Girls Making a Difference!
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Today is International Women’s Day! Today people around the world celebrate the contribution women and girls make toward a future that is sustainable, peaceful, with equal rights and opportunities for all.
International Women’s Day began in the early 1900s when women in the US and Europe participated in demonstrations in favor of women’s right to vote and be elected to serve in government. These women also protested the unequal treatment of women at work. The UN reminds us that gender inequality in government representation and in the workplace continues today. It’s up to each of us to fight inequality when we see it.
Despite these challenges, women and girls make the world a better place for all of us by helping their communities in big and small ways. Today Children’s Museum of Atlanta is celebrating International Women’s Day by highlighting six girls doing good in their communities!
Bellen – Crayon Activism
Bellen loves school and she loves to color! When a friend at school asked her for the skin-color crayon she was confused. That crayon was peach but her skin was brown. That’s when Bellen had a wonderful idea! If kids of all skin colors loved to draw then they needed crayons of all different colors. That way they had many colorful ways to draw themselves, their families, and friends!
Bellen began the More Than Peach Project an organization that donates its own skin-tone and multicultural crayon and sketchbooks to students and senior citizens. So far she’s donated over 4,000 packs of crayons and colored pencils!
Gabrielle – Remote Learning Math Support
Gabrielle loves math and helping others learn! When most students began learning from home she realized some students might fall behind. So Gabrielle and seven of her friends began For Math’s Sake a series of videos to help 6th graders with math. The series is getting rave reviews and is being shared between schools in Georgia, California, North Carolina, the Bahamas, and beyond. Learn more!
Gabrielle is from Smyrna, Georgia. Way to go, neighbor!
Samaira – Kids Can Code too!
When Samaira first learned about coding she got really excited! She saw it as a fun way to influence technology and the future. Then she noticed that her friends weren’t as excited. In fact, they didn’t think coding was very fun at all. So Samaira invented a board game to help kids learn the basics of coding while playing and having fun! CoderBunnyz board game empowers girls and boys to learn code and become leaders in tech.
Hannah – Protecting the Environment
Hannah is passionate about animals and environmental issues that have an impact on wildlife. Since kindergarten, Hannah has helped to protect rhinos, elephants, horses, bears, dolphins, chimps, and orcas by teaching adults and kids around the world about plastic pollution and practical ways to reduce it. Together with Hannah, we can reduce plastic pollution!
She invented and led Plastic Pollution Awareness Day in 2017 and 2018, the first event(s) of its kind and seen on national TV and 300,000 viewers of the local news in her state. Hannah also influenced Fulton County, Georgia (Hey! Another neighbor!) to pass a bill in 2019 to eliminate single-use plastics from government properties. In 2020, Hannah was part of a small handful of advocates that introduced the federal bill, The Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act. This is considered the biggest solution to plastic pollution ever presented to the U.S. Congress.
Selah – Empowering Readers
Selah loves to read but she noticed that many of her friend didn’t feel the same way. Then she saw that because they didn’t enjoy reading they also had a harder time learning to read. Selah shared what she saw with her parents and they came up with a plan: The Empowered Readers Literacy Project was born! The project aims to donate 2 million books to children across the country.
Selah noticed something else. Her friends weren’t excited about reading in part because they weren’t connecting with characters who didn’t look like them. So in addition to connecting kids to books, Selah began to write her own books! Her books feature a Black pirate princess and have helped get kids excited to read! Check out Penelope the Pirate Princess for yourself.
And guess what?! Selah is from Atlanta! Seems like we have some INCREDIBLE girls in our neighborhood!
Ruby – Showing Love to Seniors
Rudy loves to show kindness to others. In fact her motto is “kindness is my hobby”. When Ruby visited the elderly care center where her mom works she asked a couple of the seniors what they wished for. She thought they’d wish for big things – vacations, lots of money, a car. But instead they wished for small things that brought them joy – fresh fruit, new shoes, toys for their pets.
Those chats gave Ruby an idea. She created Three Wishes for Ruby’s Residents, a nonprofit devoted to improving lives in small yet meaningful ways. To date, Ruby has raised more than $300,000 to grant requests at five nursing homes near her home in Arkansas.
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