The Akili Girls - The Video

Happy Holidays!!!

Check out this short video, made with much love to you!!!

stayclassy.org/julianeakilischool

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m thankful for my families:  the one that I was born into, the ones that accept me as part of theirs, and for the one that I am building;

I’m thankful for my friends and for all the things they've taught me;

I’m thankful for my health;

I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve been given through my life;

I’m thankful for the lessons that I’ve learned from them;

I’m thankful for each and every one of the girls I met on this journey, and for the new kind of love that they made me discover;

Finally, I’m thankful to all of you supporters and donors. I’m thankful because I would not be here if it was not for you. I am thankful because there are people like you that care and believe that we have the power to make a better world for everyone!

If you are thinking about doing charity these holidays, please consider us again. Akili Preparatory School wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving!

stayclassy.org/julianeakilischool

1 Tomato, 2 Tomatoes, 3 Greenhouses Full with Tomatoes

Our 3 green houses are up and standing tall. Now it's time to plant tomatoes. The process is pretty simple. You put moist soil on these trays that looks like muffin cooking trays. Then you drop a single seed in each tray and cover it. Done! 

Now we put the trays inside of the green house and wait patiently for a whole month. From then, we will transfer the new baby tomato plants to bigger sacks and distribute them between all the green houses we have. Tomatoes are picked weekly!

Before Mama Hope, Akili owned a single green house located 45 minutes away from the school. Because of you, amazing donors, now we have a total of three green houses and they are right next to where the future school building will be. The math is even simpler than planting tomatoes: 3 green houses = 3X the income! All the money made with tomato sales will pay the teachers salaries, school maintenance, and go towards the feeding program! That, my friends, is how a sustainable school does it!

Holidays are around the corner! Want to give back? Visit: stayclassy.org/julianeakilischool

Pictures, pictures and more pictures!

The tittle of this post says it all!

Couldn't pick my favorite picture of Nely, so I'm posting these two. She is always so sweet and  very much enjoys posing for the camera!

You don't understand... girls LOOOOVE to draw! 

Esther is a leader. She is always organizing the games at play time, she knows exactly what role everyone must play! She is also very smart and gives me the best hugs! 

Mary has one of the most contagious laughs I ever heard! She can laugh so hard that she falls on her knees... I adore her!

 Velma is such a pretty and sweet girl. She lives right outside the school and always waves good bye in the end of my day!

 Very focused!

Practicing Gratitude with Kindergardeners

Beryl, Vera and Bella: Top three in Kindergarden! Good work girls!

Tomorrow is the last day of the school year! We've been looking over the report cards and we can say  that the majority of our girls performed above extraordinary. We are so proud of them and we are so thankful for our teachers that made this possible!

Today my fellow advocate Sara did a Gratitude exercise with the Kindergardeners. We told them: "You are grateful for the things that you love most". So they drew huts, food, friends, toys, the sun and also some very peculiar things like all parts of a tree.

Starting next week Sara and I will be at school in the mornings teaching the girls computer lessons, sanitation and health education, and reading books at our library! It will be an amazing opportunity for us to spend more time with the girls!

Nicole is always so smiley!

I think this is my favorite drawing ever!

End of Poverty. Next Step: To Educate our Girls!

That women might have the chance of a healthier and happier life should be reason enough for promoting girls' education. However, researches show that investing in girls' education has substantial long-term benefits for the rest of the community. An educated woman has the skills, information and self-confidence that she needs to be a better parent, worker and citizen.

Girls’ education is both an intrinsic right and a critical lever to reaching other development objectives. Providing girls with an education helps break the cycle of poverty, because educated women are less likely to marry early and against their will; less likely to die in childbirth; more likely to have healthy babies; and are more likely to send their children to school. When all children have access to a quality education rooted in human rights and gender equality, it creates a ripple effect of opportunity that influences generations to come. Also, where there are better-educated girls, rates of HIV/Aids are likely to be lower.

An educated woman will also be more productive at work and better paid. Indeed, the dividend for educational investment is often higher for women than men. Studies from a number of countries suggest that an extra year of schooling will increase a woman's future earnings by about 15 per cent, compared with 11 per cent for a man.

But there are still millions of girls without access to education, and big part of this problem is located in sub-Saharan Africa.

While gender parity has improved, barriers and bottlenecks around gender disparities and discrimination remain in place, especially at the secondary school level and among the most marginalized children.

There are various barriers to girls’ education throughout the world, ranging from supply-side constraints to negative social norms. Some include school fees; strong cultural norms favouring boys’ education when a family has limited resources; and negative classroom environments, where girls may face violence and exploitation. Additionally, schools often lack sufficient numbers of female teachers.

That is why the work of the Akili Preparatory School is so important. Akili is a school for girls located in the middle of  one of Kisumu's biggest slum. For women, the most common jobs at Obunga are selling rest of fish that factories don't use and brewing ilegal alcohol. At Akili, the girls receive education and a daily meal for no cost. Akili offers a secure and friendly environment and the teachers are all woman!

Akili Preparatory School prepares girls to get adequate knowledge and skills for success in education and in life, and to develop strong leadership character that will ultimately enable them to emancipate themselves from the vicious cycle of poverty in the slum and be the change they would want to see in their community.

To support Akili Preparaory School and the future of these beautiful girls, visit stayclassy.org/julianeakilischool.

MENINAS NA ESCOLA: PRÓXIMO PASSO PARA O FIM DA POBREZA MUNDIAL.

Porque mulheres terão a chance de uma vida mais saudável e feliz deveria ser motivo suficiente para que hoje meninas recebam educação. Porém, estudos mostram que investir na educação de meninas apresenta um impacto positivo em toda a sociedade. Uma mulher que recebe educação possui as qualidades, informação e auto-confiança que lhes permite ser uma melhor mãe, profissional e cidadã.

Educação de meninas é um ponto essencial quanto se trata de desenvolvimento social. Garantir que meninas recebam educação ajuda a quebrar o ciclo da pobreza. Uma mulher com escolaridade tem menores chances de se casar ainda criança e contra a sua própria vontade; tem menores chances de morrer em parto; provavelmente terá um menor número de filhos; e maiores chances de colocar os seus filhos na escola. Também, quanto maior o número de meninas na escola, menores são os índices de Aids.

Uma mulher com escolaridade será mais produtiva no trabalho e receberá salários mais altos. Estudos mostram que para cada ano a mais que uma menina frequenta a escola, o seu salário aumenta em 15%.

Mas, infelizmente, ainda existem milhões de meninas fora da escola, e grande parte do problema está localizado na África Subsariana.

Embora a igualdade de gênero tenha melhorado em muitos países, ainda existem barreiras e disparidade principalmente entre as comunidades mais marginalizadas.

Ao redor do mundo, existem lugares onde a educação não é gratuita e famílias com mais crianças tendem a favorecer a educação dos seus filhos homens. As escolas muitas vezes oferecem um ambiente negativo, onde meninas enfrentam violência e exploração, e um número reduzindo de professoras do sexo feminino.

Por isso tudo é que o trabalho da Escola Preparatória Akili é tão importante. Akili é uma escola somente para meninas e está localizada em uma das maiores favelas de Kisumu, no Kenya, chamada Obunga. As atividades mais comuns em Obunga entre as mulheres são a venda de restos de peixe e a fermentação ilegal de álcool.

Na Akili as meninas recebem educação gratuita e uma refeição diária. Akili oferece um ambiente seguro e feliz, e todos os professores são professorAs! É o objetivo da nossa escola preparar as nossas meninas com conhecimento e habilidades para  que obtenham sucesso nos seus estudos e nas suas vidas, para que sejam líderes em suas comunidades e assim, possam se emancipar do ciclo da pobreza.

Para ajudar, visite stayclassy.org/julianeakilischool.

Fonte:
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-29880500
http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_70640.html
http://www.roomtoread.org/page.aspx?pid=284
http://www.ungei.org

http://akilischool.weebly.com

Visitors at Akili School

Happy Monday to you! This past weekend we had very special visitors at Akili School. Mama Hope's Global Advocate Ash and boyfriend Fergus have been living in Uganda for the last two months and helping to provide health care to families in Budondo through the Suubi Health Center.

They told us stories of how things got started with the Health Center, how the partnership with Mama Hope was established and all the great things that Suubi can now provide for their community, including vaccinations, maternity and family care.

Ash and Fergus are the Power Couple. They are probably two of the smartest people I have ever met and they happily shared the experience they have had in Budondo with us. I am certain that this exchange helped us a lot, and opened our eyes to new perspectives.

I am very excited about things yet to come at our school. I am happy to lay the foundation for a long and lasting partnership with Akili and to help them plan for the future years.  

Next, it is my turn to travel to Uganda! I can't wait to meet everyone at the Suubi Health Center, hopefully have the chance to see a new baby be born, and to finally meet the Mukisa family! 

Girls at the Akili School are somehow full of energy on Fridays... they know that the weekend is coming!

And thanks Ash for all these amazing pictures:

To continue providing education for girls, the Akili School is building new classrooms. We are currently being evicted from the building we are in. Akili provides free education for girls who live in the Obunga slum, who otherwise would not go to school. To help us, please consider donating to: stayclassy.org/julianeakilischool. 100% of donations will help us pay for the construction of the new building and you can check the project's progress here on my blog.