He is “Danny” to me and the kids he grew up with. Yet, he is “Daniel” in the world he lives in now. After Camp Shasta, he earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Considering his work and achievements, he deserves the accolades others have given him.
The program he started for girls in Nigeria, Africa, is now run by women from the region. The director is a “leader of leaders” and is developing and training leaders from within the population. These Nigerian women are expanding the program and are creating even more opportunities for young girls. To date, they have reached tens of thousands of girls, teaching them reading, writing, and mathematics. It has helped many avoid early pregnancy and enabled countless others to build small businesses.
While the Nigerian women keep the process moving and growing, Daniel remains their mentor. Incidentally, he attributes much of what he has done to the things he learned at Purple Sage and Camp Shasta. I couldn’t be prouder.
Now, technology offers me an opportunity to join Daniel in mentoring the Nigerian team. Daniel and I are going to do remote workshops with the inner circle of women who have already achieved so much. Everything about the program is extraordinary.
CNN recently featured the program in a photo essay on their website. Check it out.
oo0oo—
Nigeria, where something special is taking place.
Young girls are being helped to find their space.
To find, to know they can live a better life.
To hear from their teachers that they have choices better than strife.
To choose a better life, a future for their own sake.
They discover there is much more to life and decisions to make.
A freedom to be themselves and not another young mother.
They learn that they need not be smothered.
To chose for themselves what they want to be. To choose for themselves to be free.
—oo0oo—
I wrote of Nigeria in my last.
A story to tell all and one not past.
It continues its growth to reach as many as it can.
Money as gifts is a necessity within the plan.
We must be grateful to those who give.
For what they give many young girls live.
How good that this takes place.
An act of charity, an act of grace.
That there are people who do this and are one of this kind.
It is the overall love of people. This on their mind.
The world is better because of them, that by their giving they mend.