One Free the Children’s many inspiring projects is We Day, an event created to empower young leaders to work together to create a more compassionate local and global community.

This year, in addition to the We Days in cities across Canada (including We Day Montreal on February 29th,) National We Day also takes place in Montreal, on March 1st. Particpants and speakers at these events include Jesse Jackson, Martin Sheen, Nikki Yanofsky, Justin Trudeau, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, Radio Radio, and of course, Craig and Marc Kielburger, founders of Free the Children.

If you’re not attending the event, we strongly encourage you to gather in groups (the larger, the better,) and watch We Day live online!

BPW is the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Montreal.  It helps develop the professional and leadership potential of women in Montreal and surrounding districts through awareness, education, advocacy, and mentoring within a close network of support in the community.

On February 6th, Wanda was also awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of the work and achievements of the 60 million girls Foundation.  Here is a short video following her acceptance of the award.

She will receive this honour at the Inaugural Ceremony from His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada.

The medal was created to honour the Queen’s 60th year of reign, and will be awarded to 60,000 Canadians who have made significant contributions to their communities. Wanda is among the first 60 recipients of the award.

An article from yesterday’s Globe and Mail quotes,

Wanda Bedard… was upset about the fate of young girls in Afghanistan and started a foundation to finance schools for young women and girls in developing countries.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on Monday at 10 a.m. (Eastern) on CTV News.

We are immensely pleased and couldn’t be more proud of Wanda!

We are proud to announce the three incredible organizations we will be supporting with our efforts throughout 2012.

1. Handicap International

This project will provide access to education for handicapped girls and boys in the Indonesian region of Nusa Tenggara Barat. Handicap International (HI) will work with local partners: HI Indonesia and two other organizations that offer aid to handicapped women and to the parents of handicapped children.

Handicapped girls and women lose their intrinsic “value” in the eyes of their families and find themselves rejected and sent to live with distant relatives. Handicapped children remain hidden, becoming invisible in their communities. For handicapped girls, the situation is even worse.

The project’s goals are threefold. First, the project will offer handicapped girls and boys, presently not attending school, access to education. A second goal is to keep these children in school with the involvement of the girls’ mothers, parents in general and the teachers. The third goal is to promote and reinforce leadership skills and participation of handicapped girls in order to ensure their chances of success in school.

398 handicapped girls and boys in 8 inclusive schools will benefit from this program.

2. The Stephen Lewis Foundation

This project works to support girls orphaned by AIDS in the rural southwestern district of Uganda.

It will work with local partners the Nyaka AIDS Foundation, who provide mentorship, love, safety, medicine, nutritious meals and counselling for children affected by AIDS, as well as nurse visits to homes, education sessions on HIV/AIDS prevention, and access to clean water.

The project will provide quality primary care education, uniforms, textbooks, stationery, sanitary napkins etc. as well as two nutritious meals daily for students at the Nyaka AIDS Orphans School and at the Kutamba AIDS Orphans School. It will provide free basic healthcare to all students and their families, individual and family counseling, and physical education to the students. It will support a school garden program that will supplement the school meal program, and goats, who will be used for milk for the students, as well as generate a sustainable income. It will also support the community AIDS Education and Outreach program, to help deal with feelings of loss and grief and raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and prevention efforts. And it will provide voluntary HIV testing.

55% of the 462 students are girls orphaned by AIDS, who are dealing with the trauma of their loss without their basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, health care and education being met. Some girls are HIV positive. Some are cared for by their grandmothers.

Nyaka’s model is being replicated internationally, as the organization is on the cutting edge of the grassroots response to HIV in Uganda.

3. War Child Canada

This project will work to build a better future for vulnerable female youth, living in poor and violent conditions in the Fizi district, South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Working in partnership with the Fédération des Femmes pour le Développement (FFD) and Radio Baraka, the program will increase educational participation and school retention rates for female youth. It will assist these youth to participate in accelerated learning and functional literacy, will work to reduce violence and teach self-protection, and will also fight exploitation and gender-based discrimination in these communities. Through radio and journalism projects, it will also increase community leadership roles taken on by female youth.

285 girls, 159 boys and 21 teachers will benefit from this program.

It’s a question almost everyone has asked at one time in their lives, especially when it comes to supporting change.

Does my voice matter? 

I’ve got my own problems to worry about. 

Nothing will ever change. 

Where’s the proof?

We love this video, put together by the ONE campaign in response to these very important questions.

Why Bother? from ONE Campaign on Vimeo.

46 million more kids in school.

That’s the change we like to be.

A well-known proverb about women’s education:

If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation.

According to the World Bank, “educated women… tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn more income, have fewer children, and provide better health care and education to their children, all of which eventually improve the well-being of all individuals and lift households out of poverty. These benefits also transmit across generations, as well as to their communities at large.”

This holiday season, why not plant the seeds of education, and grow a forest of empowerment, health and knowledge? Give a minimum $25 donation to any of 60 million Girls’ three projects in Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya and Malawi and we will send the recipient a card with your message. Just a refresher on these three projects:

In Sierra Leone, working with CAUSE Canada, we are giving 4515 children, including 2305 girls, access to higher standards and levels of education, health, and leadership development, through tutoring, mentoring, and income-generating projects that support girls’ education costs and promote the sustainability of schools and their programs.  Girls will become more empowered leaders through peer education literacy training, and teachers and students will have access to essential learning materials, school books and supplies, and the quality of education will be enhanced through teacher training workshops. Bursaries will be provided to the most highly motivated girls to pursue their teacher’s education with the goal of becoming teachers in the Koinadugu District, as the need for female teachers is very great.

Click here to see a slideshow of images from our work in Sierra Leone.

In Northern Cote d’Ivoire, working with Save the Children, we are increasing access to quality education for 400 girls at one Non-Formal Education (NFE) Centre and one primary school, by renovating and refurbishing one Centre; training teachers in “girl-friendly” methodologies; protecting girls from violence affecting their schooling; encouraging girls of all religions and ethnicities to attend school; registering girls’ births to facilitate enrollment; and encouraging girls’ participation in decision-making at school and the community.

Click here to see a slideshow of images from our work in Northern Cote d’Ivoire.

In Kenya and Malawi, working with WUSC, we are bringing remedial education, community mobilization and leadership training to 440 refugee children. The project will seek to increase access, retention and success of girls and boys in school and to help create the conditions necessary for girls to become valued leaders within their communities. They will be encouraged to overcome barriers and develop self confidence, while influencing the community to change their attitudes that hinder the participation and achievement of girls.

Click here to see a slideshow of images from our work in Kenya and Malawi.

To give the gift of education this holiday season, please contact: info@60milliongirls.org

“I’m living proof that through education we can realize our dreams, even through the worst situations.”

- Veronica Fynn, at last week’s 60 million Girls annual conference.

We wanted to share some highlights of Veronica’s captivating and inspiring story, which began three decades ago in Liberia.  Veronica’s mother, unhappily married and already with three children, tried to abort her fourth pregnancy with a concoction of boiled and ground leaves, rocks and glass bottles.  But as she was about to drink, the bowl fell from her hand.  She felt this was a sign that she should have this baby and see what was going to happen.  That baby was Veronica.

Six months later, Veronica’s mother divorced her father, and life became even more difficult.  Veronica would wake up at 2:00 in the morning to help her mother make pastries, which she would then sell to have enough money to go to school. Her mother remarried and had four more children, whom Veronica helped to raise.  She often wondered why her mother had to raise eight children, why she didn’t have time to play with her friends.  The only answer her mother gave her was,  “Education is the way to destroy a painful past.”

“I never wanted to end up like her,” Veronica says.  “That’s how education began to matter to me.”
Then, in 1989, the war began.

“The war took everything away,” Veronica says.  “We were attacked by the rebels forced to leave our home, and had to run for their lives.”  When her mother told Veronica and her siblings to pack their belongings and go, Veronica took her chemistry book.  Such was her love for school.

“It was a very painful time,” Veronica explains.  “War has never, ever solved any problem in our society.  I don’t know why we ever resort to violence and think that solves the problem.  It causes incalculable harm, and we don’t even know the repercussions it has on unborn generations.

Liberia has lost a whole generation to child soldiers.  That’s what war does to a country.”

Her family was displaced for a year, but even after they returned home and the peacekeepers arrived, there was no peace. Veronica was frequently abused by people who took advantage of her vulnerability.  Her family escaped Liberia to Ghana on a peacekeeping ship, and after they arrived at the refugee camp, her mother contracted tuberculosis.  The family lived on garri for one year, which has no nutritional content.  Finally, Veronica’s mother decided she’d rather return to Liberia than die in Ghana where she’d have no grave.  But by then, Veronica was finishing her O levels. She told her mother she’d decided to stay in Ghana.

“If I go back,” she said “Nobody in this family will change our history of poverty.”

It would be 13 years before she saw her mother and siblings again.

Because she wanted to go to school, Veronica had to rely on others, and once again became a victim of abuse, by the man who was supposed to be her guardian.  The abuse went on for nine years, and Veronica attempted suicide twice.   As she was finishing her university degree, a friend introduced her to WUSC.  One year later, with 2 suitcases and $20 in her pocket, Veronica arrived in Canada.

“And the rest was history,” she explains.  “We can use [education] for the betterment of society, but many people would never dream of this opportunity.”

For the next 4 years, Veronica and her sister, who was now married and living in California, worked to bring the rest of the family to the US.  Veronica took two jobs, working close to fifty-five hours a week in addition to being in university full time.  Eventually she realized she wanted to work to change policies on refugee issues.  That’s when she decided to study law at York University.

Veronica has since started her own company, doing systematic research in Liberia to find out what’s needed to form effective laws and policies.  She returned to Liberia for the first time in eighteen years in 2010, and then again this past October.  While dealing with the nightmares and retraumatization of returning home, she also taught free courses in the public health school at the university. She also visited the refugee camp in Ghana, which, she says, hasn’t improved much since she left.

“They put so much focus on health at the refugee camps,” she explains,  “and none on education.  These people will go back home one day, and need education to sustain themselves.  Food and water are good; education is better.  Many Liberians still living as refugees in Ghana arrived 20 years ago and still haven’t been to school.”

Veronica believes that, because women are so close to children, they pass on more of their knowledge to their community, than do boys and men. She said,

“There’s a saying, that when you education a man, you educate an individual.  When you educate a girl, you educate a nation.

I think my life is an emblem of that.”

Bidding is now open, and will end on Saturday November 12, 2011 at 9 pm. The bidding will then continue from 6 pm to 7 pm at the conference, which is on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at l’Ermitage, part of Collège de Montréal.  Every auction item is a donation, and all revenue generated by the auction will contribute directly to support this year’s projects.

We’re thrilled to have so many amazing donations to this year’s auction, including (drum roll please!)

  A Montreal Canadiens Jersey signed by every player on the team!!

As well as tickets for Montreal Canadiens games against the Detroit Red Wings, the Washington Capitals, the Carolina Hurricanes, the Winnipeg Jets and more!

An unforgettable one-night’s stay at the Quintessence, a 5 star boutique hotel at Mont Tremblant, including breakfast

A $200 gift certificate for Club Chasse et Pêche, donated by Conservus

A one-night stay including breakfast at Novotel Montreal, just steps from the Bell Centre  – perfect for after one of those hockey games!

A $150 gift certificate for the Leméac bistro on Laurier Avenue

… And so much more!

More details about the auction here.

We hope to see you there!

Some of the issues on the table? Low teachers’ salaries, overcrowded classrooms, teachers’ education, hungry kids, and, of course, the importance of educating girls.

“We had more than enough of everything,” Phil says.  ”It was a second marriage for both of us.  But people always wonder, ‘What can we get you?’”

Phil had always been a huge fan of 60 million Girls.  So he and Tracy asked their guests to donate to us or to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Some donated through CanadaHelps.org, and some gave cheques to the couple.  Through their wedding – along with Phil’s 50th birthday party, where he also asked for donations to 60 million Girls instead of gifts – several thousand dollars were raised .  And one beautiful August day, 65 friends and family members gathered for a beautiful wedding overlooking the Bronte Harbour Centre in Oakville to celebrate Tracy and Phil.

Our warmest thanks and most sparkling congratulations!