MARIAMA

Miriama is from Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the West Coast of Africa which recently had a brutal civil war. She is the first girl in her family to attend school. She is lucky. After 1,200 schools in Sierra Leone had been destroyed, more than 65% of children were not being educated. Sierra Leone has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the world, and only 15% of girls in Sierra Leone make it past primary school. Many girls are not receiving further education, many either have children to take care of or just simply cannot receive what they need due to the lack of qualified teachers, books, schools, and supplies.

After reading Mariama’s story, I've realized how similar people can be, but at the same time, be totally different. Mariama goes to school, has a job, and texts her friends, which seems very similar to what the youth in our area do today. Although those examples make Mariama and us the same, she is also very different from us. For instance, Mariama had to quit her job for a while because in her country, it was thought that if a child got a job or went to school, they'd lose respect for their parents. Luckily, after a while she got her job back after persuading her father, but we’d probably never have to deal with that kind of situation. So, how can two people be so similar, yet so different? I'd like to think that I know the answer to that, but truth is, I don't.

~JENELLE, HANNA, SORCHA & KRISTEN Sterling

Senna

In the book Girl Rising:Changing the World One Girl at a Time, we read the story about Senna from Peru. It is about a teenage girl, who lives in La Rinconada, Peru. It is the highest human habitation in the world. Hundreds of years ago, the mountain produced big pieces of gold. Today, it is different because it caused La Rinconada, to become a harsh place. That is where Senna lives. What used to be a beautiful place, turns into something horrible.

When Senna was fourteen, she had to carry bags of rocks, and she struggled with it. At ten years old, Senna began working in one of the town’s two public toilets in the summers and on weekends. She was so young that she had to work, work and clean in filthy, disgusting stalls. When customers came to use the restroom, Senna handed them small squares of toilet paper and she collected her money, then later on she would give it to her owner. Senna loved math and she thought this small chance would strengthen her math skills. Her dream kept her going in that horrible job, her becoming an engineer. Her resilience is inspiring and makes the audience realize how much parents can help kids keep their dreams alive even when it is hard.

Senna was able to attend school. But for her, it was difficult for her to go to school, sometimes she would have to miss school to go to work. She would have to pay for her school supplies and her uniform, but the money that Senna earned went to help pay for her father’s medicine. Her life isn’t easy because she is very poor but she finds ways around it, and she makes sure she is learning and focusing on her future.

~Giani Sterling

Girl Rising

In the documentary Girl Rising, we meet Senna who is a poetry-loving girl who has dreams. In Peru, she is considered the poorest of the poor. With family troubles and a repulsive job she finds hope behind the words of poetry. She is an inspiration because even though her situation is hard, she works hard and rises above.

Senna lives with her mother, father, and her little brother.She was named after a warrior princess from a T.V show. She did live up to that name.S he’s lucky enough to go to school and get an education. She loves poetry and it helps her deal with her sick father. She works hard in school but it's difficult for her to focus because of her dying father. Senna’s father works at a mine, after he got sick he never returned to the mines.The since there was a lack of income both Senna and her mom both had to get a job.Senna works at a bathroom place and her mom works at the mines trying to find gold from piles of rocks. Her dream is to be an engineer like her father said she could be, but then he died. She wrote a beautiful poem about her father. The way she deals with her problems is very positive.

~Lea, Josh, Erin & Cody

Senna

Senna is a girl from Peru who lived in a mine town and the economy isn’t good there. She actually goes to school, thanks to her father who passed sadly. Senna’s father named her after a fictional princess warrior on television. People in our lives can shape us in many ways like Senna’s father who inspired her to be strong and to never give up. Family members can inspire us to do great things, we can strive to become them or become a great person. Senna likes poetry a lot and has done many great things with her work like in the Lincoln Hall where she recited her poems to the people who attend there. Senna lived in a town where there were many cantinas and she saw what happened to girls who didn't have an education.

Seeing the hardships of other girls in her town, she was even more determined to do better in her education and graduate. Watching these stories show us how hard girls in different countries work to get an education. Senna’s poetry has shown how hard her life was and makes her stronger every time she writes a poem, she doesn't stop going to school due to her father dying but keeps on going to better herself. When having the job to clean the bathroom she never took a break to stop and praised her math skills while doing her job. This furthered her determination to forward her education, I've learned that you must never give up on your education and strive towards your goals in order to do so. What I think the director wanted us to learn was, what I said, to never give up and always be determined to reach your goals just like Senna did l. Senna now lives a better life due to her strive for knowledge and her poems have helped her through tough times and she has shared them to others as well.

~Amro, Kyle, Sunny & Aldo Sterling

Senna from Peru

Senna is an innocent girl who was born on the mountain in Peru which was a place of gold mining. Senna lived with her family in a small house that have no space at all, but their family still lived their life normally until one day when Senna father was working in the mine, drilling rock looking for gold. Senna lost her father. Before he passed away, Senna’s father named her because he thought when Senna grows up she will fight for the weak and stand up for herself. At that time her father didn’t know how to read or write so he named Senna with an S instead of a X which stand for Xenna, the warrior princess. Senna’s father wanted Senna to have education even though their family is poor. He wanted Senna to become engineering, so she can have a better life than him and not walking into the same part he did. In Peru engineer means people who have money and power. Senna shared that she actually couldn't do well in school because she can’t stop thinking about her father. After that period of time, Senna get over her pain, by using poetry and started to stand up for herself.

Literacy gave Senna a big opportunity to change her life. She tried her best in school and have a dream of herself to be able to move down the mountain. Knowledge empowers Senna in many different ways. She was able to learn how to read and write. Senna also did really well in school and she was not being scare of anything at all. Senna always told herself that she is a warrior and will never give up. Finally Senna was able to moved down the mountain with her family and met a lot of new friends. Going to different places and have better education than before, Senna is so amazing in many different ways. She was able to overcome the sadness of her father’s death and keeps on living her life the her father wants her to.

~ Huy Minh, XueFeng, Angel and Yinaisya Sterling

Senna’s Story

Senna’s story about how difficult it was to live and go to school in La Rinconada teaches us a lot about literacy and how it's important. Without literacy and an education in La Rinconada, it is extremely difficult to live. Most miners there try to deplete the mines, which is mostly illegal. They try their best to find some speck of gold at least, as gold extremely rare and almost impossible to get.

Since a lot of miners attempt to achieve wealth this way, the once beautiful La Rinconada has been infested by trash and pollutants from mining. Senna’s father worked in the mines and got severely injured because the shafts collapsed.

Senna went a different path. She might have carried bags of rock and worked at disgusting toilets, she did attend the public school in La Rinconada. Even though school supplies and the uniform was a costly barrier, the money she earned went to her father's medicine. However, her father understood that Senna’s education could prevent poverty. Eventually, his health worsened so he left to seek help.

Senna remembered how her father wanted her to go to school and have a good life. In many ways her father was her main inspiration. Senna really did have the warrior inside her that her father named her after. She toiled and struggled to make a living and go to school.

Many kids in the United States are literate, but many don't appreciate their ability to read and write. Senna’s life however, was changed because of her going to school. Struggling up the mountain to go to school was an extremely strenuous task. Some days she couldn't even make it to school. However, with the ability to read she discovered poems that changed her life.

When I would read poems I would often enjoy analyzing them and looking in depth. Senna went above and beyond with this. Poetry was her niche, her coping method for the conditions she lived in. Her grace with reciting poems and her general love for poetry was something to be admired.

~Michael, Issabella, Harmony, and Katelyn Sterling

senna's RESILIENCE

In Peru, the only things children have to grasp on to to go anywhere is to either get an education or be sold in a brothel. Senna had heard about the girls being sold and heard stories of getting the aids disease and particularly not going anywhere in life. Of course Senna’s father was a big part of her life; he told her education was the only way to become something in such a rugged town like Peru. The only thing that connected with Senna, at all, was poetry.

Spanish poems were the only poems Senna could read. Senna never wanted to be sold in brothel, she could not handle the pressure. If you were a male in Peru the only thing you would do was consistently work in the mines. If Senna would have chose to have gone to the brothel where she would have been beaten and abused in ways indescribable.

Senna is hard working, strong, and smart without a doubt. Reading poems was the key to her happiness. With the depression and agony around her, she used poetry to keep hope and get her through her tough times. She always had the thought of her dad over her, wanting to make him proud. Literacy gave her inspiration to thrive in the opportunities that she had got.

Senna got to go to New York and was able to recite some of her poems because of Girls’ Rising. For Selena, literacy played a major role in her resilience. It got her through many hardships such as her father’s death and was her escape -the paradise she ran away to.

~Joseph, Lezly, Nina, and Nami Sterling

Mariama's big heart

Have you ever thought about trying to make a difference, to create a better community for yourself and others? Mariama was one of many, who wanted to help those that were facing issues and try to find a solution for them. She has encountered several many problems living there. In the city, many problems started arising among the community after a civil war broke out. Around 1,200 schools were destroyed and over 65 percent of children lived in a city called Sierra Leone, located in Africa and are unable to attend school. Not only that but only 15 percent of girls in Sierra Leone make it past primary school due to a majority of the teachers being trained improperly.

Another issue is that the nation has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates, preventing girls from attending school. However, Mariama was given the opportunity to help others going through these issues, she was invited to host a radio program that focuses on these issues to help resolve them.

Mariama gave her time to listen about girls’ problems and offer her advice and help. Being a young teen, it's beautiful to see her so passionate about helping people and the fact that she even wants to be a doctor when she grows up. She doesn't have to help those people, but she does because she wants to. Not many teens do that nowadays. She was so passionate about what she does, when her father tried to prevent her from continuing to speak on the radio station, she persuaded him to let her continue and she showed him how special it was to her. .All in all, Mariama was a young girl who had a big heart and gave her time to help those in her community.

~Wayne, Susan, Grace, and Khalil Sterling

Suma And her STORY

We go through wars and major historical events like segregation just to have peace and be happy. However, even after all the hard work and hardship, we still have the struggle of making it possible to free slaves and destroy inequality. In Nepal, children are enslaved and they get sold and do not even understand the reasons behind these cruel actions. Getting sold for money, anything to keep survival maintained. While discussing the before viewing questions, we were told to describe a woman we love, each of us wrote about a family member we cared so much for. We wrote about her dreams and everything that could possibly make that woman we love so happy. The thoughts of the classroom were just heart warming, that is until, we were told to imagine her in an unfair situation.

If she couldn't go to school, and how she would live her life without all these privileges. That was when, the shock was visible on our expressions and we merely shook our heads at the thought. It could never happen to any woman, right? Another question, we were forced to face was one concerning slavery; if we thought it still existed today. Our answers mostly focused on girls, the ones to be enslaved and treated as slaves. That they would be the ones to experience capture and harsh treatment because women aren't seen as strong or worthy in many developing countries.

Since we are only 14 year old's and don't have as much control over things, we had the mindset that we couldn't do much for an actual child that was being treated unfairly or unlawfully. We couldn't do everything we wanted, but we could start by making the issue noticed and getting funding for it. For instance, we could start chanting or make posters, something that would make a change. We could make a better life, one child at a time.

~Joseph, Lezly, Nami, and Nina Sterling

SEnna- INSPIRATION

The time period and location we live in shapes our lives by giving us different options in the way we live. Time gives us the ability to have new devices and new technology that we could use to make our lives easier. The location where you originated from gives a mindset of the country's agriculture and the living conditions that people bare with. As we are the advancement to the future upon us, Senna lived in an area where poverty was very high. She lived in a community where mining for gold was an important part of the industry. Her father was the one who worked in the mines but one day never returned to work. After weeks went by, Senna family was then struggling significantly financially.

Literacy has helped Senna in many ways she couldn't even begin to imagine. She was able to express how she felt through her poems. By expressing her feelings in the poems, she gave us an insight of her life and helped us grasp the feeling of those who suffered because they were in the mining industry . She did something that she enjoyed, reading and writing poems. Her poems lead her to the top of her classes and inspired other students to do so as well. We have learned overall that it is very difficult to live in place where people mine to make money but did their best to get their children an education- truly inspiring.

~Danny, Alvin, Amanda, and Johnny Sterling

Mariama

In Sierra Leone in the west coast of Africa a girl named Mariama is the first to school in her family. She is considered the lucky by her family. She also is a host at a African radio show where she talk to girls around her that are struggling and she gives her advice to help them. She has big dreams of having her own T.V. show to help girls that are struggling. She will not let any obstacles get in the way of her and her dream she states “Now there's nothing to stop me. Nothing in the world. Nothing in the universe”.

Due to Mariana being on a radio show her dad had a lot of criticism in his community. The people around his community made him banned from being a host on the radio and she has to go straight home after school. Mariana was furious about this and she thought of a plan she had her dad’s wife and showed her all the good she is doing helping the girls all around Africa. Mariana’s step mom was very interested and love what she is doing and she help convince Mariana’s dad to let her be on the radio again. Mariana help many people around Africa and I think what she's doing is very great and very very helpful to the girls that are struggling. I think one day Mariana will have her own tv show and she will become very successful.

~Christopher, Kan, and Jai Sterling