Big Read
We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Mary Kenny of Brooklyn, New York, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.
You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.
Thanks for reading!
-Emily Stivers
A Message of Hope
By Mary Kenny
Brooklyn, NY
I work as an administrative assistant in an inner-city Brooklyn high school that is struggling to get kids to graduate. We struggle to keep them out of gangs and away from violence. Lots of them are foster kids with no adult guidance. Yet amazingly, many come ready and eager to learn, eager to share their laughter with others. These students form bonds with the adults who serve them that last a lifetime.
Their lives are tougher than most of us can imagine and recently, we had one young man from a rough neighborhood lose his battle with bone cancer. Throughout his struggle, this student was a light in this school that inspired all of us. He attended his classes daily while walking on crutches and kept a smile on his face. He knew the importance of his education. He was determined to graduate and shake off his poverty, and the other students saw this fierce determination. They all came away from this experience with the same message of hope.
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We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Erika Parker Price of Mukilteo, Washington, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.
You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.
Thanks for reading!
-Emily Stivers
Bluefields Basic School
By Erika Parker Price
Mukilteo, WA
Each September, as I send my children off to school, I wonder what the year will bring. What will they learn? How will they grow their minds?
In America, we debate school issues vehemently — standardized testing, pay for performance, and class size — but we never question whether children have the right to go to school. Of course they do. All children have that right, but sadly, we dole it out unequally across the globe.
Through ONE, I have been able to lend my voice to the fight to end global poverty in our lifetime. I sign petitions, call my government representatives, and donate to other organizations that build schools for children in impoverished countries. But how do I communicate the importance of these issues to the next generation, my own children, who are frequently lost in their own world of homework, school plays, and baseball games?
Of course I can tell them that school is a privilege, but whenever possible I like to show them in a way that their minds can absorb. When my oldest son Ryan was five years old, our family was fortunate enough to vacation in Jamaica. We were searching for (more…)
We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Courtney Anne Lenoir of Locust Valley, NY, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.
You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.
Thanks for reading!
-Emily Stivers
Singular Story, Shared Destiny
By Courtney Anne Lenoir
Locust Valley, NY
During Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last November, he stated these powerful words, “Our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared.” How does this apply to education as a human right for all children?
We all have unique gifts and life experiences that add to the fabric of who we are becoming as adults. In order to strive for peace, we need to look at each other with humanity, understanding our differences but searching for what unites us as citizens of the world.
I am writing today because of my singular story. On September 11th, almost eight years ago, at the age of nine, my idyllic childhood came to a crashing halt. The events that day had a devastating effect on my family with the loss of my father, but they also affected the nation by forcing us out of the comfort zone we had been living in.
In the aftermath, teens were exposed to the realities of war, inequality and hate. We saw it in Iraq. We see it in Darfur, India, Kenya, Haiti, Palestine and many other developing nations on the globe. These places in great turmoil are regions with enormous inequality. When basic human rights are neglected, individuals become desperate in their thoughts and actions. (more…)
We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Melissa Fraser of Camarillo, CA, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.
You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.
Thanks for reading!
-Emily Stivers
Reeds on Fire
By Melissa Fraser
Camarillo, CA
My body shoots upright before my mind focuses onto what is happening. Some instinct is warning me to react as if experiencing an emergency. Checking the clock, it’s 3 in the bitterly cold winter morning, and the normally still village is rustling a bit. The village school next door to my hut persistently ringing a deafening bell, and I sniff around expecting to smell burning thatch.
Grabbing a sitenge wrap, I emerge from the front door and fumble with the gate lock to peer out the courtyard’s reed fence. Strangely, there is no panic, no fire, but a group of teenage students stumbling through the dark to the single lantern-lit classroom at the school. With end of the year exams looming, these students are taking advantage of the school’s early morning study session.
Since candles and paraffin oil can exhaust the meager, if existent, income of a rural Caprivian family, sitting in a classroom around the free lighting is as alluring to ambitious students as blooming acacia trees to a giraffe. Borrowed and gratuitously used books sit on the desks in front of students who are bundled in what tattered clothing they may own. As I shiver myself back under three blankets for a couple more hours of sleep, the youth of Namibia’s forgotten region dedicate the dark hours to getting ahead in life through education.
Once daylight introduces (more…)
We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Jennifer Pereyda from Fremont, California, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.
You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.
Thanks for reading!
-Emily Stivers
Opening Doors
By Jennifer Pereyda
Fremont, CA
Growing up, I was the kid teachers often referred to as the class “bookworm.” I loved to read and devoured any book I could get my hands on. This love of books even went so far as to include Encyclopedias. I would pick a volume up and read it from cover to cover, baffling family and friends who had difficulty understanding a child that read encyclopedias for fun.
With such an appetite for (more…)
Hello, I’m Christina Holder, a ONE member from Augusta, Georgia, currently working as a Uriel and Caroline Bauer Human Rights Law Fellow in Lusaka, Zambia, where I promote human rights-based approaches to development. My education has enabled me to understand and transform some of the root causes of social injustice. I believe every individual deserves the opportunities education creates.
That’s why I sent my personal story to The Big Read, a movement to secure $2 billion for a Global Fund for Education. I would be honored if your name, and the names of tens of thousands of ONE members, would accompany my story when ONE and the Global Campaign for Education deliver it to President Obama in June.
With the book and our signatures, ONE will include this inscription:
Please ensure all children have access to quality basic education by making a U.S. contribution of $2 billion to a Global Fund for Education.
To add your name to the book, please click this link:
http://www.one.org/us/bigreadpetition/o.pl
I’ve spent eight months in Zambia, and have realized that quality education is the key to lifting individuals, and the nation, out of poverty. After learning how to read themselves, women I work with from Lusaka’s Garden Compound pooled their resources to open a “community school” so their children could learn to read and write, too. At Mother Teresa Hospice and Community School, where I volunteer each Friday afternoon, some of the adult residents volunteer to teach children reading and math.
Without the opportunity to attend school, these children risk becoming child laborers in local industries such as stone-crushing — pounding big rocks into gravel for sale to builders. But slowly, regular Zambians are laying the foundation for every child to enjoy the right to quality education, a prerequisite for ending poverty.
By adding your name to The Big Read and encouraging our government to support a Global Fund for Education, we can help Zambia and other countries finance high-quality education for even the most impoverished students.
Please sign The Big Read now, for all those who can’t:
http://www.one.org/us/bigreadpetition/o.pl
Thanks so much!
Christina Holder, ONE Member, Augusta, Georgia
We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Shannon Mouillesseaux of New York, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.
You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.
Thanks for reading!
-Emily Stivers
Why Them?
By Shannon Mouillesseaux
New York
There, gazing at me, were two piercing eyes set inside an emaciated face, skin clasped tightly around small cheekbones. I hesitated to look back. The television screen separated him from me, but it was as if he was inside it and would step out, his swollen belly thrust towards me.
The school week had finished, and I was watching TV while enjoying a special dinner — golden pancakes swimming in maple syrup. I was lapping it up when I felt his intense eyes. He appeared my age, but his dark, sullen eyes suggested they had witnessed far more than mine.
The program’s narrator spoke (more…)
