Hellen and Lucy

When I think of success stories of GET UP (Girls Empowerment Team of Umoja Project), I think of Hellen and Lucy.

When Mariah and I were planning for our summer working with Umoja Project’s GET UP programs, we knew that we wanted to work with post-secondary Umoja Project girl students.  In part, this was because we needed help combatting the language barrier.  In part, this was because we wanted to ensure sustainability so that the programs would not end once we departed.

Hellen and Lucy, two students who finished secondary school last year with Umoja Project’s support, were so much more than translators or persons to pass off the program.

When we first met the two girls, they were shy and a little cautious, but eager and excited about the idea of leading programs for girls and being a part of empowerment programs which didn’t exist when they were making their way through primary and secondary school.  It was important for both of them that they give words of encouragement to the students and they were eager to lead lessons and game.  Lucy and Hellen embraced with great maturity their leadership roles.

Hellen immediately showed her aptitude for teaching and interacting with young students.  She took on her position as a peer role model with grace and skill, engaging and working with the girls effortlessly and with great compassion.  During our first GET UP workshop, Hellen demonstrated the necessity of washing hands, she flung parachutes and ran alongside the girls, and spoke for 30 minutes about the need for the girls to recognize and respect their value to the world.  We were in awe of her.

Lucy was timid when we first met her, taking longer to open up to us and the students.  She took time to become comfortable leading lessons and managing the parachuting chaos. Her words of encouragement were shorter than Hellen’s, but in them we saw Lucy’s deep passion and commitment to the program.  Lucy, often having to travel long distances from her home, was always early to every meeting and GET UP workshop.  Her dedication to GET UP surpassed all else such that one day when we went to visit Lucy at her home and listened to her speak about the work with pride and fervor, I was moved to tears.

GET UP allowed Lucy and Hellen to show their great skill, to take leadership and put to action their deep commitment to seeing the girls in their community succeed.  Both girls finished secondary school with grades that do not allow them to easily attend university, but display the intelligence, maturity, and grace to succeed.  GET UP gave Lucy and Hellen the chance to demonstrate these inspiring qualities and, in the process, to greatly affect the lives of the young girls with whom they worked, as well as my own.