Save the date for our first birthday bash, the She’s the First Soiree! To commemorate the launch of shesthefirst.org on Nov. 1st just one year ago, we will host a fun, twitterific, bedazzled benefit at Pop Burger in New York City. At the event, we’ll launch the exclusive She’s the First signature bracelet, designed by Asha Patel, who will donate 20% of its proceeds to sponsorships. There will also be a raffle to fundraise for sponsorships at the Shanti Bhavan school in India. Don’t miss it!
An invite with further detail and a link to buy tickets will follow shortly, but for now, mark your calendars. If you are a company wishing to sponsor or donate to the raffle, please email info@shesthefirst.org.
Select She's the First to receive 49% of your ticket price if you attend the Prime Produce Prom with us on Sept. 25th!
We invite our NYC supporters to join She’s the First at the very first Prime Produce Prom on Saturday, September 25th! This event is not organized by the She’s the First team; rather, Prime Produce, a NYC 501(c)3 not-for-profit that creates innovative channels for volunteers to positively impact the world, is hosting the Prom to benefit more than 16 local charities! She’s the First is honored to be selected as one of them. We will receive 49% of ticket proceeds from all those who choose to represent She’s the First when they register! That money will go straight to sponsorships for girls in our directory.
Buy your tickets here, and select She’s the First from the drop-down menu of non-profits. Easy as that! Show up in your best dressed (circa the year when you actually were in high school!) for prom photos. If you’d like, RSVP on our Facebook event page to see who else is going for She’s the First!
The next batch of correspondence from our Kisa Scholars, sponsored by the GIRLS WHO ROCK NY benefit concert, are in! Leave your comments and we’ll circle them back to the girls to read, and they’ll answer any questions you have.
Grace Lyimo
Thanks! To be honest you really make happy when I read your message. On first day of the coming month, we’re going to start our examination and after that we will be having an holly day [holiday] of about one and a half or two months. So on this week I will be very busy, final preparation before having my terminal examination. Hope you will be praying for us so that we will would do
something ” wondering” [wonderful].
To me you have been like sisters and I hope one day we will meet face to face. I can’t imagine how happy will I be to see you my dear sisters. I love you all! I will inform you much about how life goose [goes] and how are things at my home and my community [are], because it have been long time since I left my home and come to school. I hope to hear from you soon! Don’t forget to pray for us!!! All the best. – Grace Lyimo
Elizabeth David
Hi guys
How are you? I hope you are all well, am just a little busy preparing for my terminal exams which will start on Wednesday this week. Thanks a lot guys for sharing some different cultures that you have in the US. That thing about the accent, I hear it in the movies. [We told her that in the US, people from different states sometimes speak a little differently.] We finished working on the book before we left from the internship and it was such an amaizing experience.
Hey guess what! Next week on Thursday we are gonna start our one month holiday. I’m so excited about going home seeing my mother and sisters. I also miss my friends and home cooked food. I will also get a chance to [show] my mom your
pictures. I will be realy happy to see your video [about Peru]! My greetings to all. – Elizabeth David
And we heard from Happiness — she writes with more brevity than the other girls, but she is doing OK!
Happiness Monyo
Hellow there, well I would love to be an economist because I love economics. What I like most in Tanzania are the honey pots found like the national parks, reserves, water bodies and most of all the peaceful environment found in Tanzania…We are in the week of exams, so many people are busy..and we are going to close for the holidays..am so excited that I will see my family after 6months. – Happiness Monyo
[Editor's Note: Some light grammatical edits have been made to original messages for clarity.]
Thanks to Shelley Tibbetts from New Jersey for tearing this page out of her August issue of Glamour (who else considers it their favorite magazine?), scanning it, and sending our way. Feel free to add your favorite famous first to the list by commenting below!
Famous Firsts in the August 2010 issue of Glamour!
Fall 2010 issue of Glitter, a magazine for teen girls -- the cover story features She's the First, GIRLS WHO ROCK, and Vita Chambers!
She’s the First just experienced another “first’” this week — we can hardly believe it! Our campaign (fueled by your passion!) and our first GIRLS WHO ROCK benefit concert in New York City (was on June 10, during Internet Week New York) made the cover story of Glitter, a magazine for teen girls!
Editor-in-chief Nikki Fowler attended GIRLS WHO ROCK with her teen reporters. Adding in the images of She’s the First staff photographer Kate Lord, they published a beautiful 6-page spread featuring an interview with performer Vita Chambers and a recap of the night. One of our teen fundraisers, Mackenzie Olson, was even profiled on page 53 in the “real people” section, giving advice to her peers on how to sponsor a girl!
Special congrats to Vita Chambers, who is currently rocking out with Justin Bieber on tour, on her first big cover too!
You can flip through the magazine in Flash here — let us know what you think! And we’re already planning GIRLS WHO ROCK 2011 in New York City, so feel free to share any ideas.
We received two new messages from Elizabeth David and Grace Lyimo! We sent them all some photos from Peru, and they loved them! Their assignment was to write to us about their culture. Take a look, and leave some words of inspiration or follow-up questions about their life that we can email to them in Tanzania this week.
Elizabeth David
Hi,I was really surprised by the pictures of Peru its so beautiful and
wonderful. Today am gonna tell you about my culture. In my country every tribe has its
own culture.In my tribe which is Sukuma of Mwanza near lake Victoria there
are cultures like women are to bend when greeting or giving something to
elders or men, there are traditional dances in the harvesting seasons where
some men dance with big snakes although nowadays its not common.
Also there are foods like sweet potatoes and cassava. This is mainly in the
village areas so when we go to the village to visit our grandparents we face
those kind of things. Do you guys have any kind of culture in the US?
Pass my love to all and enjoy your trip. – Elizabeth David
Grace Lyimo
Thanks very much for caring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The things you do the always inspire me. Now, I feel like flying to know that
my sponsors have the same interest as me. I wish I could join you to Peru
but!!! real I cant wait for those pictures. I am sorry for being silent for a
while, in our school there is poor connectivity.
Today I would like to tell you about my culture!
I am chagga in tribe,I comes for Kilimanjaro one among the region of
Tanzania. At Kilimanjaro the main economic activity is farming and cultivation
of crops like maize, beans, banana and others. The main food is banana with
meat in our culture we call it “NDIZI”sure I really like this food. The
Kilimanjaro region is the place where there is cold condition,amount of
rainfall, fertile land due to volcanic soil which comes from Kilimanjaro
mountain the highest mountain in Africa. Real I am so proud to be born as a
chagga in tribe course I enjoy the condition of the highest mountain in
Africa and usually go there to meet with my relatives because my family and I
are both live at Dar es salaam.
I am real happy to here from you even though I was silent this shows me that
you truly love me as you young. Thank for your support,am waiting for you
pictures!
ooooh i was about to forget Friday the passed week was the day that we start
our kisa net and we were having 12 students. For us it was like a dream but
now we made it and on Friday we will have another class. this inspire me to
bileav that all our dream will come true one day
pass my greetings to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bye bye!!!!!! – Grace Lyimo
p.s. we didn’t hear from Happiness yet — we’ll find out why and let you know.
The girls writing what they want to be the first to do, and about which problem in their world it will solve
On Friday, we had the incredible opportunity to be guest teachers to five classes at one of the only all-girls schools in Lima — Elvira Garcia Garcia, named after the first educator to open a kindergarden and first to graduate with a degree in secondary education from a university in Peru. Though you won’t find much about her online beyond a Wikipedia article, her legacy lives on inside this school, where Cynthia & Liz’s aunt Rosa is a math teacher.
With our students!
Rosa invited us to guest teach in five classes, which ranged from age 12 to seniors. The girls have varying levels of interest in education. Sadly, many come from broken homes, experience abuse, and receive no motivation from their parents to take education seriously. Our lesson got them to think about the qualities Elvira Garcia Garcia had, since her story is printed in their school manual. On the blackboard, we had them list adjectives to describe a good leader on the left side. Then, we asked them what the problems in their society, community, families, or world were, and listed those on the right. We asked, what is the relation between these two lists? “One is positive and the other negative,” they said (all in Spanish of course). “So how will you use the qualities of a good leader, of Elvira Garcia Garcia, to be a first in your own life? What will you be the first to do to solve one of these problems?” We gave them five minutes to write their answer on a small paper, and then collected them all. Since many of the problems pertained to violence, Liz, who has her black belt in karate, ended our class teaching a self-defense move.
In the final class, we handed out STF postcards, and though they were in English, the girls loved them! They could read the line that mentioned Justin Bieber - their school store sells stickers of him.
We now have over 100 responses from Peruvian girls declaring what they wish to be first to do. Here’s a preview:
Quisiera ser abogada para defender a las personas que se lo culpan de cosas que no han cometido y no pagen una condena que no cometieron y defenderlo a todos los inocentes. [She wants to be the first lawyer in her family to defend people who are innocent.]
Yo quiero ser la primera de mi familia en entrar a la Universidad y ser una empresaria exitosa para mejorar la economia del pais y para eso necesito esfuerzo y dedicación.[She wants to be the first in her family to go to university, to be a businesswoman and improve the economy. For this, she needs effort and education.]
Yo voy a ser la primera mujer en mi familia en que estudiará en Estados Unidos, la carrera de derecho, combatiré el maltrato físico, abuso sexual, violencia, suicide, y la injusticia. [She wants to be the first in her family to study in the US and pursue a law career to combat physical abuse, sexual abuse, violence, suicide, and injustice.]
Voy a hacer la primera de mi familia que va hacer policía nacional del Perú para ayudar a disminuir los robos.[She wants to be the first in her family to go to the police academy in Peru to stop robberies.]
La mayoria de mis hermanos sufren de asma, enfermedad respiratorio y voy a ser la primera de mis hermanos en ser doctora y especialmente neurología. Para resolver las multiples enfermedades y asi cambiar la calidad de vida en el Perú. [The majority of her siblings have asthma, so she wants to be the first doctor, in particular a neurologist, in her family. She wants to resolve many diseases and thereby change the quality of life in Peru.]
Our hope is that this exercise got the girls to think long-term about their goals, and we reminded them at the end that we believe they can achieve them if they continue studying hard. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to end #STF360 Peru than asking girls to interpret our mission and meaning for their own lives. It was an honor — and only the beginning of She’s the First going global!
On Thursday, we visited the last home for orphaned/abandoned children on our itinerary, Comunidad de Ninos, la Sagrada Familia. To recap, we started our journey following Peruvian Hearts in Cuzco, then met up with the soccer-based ACPNI on Monday, el Hogar de Rebano de Jesus and el Hogar de Vida for HIV positive families on Tuesday. Each charitable organization faced a similar challenge: how to sustain itself and grow. Relying on donations doesn’t get them far in Peru, since the average family here just doesn’t have the excess of time and belongings to give. So we saw how some of these Peruvian-led organizations tried to start businesses, but with struggling starts — remember the new storefront of Rebano de Jesus, and the lunches prepared by el Hogar de Vida? La Sagrada Familia, around for 20+ years, is the one that finally figured out how to get ideas like this off the ground successfully.
The Vision: The founder Miguel Rodriguez Candia runs around like crazy and carries three cell phones, but I think he has the clearest vision of all. He started several social businesses to support his home, where he has vowed to never turn a child away. He says the Hogar’s most pressing needs are: 1. providing food, 2. providing education, 3. forming children into responsible adults and leaders, 4. having more buildings to take in more kids. He’s also built businesses where older students can work to earn their keep, and where graduates from the Hogar can later be employed, so they can successfully transition from dependent children into independent adults.
The Backstory: Miguel, who comes from a journalism background, started the Hogar with his wife and two children after his third son died of a heart attack as a six-month old baby. On his way to the hospital, he found two children abandoned on the streets. He tried to help them both, but one died. He buried this small child in the same coffin as his infant son. He took in the surviving boy, but he ran away the next day. Miguel asked him why he would do that, and he said that he couldn’t leave his friends. So Miguel took in four friends, who became twenty, and the number of children kept increasing to the point where he opened up a large Hogar for them.
Miguel showing us the toys made from his wood shop. The furniture they make is sold at market, but these toys are distributed for free to children.
A bread bakery: Miguel’s bakery makes the bread that Pizza Hut and KFC (these American fast food restaurants are all over Peru) use.
A wood shop: The Hogar collects scraps of wood, all sorts of garbage, and turns them into furniture. The tables, benches, chairs are then sold at a market outside the Hogar.
A sewing shop: The Hogar has a room of sewing machines where girls make uniforms and skirts to the best quality, to sell at markets.
A clinic: That first boy that Miguel took in, the night his infant son died, grew up to be a doctor! He came back to the Comunidad and built this clinic for the community, and the profits support the Hogar.
A music room: There’s a full orchestra made up of children and they’ve even put out a CD sold to benefit the Hogar. We bought one!
A welding shop: This one is already under construction.
A Remarkable Fact: We took a plane from Lima to Cuzco our first week to see the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, remember? Well, every January (when it’s summer here), Miguel and his graduating seniors WALK up to Machu Picchu from their town of Zapallal, two hours outside of Lima. This trek takes 17.5 days. On the way, Miguel dresses up as Santa Claus and gives those wood toys made from his shop out to needy children.
The children's gardens
The Living Quarters: There are six houses for girls, six for boys, and one for infants. Liz has some pics of these which we’ll post when downloaded. We loved visiting the girls quarters and speaking in English with a few of them who are learning the language. They sang us a song which we recorded and will upload for you when Internet speeds cooperate! Outside the dorms were gardens, where each child is given a piece of land to plant a seed. Loved this idea because it goes back to the Inca wisdom our Cuzco guide Daniel gave us: “Plant a seed and it will grow.” Miguel also quoted the Inca’s beliefs often when speaking, especially when emphasizing the importance of doing anything to the BEST of your ability, just as the Incas did.
Schooling: Miguel built a school for the community, and if a child studies hard enough to get into university, he finds a way to pay for their tuition. We’re looking into setting up a way for She’s the First to support sponsorships.
What’s Next: The girls asked us when we would be back as we were leaving…we told them our friends from NYC are coming next week! That would be ALEGRIA, the artsy non-profit started by Shay Grabowski. A team of artists are going to work at la Comunidad this fall and teach the children to dream and achieve through visual mediums.
There’s so much more to show and say about la Sagrada Familia — more coming when we’re back to full Internet speed!
Wednesday night at dinner, Cynthia and Liz’s aunt who is a math teacher invited us to be guest teachers at her school for girls on Friday. We’re going to teach four 40-minute classes to students who are high school freshmen and seniors. The school is located in Callao, a neighborhood in Lima that struggles with drug issues; the girls mostly come from broken homes and don’t have positive role models, so Tia Abelina asked that we do a motivational lesson.
Elvira Garcia Garcia was a "first" in Peru who pioneered education for women...thrilled we just discovered her legacy and will be teaching at a secondary school named after her on Friday!
Come to find out, the school, named after Elvira Garcia Garcia, has a history that’s very special to She’s the First! Cynthia and Tammy are going to teach the girls about famous firsts from Peru, and then lead the girls in a workshop to declare what they want to be the first to do.
We did some Wikipedia research and found out that Elvira, born 1862 and died 1951 in Lima, was the pioneer of education for women in Peru! Some fast facts:
She was founder of the first kindergarden (for ages 2-7) in Peru
She was the first to receive a degree as Professor of Secondary Education from a university in Peru
She was a journalist! She had many published works about girls, women, and education, and she ran The Home and School magazine
She started out as a teacher at the young age of 18!
There is now a national association of women in Peru that carries her name
She introduced physical education to her schools, which was groundbreaking at the time for girls
Do you have any other ideas for our lessons on Friday? Or did you ever think about guest teaching English or another class when traveling abroad? Try it — the schools welcome speakers from the US warmly!
In Cuzco, we had the pleasure of following Peruvian Hearts, an American-led non-profit in Peru. In Lima, we’re seeing organizations created and run entirely by Peruvians, and there are lots of differences between them. Most of all, the Peruvian non-profits lack the resources to market themselves with creative fundraisers and don’t have much volunteer labor to work with. In Peru, the majority can’t afford to donate time because they need to find ways to make money to support their own families.
Group shot with the kids of the Hogar, que se llama "Rebano de Jesus," in Lima
The solution, even more needed in Peru: Building businesses to support the cause. Both sites we visited were taking the first shaky steps toward this goal. First, we stopped by the Casa Hogar “El Rebano de Jesus,” an orphanage (though they never call it an orphanage from within, but rather a “home” or “community” to promote the idea of family) for about 30 kids ranging from 2 months old to 16 years. We interviewed the director, Isabel Bajlatto, who told us about the school fees for kids and their daily routine. Next to the Hogar is a humble shop, painted with pink walls, selling pasteles, desserts, that opened on July 1st, and so far has made about 40 soles a month (not even $15 USD) — not much, but hopefully as awareness in the community grows, more people will stop by to support the home. Cynthia wants to help them with a better business plan. Isabel said the Hogar’s main source of funding is churches and aid from missionaries…everywhere here, there seems to be a huge lack of support from government, corporations, and international aid organizations.
The Hogar was our only scheduled visit for the day, but then Cynthia got talking with our taxista and he led us to another Hogar he donates toys to — el Hogar de Vida. This is a home for 10 families that have HIV positive mothers and children, run by director Ruth Alvarez. Ruth recently opened a public lunch room inside the Hogar, where the mothers cook meals not only for the kids but also for anyone in the community, at the low price of 3 soles a plate. You can’t find a cheaper meal and the pasta prepared on Tuesday looked delicious. However, the community fears HIV and doesn’t realize that it’s transmitted by blood, not by eating an HIV Positive person’s food or breathing their air, so they don’t enter. Ideally, the Hogar would have a little restaurant down the street, not inside the home — and the community would receive education on how HIV is really transmitted — but there aren’t the resources to do this. So Ruth is working with what she has and trying new ideas. While we popped in, she had a meeting she welcomed us to join with a woman who is piloting a recycling program that will employ women. The women at the Hogar can work here to clean bottles and make a small income, and in the process, she hopes to educate the community about the environment.
What Cynthia & Tammy ordered for lunch after the team's busy morning visiting two Peruvian homes for orphans and HIV families
Visiting both hogares gave us lots to think about when it comes to running a non-profit without relying fully on donations — you need a business model behind it. We talked about our day over a lunch muy rico at a new restaurant near the house we’re staying at — Esencia Kri Olla, inside the Plaza Vea in Churrillos. The chef was so smart and trained in kitchens all over the world, so his restaurant had modern touches that reminded us of NYC, and the meals were only 10 soles a plate. We told him about She’s the First and he loved the concept!
Wednesday is our sightseeing day (we shuffled the schedule around a bit — the key to traveling is being flexible!) and Thursday we visit the Sagrada Familia community for orphans, which we blogged about last week. Chau!
Comments (2) 
