I grew up in a low-income area in Massachusetts where there was a lot of gang violence, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse. Fortunately, I was able to escape the chaos and shape my own future because of the support I received from my family, teachers, and mentors who believed in my potential, even when I didn’t believe in myself. Because of my past, I understand the importance of and am dedicated to helping girls break away from confining circumstances.
When I joined JSI in 2016, I was ecstatic because I knew I was going to do meaningful work. Over the past two years, I’ve worked on the DREAMS Innovation Challenge (DREAMS-IC) project, which focused on helping adolescent girls and young women in 10 sub-Saharan African countries become Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe.
During my time on DREAMS-IC, I traveled to South Africa and Kenya to meet some of the people who participated in the program. Most had endured poverty and gender oppression and lacked education and opportunities. But what I saw were young women with great hope for their futures.
They told me that DREAMS gave them knowledge and taught them skills to manage and improve their lives. They learned about healthy behavior and basic human rights. They now had hope for their future. And while I wished for a way to guarantee their futures, I realized I could help them tell their stories.
Stories can call attention to the roots of poverty, gender oppression, and violence in ways that demand accountability and change at the community, institutional, and government levels. This was my goal in developing a video that captured the stories of Florence and Monica.
In addition to the video, I helped capture the stories of some of the other girls supported through the DREAMS-IC project. Read about Rachel in Aspiring to become a nurse: DREAMS Innovation Challenge empowers dropouts to return to high school in Zambia, and Ann, who now works as a mechanic.
More than 160,000 girls have benefitted from 46 DREAMS-IC grantees in 10 countries. And while that is an impressive number, it’s the individual stories that matter. In telling them, we can show that girls and young women everywhere, given a little help and a lot of information, do not have to be defined by our circumstances, no matter how adverse they may be.
About the author: Originally starting as a Communications Intern for JSI, Brenda Seng most recently acted as JSI’s Communications Officer.
