Local Love Goes Global: Maggie's Story
I worked at Shining Hope for Communities' (SHOFCO) main project called the Kibera School for Girls (KSG) for five weeks this summer. Kibera is one of the world's largest slums and is on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. The school currently teaches about 160 of the community's most resource-poor girls ages pre-k through 5th grade. Their goal is to add grades under each year until the school builds to be through 8th grade. To do this, the teachers take five weeks off from teaching in June and July to work with advising teachers from private schools in New York City to develop the curriculum for 6th, 7th and 8th grade. This is where I came in because for those five weeks, the girls had the "Summer Institute." Approximately 15 Kenyan volunteers and 15 Americans came together to write lesson plans about topics we love and teach the girls, in addition to their literacy hour every day. I chose yoga as the lesson I felt would benefit the girls most and they would also enjoy.
Katy was an enormous help in giving me resources like animations of animals doing children's yoga poses and suggesting yoga stories to keep the girls engaged. I incorporated meditation, mindfulness, gratefulness, and breathing exercises into the lessons.
The girls loved doing yoga and amazed me every day with how well they calmed down in class (as compared to their wild selves during recess) and how well they focused. The girls now continue to do yoga and dancing with an instructor trained by the Africa Yoga Project.
Maggie Gutierrez
Local Love: Alicia’s Story
I am blown away by the support that we received after sending our email out about Alicia. The phone calls, the email, the prayers, and the incredible amount of donations were and are constantly giving us chills.
I first met Alicia Haeni in middle school. She was a sweet girl who always had a smile on her face. As we've grown up I've watched her grow into an incredibly positive person. Four years ago she was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and had a full hysterectomy at the age of 28.
Unfortunately, the cancer that she thought she had beaten has returned. As you can imagine going from doctor to doctor and recently being transferred to Duke, Alicia and her husband, David need more support than ever. Especially since they recently lost their house to black mold and David lost his job.
Do you know what the most amazing thing is? Alicia keeps a positive attitude. Sharing daily uplifting thoughts about love and life with others on Facebook. Even in her time of pain, she is focused on loving others. Alicia posted on her Facebook saying, "Right now I especially want to thank the people at Studio South!! I'm so blown away by your kindness! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping lift a heavy burden off my shoulders right now. Each and every one of your donations means the world to me! Now I can focus on fighting my butt off to get better and not stress as much over the financial part of this!"
Studio South hosted a local love Live Music Restorative Class with Jocelyn Oldham. The class was donation based with a suggested donation of $20. Each yogi who attended and donated at least $20, received a free class pass ($25 value) to use for yourself or a friend at a later time. In 3 days we raised $1,000 for Alicia and her family. OMMMMMMMazing what we can do together when we unite and put our mind to it.
Thank you so much for coming together to show Alicia and her family how much they are loved and supported.