked in and then spent some time interviewing one of the monks and the person in charge of their charity work.  The temple serves as an orphanage and supports other programs in the community including a lot of disaster response work.  We started by touring the part of the orphanage where the babies were kept. They had over 40 young children at the facility...amazing. People just drop kids off when they can't take care of them, and due to having issues with local adoptions, the pagoda has decided to keep all of the children until they are 18 rather than adopting them out. I'm not sure how they'll sustain so many, but they seem to have a lot of support from the community, We spent quite a bit of time with the children and then toured the kitchen and saw that they had prepared some meals especially for us. Unfortunately we didn't have time to eat them but we took them to go :)

The next stop was another hospital supported by Mother Teresas Catholic church. This hospital was specifically for women and children. It had a designated area for feeding but with this spot, they tend to not use all of their meals at once and end up going around to all of the rooms individually and serving patients in their bed. We stayed for a bit to watch some of the distribution and then after a while, decided we would head back to the hotel because we needed to prepare for a presentation the next day to the Children of Vietnam staff and other partners they support in the Da Nang area. Rebecca and I hung out at a local ice cream shop to get some internet and Andrew went off to his new favorite pub while we worked. After a few hours of working, we decided to call it a night and headed to bed.

The next morning we went to the Children of Vietnam office to present on Stop Hunger Now to all of the partners they work with. The presentation went really well and I think we answered a lot of questions they had. I'm excited to see how the partnership develops of the next few months in result of this visit. After the presentation we went to a really need cafe called Bread of Life. This cafe was all "English" food but it was special in that all of the staff, besides the girl at reception and the waiters, are deaf. The deaf community in Vietnam doesn't have a lot of opportunities, so it was wonderful to eat at a restaurant that was such a good cause. The food was really yummy too! We had some pizzas and burgers and ate off each others plates. The special dessert for the day was pumpkin pie so we snagged the last piece. It's not the same as in the states (probably because it's homemade, no can) but it was delicious!

After lunch we went to see a ceremony where 25 girls were being awarded scholarships by Children of Vietnam. It was an amazing experience. The girls are all from disadvantaged families and they applied to get the scholarship. They receive free schooling as well as tutoring and other supplies they need to attend school from the 6th to 9th grade. Once done with 9th grade, the girls will go to high school and eventually, college. COV is planning to support the girls all the way through as long as they keep their grades up :) The girls were so sweet receiving their awards. Rebecca went up and helped distribute the scholarships and as she was handing them out, she told them that "school is very important" and one of the girls answered, "I know".

The next stop was an orphanage just a short walk from the school. The orphanage used to be further away with gardens and pigs and a mushroom farm but unfortunately, the government wanted the land it was on and made them move. Luckily, the government paid for a brand new facility, which was actually really nice. They have only been there a month but they seem to like it. They have both girls and boys at the orphanage and most of the children were a bit older, no babies like the pagoda.  They send the kids to public school each day and as we were about to leave, we saw some of the kids walking home from class. They're pretty cute :) When we asked them "what are the challenges that you face" they said they were fine, that they loved their new facility and that they feel the kids have enough because they want the kids to learn to work for what they have. The woman that ran the orphanage was so cute. She used to be a librarian that volunteered at the orphanage but she fell in love and decided to work at the orphanage instead and is now the director. She was full of smiles and laughs and you could tell she really loved what she did.

After the visits we had an early night. I did some work at the ice cream shop again and then turned in for an early night. The next morning was going to be an early one. We were going to the mountains of T

Seeing the Meals Served for the First Time...

 Our first day of partner visits with Children of Vietnam started at their office here in Da Nang. We met early in the morning and got to meet their staff and learn a bit about what they do here in Vietnam. The nonprofits reach is amazing! They work in schools, orphanages, hospitals, churches, pagodas, elderly homes, and they also work a lot with disabled children.  After introductions and overview we headed out to our first visit at a home for the elderly and disabled. We started by interviewing the Director of the facility. He seemed to be very passionate about what he does but he also mentioned that he lacks a lot of the funding and specialized staff that he needs.

 The facility was pretty typical of Vietnam and quite sad. We were able to see the kitchen and watch our meals being served to a group of elderly residents. The residents were very sweet and probably a bit overwhelmed with all of us there. After visiting with them for a bit we went to tour the rest of the facility. The rooms were very empty with hard beds and no mattresses - again, pretty typical in Vietnam. The children sat on the hard floor and had no toys or things to play with. It was a very basic facility that needed lots of TLC. I know that they are doing the best they can with what they have…but what a stark contrast to what we have in the States. It broke my heart to see how little they had to work with. No equipment for the handicap children, very few staff that weren’t trained properly to deal with the needs of the children. It was rough, but I know COV is doing what they can to help improve the situation.

After leaving the first facility we went to lunch at a restaurant in town that served Vietnamese food that happened to use New Zealand and Australian beef. Andrew even recognized the brand haha. It was a delicious lunch (I thought) but the servers got a bit frazzled dealing with all of us as well as a full restaurant. Service in Vietnam is quite different from the States. They don’t watch the table for needs and really only come when you wave or yell at them. It’s much more laid back and they don’t feel the need to attend to your every need. I kind of like it. The food was really delicious and it was fun to watch the COV staff haggle with them on the price since they weren't happy with the service.

The next visit was to an amazing special needs school that is run by nuns from the Catholic church. What a contrast from the morning visit! It was beautiful! We interviewed the nuns and got to see their passion and hear about the amazing work they’ve done. They not only work at the school and help the kids through school and vocational training, they go out in to the community and provide support and rehabilitation to people with special needs as well. They have vocational training programs such as sewing, carpentry, baking, gardening, and massage/physical therapy for disabled people. We got to tour all of the training programs and pop our heads in to some of the classes. The kids looked so happy and they had everything they needed. Books, art, toys, medical equipment, clean water, etc. The facility was gorgeous…the model facility. It really shows how much support the Catholic church has and gives to their programs in the area. Beautiful…just beautiful.

That night, after debriefing on all we saw that day, we decided to go over to the expat bar again, Bamboo 2. We had told a few of them that we would be heading back so that we could watch the New Zealand vs South Africa rugby match. Andrew had convinced the Australian owner to play it for us since we weren’t going to be able to catch it Sunday night. Not long after we got there, Rebecca and Nancy joined us and we all ordered some “English” food and had a few Vietnamese beers. It was a good time! Great to get to know the girls better and Andrew got to watch his game – so we were all happy. Unfortunately that night, I woke up at about 11am with some intense pain in my chest…something I’ve never experienced before. It felt like I had swallowed my malaria pill and gotten it stuck or something, even though when I took it, I didn’t have any problems. The pain persisted until I took an anti-acid and just pushed through the pain to go back to sleep. I have no idea what it was but I assume it was heart burn or something because I guess the medicine worked if I didn’t wake up again with any problems. That morning when I woke up, the pain was there again. When I went to eat breakfast it hurt every time I swallowed food or a drink. Pretty miserable stuff.

After my attempt at eating something for breakfast, we headed off to the Quang Nam Province to see some kindergartens. It was such an amazing day!! Probably going to be one of my favorite days of the trip (I know, it's only day two but still).  We started with interviews and then we got to participate in feeding the kids their snack. The kids were so adorable! They loved being with us and eating the meals with us. The impact for me was huge. It just made my heart sing! The area we were in was a particularly poor one, so most of the kids are in the school on scholarship or reduced school fees. They get to eat 2 meals at school and the teachers care a lot about the kids, sending meals home to the children with extremely poor nutrition and families that can’t support them well. The facility was pretty nice too. They even had a water filtration system! I was really impressed!

For lunch we went to a local restaurant that served us so much food! We all ate it family style, picking and choosing as we went. It was hard to eat yet again but I pushed through it and tried all the food that I could. We ate lunch with the Quang Nam Charity Association Directors, who are the ones that get meals from COV and provide them to programs in that district. It was quite a fun lunch. They offered Andrew a beer and he said no, but they were very persistent so eventually he went with it. Big mistake. They proceeded to challenge Andrew to drink his whole glass of beer multiple times…playing with him and testing him haha. He passed the test. They liked him a lot haha. After lunch we went to have coffee near bye. The coffee here is very interesting. It’s Vietnamese coffee and it is made very strong, slow drip, and they add “milk” which is actually sweetened condensed milk. Sounds strange – tastes amazing!


After coffee we went to the second kindergarten. It was another wonderful experience with a school that was very similar to the first one. We got to feed the kids their snack again and the children yet again, stole my heart. This time, I got to sit with the kids and eat with them. One little girl was the cutest thing ever. She kept looking at me and giggling…she was a bowl of laughter! She followed me around a bit, giggling the entire time we were there. I wanted to take her home with me haha. I also had my first experience in a squat pot while I was at this school. I don’t recommend it…haha.

That evening we went to dinner across from our hotel in a little Vietnamese restaurant called Kimdy's. It doesn't look like anything special, but the food was really good! Andrew and I had some pork pho and beef with fried noodles. My chest was still hurting so I didn’t get to eat too much, but my lovely Andrew made sure all the food didn’t go to waste ;) We sat for a few hours at dinner, talking about work and projects and the programs COV has. A great ending to an amazing day.

I still have to remind myself at times that I’m here in Vietnam. It’s been such an awesome experience and though the days feel very long, and we’ve done so much, I know that it will be over before I know it. I’m just trying my best to soak it all in. I have a feeling we’ll have to come back to visit Vietnam again. This place is pretty amazing.

One Girl, One Village, One Country at a Time

The other day I watched a TED Talk that truly inspired me.  I was searching through their website looking for talks on education and came across one by Kakenya Ntaiya called A Girl Who Demanded School.

Kakenya Nataiya grew up in a small village of the Maasai tribe in Kenya. When she was just 5 years old she was engaged to be married once she reached puberty.  An unfathomable life but yet, Kakenya was lucky. Unlike her mother, she received an education. Her mother did not want her to have the same life as she...a life where she worked hard for her husband, only to be beaten by him and have all her crops and livestock sold for booze money.  This was not the life she wanted for her daughter, so she sent her to school.

Girls in the village of Old Fangak, South Sudan
where Stop Hunger Now works

When Kakenya reached the 8th grade, it was time for her marriage ceremony. She wanted to continue going to school so she struck a deal with her father, saying she would do this ceremony, only if her father would allow her to continue going to school. He said yes because if he refused, she would run away, and if she ran away, his village would shame him.

At just 12 years old, Kakenya went through the Maasai traditional right of passage ceremony...female circumcision. It was a painful experience that most girls die from, but luckily, Kakenya's mother treated her wound and in just 3 weeks she was able to go back to school. What is so mind-blowing to me is the fact that what she went through was normal...no one knew any differently so no one questioned it...

When Kakenya was in high school she met a man that had been to university in the United States. She was inspired by him and decided she wanted to go to university in the States as well.  After receiving a scholarship to a college in Lynchburg, VA and eventually receiving support from her village, she left for the United States.  Once she got there, she discovered a lot of things.  She learned that the ceremony she went through was called female genital mutilation. She learned that it was against the law in Kenya, and that she did not have to trade part of her body to get an education, she had a right to it. She learned that 300 million girls in Africa are at risk at going through this ceremony and this made her angry. She learned that her mother had a right to land and that she didn't have to be abused because she is a woman.

After school, Kakenya went on to work for the UN, obtained her graduate degree, and eventually went back to her village so that she could make a difference.  She went to her village and asked the woman in that community what they need, and they said they wanted a school for girls. So she built a school for girls, creating a safe place for them so that they didn't have to get married early, or be mutilated, beaten and raped. They could follow their dreams. That school now supports 125 girls that can make a difference, not only in their village, but in their country. 

A beautiful girl in one of our partners
schools in El Salvador

This story speaks to me. It shows the power of education and how it can change the world. The state of girls education has significantly improved over the years but there is still work to do.  Right now, approximately 31 million girls are out of school (GPE).  Educated girls are likely to marry later, have fewer children, and in turn are more likely to survive and be better nourished (UNICEF). Well worth the investment.   This is one of the many reasons Stop Hunger Now puts meals in schools.

By providing in-school meals, mid-morning snacks, and take-home rations through school feeding programs you alleviate short-term hunger, increase children's abilities to concentrate, learn, perform specific tasks, and increase the enrollment of girls (World Bank).  Girls education not only helps themselves, it helps their families, communities and country as we see with Kakenya's story.  With a quality education, girls can make informed choices, improving their country's social and economic well-being by promoting health and welfare of the next generation.

Kakenya is an amazing example of what comes from investing in girls.  She is strong, confident and determined to make a difference in the world.  But she isn't the only one! Anyone can be an advocate for girls education.  Start by educating your friends, family, and decision makers on the issue.  Use your voice, volunteer your time, and donate what you can.  Be bold, be brave, and stand up for girls education!

"I want to challenge you today that to be the first, because people will follow you. Be the first. People will follow you. Be bold. Stand up. Be fearless. Be confident. Move out, because as you change your world, as you change your community, as we believe that we are impacting one girl, one family, one village, one country at a time.We are making a difference, so if you change your world, you are going to change your community,you are going to change your country, and think about that. If you do that, and I do that, aren't we going to create a better future for our children, for your children, for our grandchildren? And we will live in a very peaceful world." 
- Kakenya Ntaiya

Studying South Sudan

As some of you know, I work at an international hunger relief organization called Stop Hunger Now and I volunteer with an organization called RESULTS.  Over the past few weeks, both organizations have had me thinking about a country that most people don't think about on a daily basis...South Sudan. You may have heard about the country recently on the news...the government take-over...the fighting...the internally displaced people...though the news doesn't post about it anymore, their problems have not yet gone away.

The village of Old Fangak

At Stop Hunger Now, we primarily have volunteers package meals that we ship internationally in to school feeding programs, but in the past few years, we've been working on a special project in South Sudan.  In 2011, our founder, Ray Buchanan, took at trip to a small village called Old Fangak to see their situation.  They have a resident physician there named Jill Seaman who has been doing amazing work in the country for over 25 years now. Old Fangak is a very small town...about 1,000 people...and it's main draw is Jill's medical clinic.  The village used to be a main trading hub but after multiple floodings, the town withered down to almost nothing. They live in small mud huts and they have hardly any access to education. It's a grim situation.

School under the trees

RESULTS major push this month is the Global Partnership for Education. The GPE is the only multilateral partnership devoted to getting all children, especially girls, in to school around the world.  Our local group decided to research different countries in the GPE and because of my involvement with the Old Fangak project, I chose to look in to South Sudan.  After doing the research I found that the GPE started working with South Sudan in 2011. I looked in to the report and found some shocking figures. Out of the whole country, only 42.9% of children are enrolled in primary school.  Less than half. That's insane! And only 1.9% of girls are in secondary school with only a little over half of their teachers being trained.  That just broke my heart. How can you pull a nation out of poverty with over half of the population not even receiving a primary school education? You can't. It's impossible. As I read on I learned that 1 in 3 children in the country are stunted due to malnutrition.  Because of this, I know that Stop Hunger Now is working in the right place.

A woman sifting for Plumpy Nut that dropped on the ground

When Stop Hunger Now picked up the project, their plan was to deliver a fence for the medical clinic, a completed women's center (they had a building but no roof), a school, teacher training, and an agricultural program to make the village self-sustaining.  We're still in the works with this project, but after the recent fighting, things became very urgent. This tiny village of 1,000 is now over 10,000 and counting. Refugees fled from all over the country to the town that they heard was 1. peaceful and 2. had a great medical clinic. So now they are running out of food and resources.

My job over the next few weeks is to kick up the campaign for South Sudan. I'm collecting images and video, creating content, fundraising proposals and working to get the South Sudan crisis back on the world's radar. Personally, I feel that it's so important for people in developed countries, who were born in to such privilege, to do something for those that were not so lucky. So I want to encourage every one of my readers to do something about this. So what can you do?

1. Learn about it - Search for information on the country and the current crisis...get informed. Check out resources such as the Alaska Sudan Medical Project, BBC, and the UN.

2. Share it - Tweet about it, post about it, blog about it, tell friends and family about it...but most of all, just raise awareness of this crisis. People don't hear about it on the news anymore so now they've forgotten about it.  So let's bring the cause back to light.

Jill helping a child with kala-azar

3. Donate - Donate whatever you can to the cause. $5 is great, $50 is awesome, $100 is amazing!  If you have a specific charity you like that you know is working in South Sudan, perfect, but if not, consider donating to Stop Hunger Now (and make it "in honor" of the South Sudan Project), the Alaska Sudan Medical Project, or even the UN. Also ,if you know anyone who works for a company that might be able to donate medical supplies, school supplies, seeds, or anything that might help with the Old Fangak project, please let me know.

They are in desperate need, but yet there is so much hope. Old Fangak is a haven for these beautiful people, so let's strengthen it and create a village of educated, healthy people who can turn their lives around and make a difference in their country.

So that is the challenge I'm giving you today...ready...set...GO!