One of the things I feel passionate about is education. Currently I am a tutor of English to a refugee family from Democratic Republic of Congo and previously I had been teaching English to a larger group of refugees from Nepal, Burma, India, China, Vietnam and other Asian countries. I'm a huge proponent of life-long learning because I believe that learning new things keeps our childhood curiosity alive, which keeps us evolving and developing as a species. Where would we be if the world's greatest inventions were never discovered or created because we just all stopped learning once we graduated from school? What if Einstein stopped learning? He was a janitor when he was discovered as a great mind. What would your own life be like without the ability to continue learning?
In addition to my own beliefs, it's been shown that if you educate a girl you educate a whole village in countries where resources are scarce. If a girl can read, write and learn something useful to her family, village or community she will serve, provide stability and put off having children born into an area without a lot of resources and opportunities. Instead she can take an active role in creating a more thriving environment.
During my volunteer work as a tutor I have learned that education is a privilege in sub-Saharan Africa but is still highly valued. The day I taught the past tense Nyambwe, the dad in the family, said, "All I know is the present. I do not know the past. I have so much to tell and I can't". He then told me, in present tense, some things that broke my heart. What struck me and filled my heart with humbleness is that they still have love in their hearts for "other" people and light in their eyes despite having lost their entire families.
This leads to the issue of my request, which is really Nyambwe's request. Despite his difficult past, he is dedicated to help his friends whom he left behind in Kenya, and he believes that education is the best way. Because Nyambwe's family is a refugee family they qualified for refugee status in Kenya and for sponsorship by the endless humanitarian agencies in the world that help out refugees. He said to me that the day that he and his wife went to the UNHCR to learn that they were going to get refugee sponsorship to go to the USA their friend, who was Kenyan, was with them in the office. When they found out they had a ticket to the USA their friend cried saying, "What did you do? What did you do to go to the America?". Nyambwe said, "Nothing. It is just because we are refugees." Their friend cried so hard because she was just a Kenyan.
Nyambwe then explained that everyone is in the same situation whether they are Kenyan, Angolan, Ethiopian-all of them live without work, without food. Some days they eat nothing and they are all there together suffering. Just because he was a refugee from Congo he got the ticket out and he felt so bad knowing the people he left will never have the same opportunity to leave because they are not refugees. In essence, his friends in Kenya were his family.
When leaving Kenya, Nyambwe's friend asked for one thing and that was $250 to send her daughter to school. That money would provide the tuition for one year. So, he asked me to help him and so now I am asking my friends to help me help him. My idea is to have a bake sale and get cookies, brownies, cakes or other goodies to sell. I need a location and I need volunteer bakers. Is there anyone who would like to help me? Do you know of a good store, church or other place that would be good to have the bake sale? It would be an introduction of the great American tradition of the bake sale to them and it would be a great way for Nyambwe to talk about his desire to help his friends.
If you want to help, please contact me at brittkellyphoto@gmail.com or call me at 281-475-7450.
We need to get the money to Kenya by the New Year when the next semester starts so I want to do the bake sale December 5th or 19th. If you know of a good place to have the bake sale please let me know. If you want to help out in any way let me know and I'll be happy to get you involved in my mini fundraising project.
Further reading on building a better world through education:
These are only three organizations in the world that advocate for education as a means of creating stability and peace in nations with scarce resources. Greg Mortenson, the author of "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones into Schools" created the Central Asia Institute (http://www.gregmortenson.com and http://www.ikat.org) to create schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan to educate girls primarily. The US military requires his books as mandatory reading for many of the soldiers involved in that part of the world.
Here is a link to an article by UNICEF about educating girls and all children- http://www.unicef.org/media/media_15526.html
CARE and their work in education-
https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?idb=1277888945&df_id=6780&6780.donation=landing&autologin=true
This donation garden was created in 2002 and run by Sheila shown below. It's a nice little garden that produces a few thousand of pounds of vegetables every year for food pantries located in the Klein/Tomball area of Northern Houston. They are an affiliate garden of Urban Harvest, which for $40 a year they get listed in a directory and are given access to gardening classes. Volunteers looking for community gardens to volunteer in can find local community gardens in their area through the Urban Harvest directory.
Steve, my husband, is my diffuser holder for the portraits. As you may know the portraits are taken outside with a white background and a diffuser to soften the light on the people's faces. The white background becomes blown out by the sun and "voila!"-nice lighting for a portrait!
I really like what the man says above. Gardening gives of oneself. I personally don't think just donating money is enough to "better" the world. We really must give of ourselves and have this experience of doing something for doing sake-to do something with no personal gain other than the positive experience.
You can click on any of the photos so see them larger...as in all the blog entries.
At the Corinthian in Houston! Quite the location and the setting was beautiful!
