[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5i7PI4M7W0]
LFAS student, Lucy Clarkson, keeps her promises. In May, she and a group of students working with PA-MOJA, shared songs and stories during a Skype call with Loise Girls’ school in Kenya. The students took turns singing and asking questions. The time difference was dramatic; it was close to midnight in Langley and early morning in Kenya.
During the call, Lucy told the girls that she would come to see them. In August, she did just that. She, her mother, LFAS school counsellor, Madeleine Delittle, and a group of PA-MOJA volunteers were welcomed by over 100 excited girls. Loise Girls’ School was created in 2008 in order to provide secondary education for girls who have lost both parents and show high academic potential.
“What an experience it was to fulfill my dream of seeing the Loise Nanyuki Girls’ School and all the wonderful students involved,” said Lucy. “I spent four weeks travelling Kenya, visiting schools and working at the Nanyuki Children’s home, but nothing could quite come close to the connection I felt to the young women at Loise Secondary School.
There was one moment, when everything changed. We showed the girls a video of our original Skype night. I watched myself on the screen promising that one day I would be there to see those girls. Watching myself say those words and realizing that I, Lucy Clarkson, had made it! Nothing could compare to that feeling.
Kenya never stopped being welcoming; it never stopped having a sense of adventure and new ideas. Seeing these girls, overcoming all that life had thrown at them, and pursuing an education; I knew these women were going places.
I think it’s important for women to know that they have power, that they have the strength to make change, and looking around the room in a small Kenyan classroom at these beautiful prospective leaders and professionals, I knew Kenya’s future was bright.”
Lucy is heading to UBC in the fall.
