I have always gotten a kick out of doing something that someone said I couldn’t do or that I am not supposed to do—finishing a grueling hike, building something, fixing something or even something as seemingly simple as getting up each and every day and going back to finish something you started even if everyone is against you. All of that takes strength—the strength to do, the strength to overcome and the strength to keep going.
If you are anything like me, you hate the phone. I would much rather someone text me or email me—hey even tweeting me is better than a phone call. But sometimes a good old fashioned phone call is what is going to get the job done and on June 16, we are asking you to dust off the landlines or fire up the cell to place a call for an important cause—the millions of children around the world that are out of school.
Sitting at London’ Borough’s Market, just near the London Bridge, thinking of today’s elections in South Africa. May 7 marks an historic occasion for the “freeborns,” those born after the end of apartheid in 1994, those who will be voting for the first time. I am recalling something one of them told me as I was working with our GlobalGirls in the streets, interviewing young people about the upcoming elections. “Not yet Uhuru…not yet free…” he said, “But I am free in the sense that I have my own mind, and can choose to vote or not to vote.”
It is Global Action Week—a week used to highlight all that is being done for the right to education and what is being done to protect that right to education around the world. It is also a great time to jump in and get involved. Jump in to help the 57 million children out of school, jump in to help the 1 in the 3 girls that will be married before the age of 18 in the developing world instead of in school and most pressing jump in for the schoolgirls of Nigeria who need a world community to stand with them, their families and their community.
