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Today on All Things Considered a report aired that made me thankful that I get paid to host. It was about young Ethiopian women who suffer fistulas after giving birth. Hospital Gives Ethiopian Women a Chance at Care I was struck by how young some of these mothers were.
Married at 8, giving birth at 12. This piece brought attention to the poverty in Ehtiopia, the child bride problem, the brain drain there and the suffering of those with fistulas.In this report, I heard one young woman say she just wants to get an education. That is also what many young South African girls told Oprah they wanted. They just wanted to go to school. Their need is education.
Oprah built them a school called Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls—South Africa... a dream come true. Oprah's School article.
A dream of many young girls in South Africa...and you would think there would be no critism but there was. Build Schools in US Oprah! Basically, they said why Africa and not here? We have poor urban kids here who need to be educated. Oprah says this: "I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there," she said. "If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school."This moves me. It also makes me worry about our kids. What are we, as parents and adults, role modeling to our kids? Are we even a presence for modeling? And it is my opinion that pop culture is not in charge. Adults and parents are.
Why do these poor children in Africa want to go to school anyway? Don't they have needs for Nikes? How do they know that education is a need that must be met before Nikes and iPods?
1 comment:
I think that the reality of life hits so young for African young people that they have no choice but to prioritize and to think clearly. American young people, whether poor, middle class or even rich, are kept in an artificially prolonged childhood, they can't for example go to any form of work, and they don't have a concept of what things cost.
Parents contribute to this by not explaining WHY this is so, and the practical advantages of a good education. In an intact family both parents are usually working, and they don't have the time and energy to explain things to their kids. The kids that have only one parent and live in ghetto circumstances are exposed to and exploited by a lot of advertising for items that they don't really need, and it becomes a matter of status. African kids don't have a lot of time to think about status, th4ey are too busy trying to survive.
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