By Namono Esther, 19, a student at Arlington Academy of Hope, a She’s the First Partner
When I was a little girl,
My grandmother said that,
The stars were male and the sun was female.
When you wake up in the middle of the night,
And look up in the sky,
You might think the stars shine brighter than the sun.
It is just a diminutive thought among people of her generation
But this is just because it is night and the territory belongs to the stars
But when day comes, the sun shines brightest and the stars charge from the sky.
The future is female.
The future is of my gender.
A world of organization.
Don’t you think it will be a corrupt-free era?
And I stand here today,
Energized by the underlying truth
That the Future is Female.
Namono Esther, 19, is a senior five student at Arlington Academy of Hope, a She’s the First partner in Uganda. “Coming from the rural parts of Uganda, I have seen so many young girls sent off for marriages by their parents because they believe that their daughters are of value only if they have been exchanged for cattle. I want to advocate against all these barbaric acts, and I want to support other girls to demand to be heard in keeping their rights and freedoms.” Esther has written many poems about women’s empowerment and recited them at school assemblies to encourage girls to work hard towards their dreams. My first poem was “BORN A GIRL.” Her dream career is in aerospace engineering, a field that combines her passion for innovation, exploration, and pushing the boundaries of human knowledge.