Tragedy and Tears

                                   (Jackie is the one on the right. This is her at Camp GLOW)

Living in Africa, you hear a lot of horror stories; someone died of AIDS, a girl was rapped, etc. etc. Unfortunately these are realities of life here. Never though is it anyone you know. It’s always a “cousin’s friend” or someone distant from you or the storyteller. That was until the horrible news I received the other day. A young girl of 17 that was at the Camp GLOW with me recently died of complications of an abortion. Jackie wasn’t one of the girls I personally brought to the camp, but she was one of my students there and I remember her very well. This kind of news is so disturbing to me. She had so much ahead of her and was one of the smartest girls in our class. I suspect her reasons for the abortion were that she was empowered by the Camp and wanted to have a chance at a future. Unfortunately, abortion is totally illegal in Kenya, unless giving birth is life-threatening for the mother. So Jackie was forced to go to some village which doctor that didn’t know what they were doing and ended up damaging her badly to the point of death.

Yesterday at my health club we had a moment of silence for Jackie and I stressed the importance of using protection if you are choosing to engage in sexual intercourse and also the dangers of abortion. I seriously hope that I’m making an impact on these girls that they will learn from Jackie’s mistake. I wish girls had more choices here and chances for a better life, but it’s not always that simple in the village.

It gives me so much perspective on my life. How lucky I am to be where I am and be who I am. Being raised by just a dad wasn’t easy for me, and I know in turn I wasn’t easy for him. But we are so fortunate for where we have come. I thank God everyday for my education, my drive, my life…I just hope these girls can lean from me that there is so much more outside village life and if they work hard they can get there.

I’m still working on the scholarship program for the girls at the school. So far I still only have one donor (myself), but it’s being going really well. Yukabit has been to school everyday since I started sponsoring her and her mother has saved a good chunk of money through my required saving program that goes along with the scholarship. If any of you want to sponsor a girl, please email me (aflynnschneider@gmail.com). It’s only about $120 a year for a girl to get her education here and through Jackie’s story, you can see how important it truly is. Anything helps. If you don’t have any money to help, please I ask for your prayers for these girls. That what happened to Jackie doesn’t happen to them!