Mercy Ajuma, LitWorld Girls LitClub Member
My name is Mercy Ajuma. I am 12 years old. I love to read. My best sport is netball. I come from a family of seven. I am the second-youngest in our family. I stay with my mum and my siblings. My favorite colours are pink and purple. My ambition in life is to become an air hostess or a TV presenter. The reason why I want to become an air hostess is because that job really inspires me. I would love to know the world. My dreams are to go to a good high school after primary education. I do support girls' rights to have an education. Girls do have a right to education, but most of them are being denied their rights. Some are even forced into early marriages. When we unite together, and are given this opportunity, our voices shall be heard and we will be able to end corruption. I stand up for girls to appreciate themselves in every way, even if they are disabled or unloved. In some families, girls are unwanted. They believe that girls bring bad luck to the family. Girls are the mother nature of the world. So if you are a girl, appreciate who you are.
I Stand Up for Education - Philippines Girls LitClub Member Featured on Huffington Post
In the province of the North Cotabato, Philippines where I grew up, there is no transportation, no electricity and it is far away from any school. Life there is not easy. My parents sustain our needs through farming; we are a family of five. With our family's status, it's impossible that any of us can finish our studies.
When I was in elementary school, I walked 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) to reach my school. Some might be dismayed if they are in my situation, but my compassion and determination to deliver my family from poverty drove me to pursue my dream of success.
LitWorld Wins a Chase Community Giving Grant!
This year we were honored to be one of the top 196 organizations in the Chase Community Giving Fall 2012 program. LitWorld was chosen as a finalist out of nearly 30,000 charity nominations!
Because of your votes, we are proud to announce that LitWorld is the recipient of a Chase grant!
Thank you, thank you, to all who voted. Your overwhelming support lights up our world!
I Stand Up for Equality In the Classroom - LitWorld Teen Intern and Girls LitClub Member Featured on Huffington Post
The issue of equality in the classroom keeps me motivated because in my high school, teachers treated girls and boys very differently. Boys were more depended on because teachers thought they didn't get emotionally attached to things like girls did. Teachers thought boys made wiser decisions than girls, so no one asked what we thought. It was assumed that the boys were just smarter. This inequality made me feel disgusted. I was in the classroom, too -- I wanted to learn. They just shooed me away, all because I was a girl.
The school I attended had a lot more boy students than girls. I specifically studied computer science, and there were not many girls in this area. In my Java Script class, my teacher saw how I could multitask, helping others and doing my own work, and he noticed that the coding was too easy for me. Because of my success in this class, he put me in the AP Computer Science class, which he taught also.
I Stand Up for Women Athletes - Girls LitClub Member and LitWorld Teen Intern Tiffany Collins Featured on Huffington Post
I was on the track team in my high school for three years, and was one of the best girls on the team. Even though I was a great runner, my coach would always pay attention to the boys because of how fast they were, and because the boys got so much attention they would improve, and then get even more attention.
All the girls were dissatisfied with our coach because he would never help us with drills or give us feedback on what to improve upon. I was so annoyed with the way the coach was leading the team because it's supposed to be your team and your family, not just a boy team. My friends saw how furious I was, and how I wanted to leave the team. One friend said, "Don't let your coach shoot your dreams away, run for what you love and don't leave the team." I knew she was right and that it was finally time to speak up.
On 10.11.12 We Will Rise Together, and Stand Up for Girls as One
On October 11, we will celebrate the first annual United Nations International Day of the Girl at Riverside Church in New York City. LitWorld's Stand Up for Girls signature event will inspire women and men, girls and boys of all ages to join their voices together to advocate for every girl's right to a quality education. Check out the Stand Up for Girls Event page for full details.
Your Top Five Actions to Stand Up for Girls
1. Tell 10 people today about the Stand Up for Girls Campaign, and ask them to Tell 10 more. Together we can get the whole world to Stand Up.
2. Enter the Stand Up for Girls Photo Contest. For each photo you post to our Facebook timeline, you will be entered to win a pair of tickets to the LitWorld Gala 2013!
3. Sign the Stand Up for Girls Pledge to declare your commitment to create positive change for girls in your community.
4. Write about Stand Up for Girls on your personal blog, share posts on your Facebook page, and tweet using the hashtag #standup4girls.
5. At noon on October 11, make sure to physically Stand Up for every girl's right to a quality education.
I Stand Up for Bookworms - The Huffington Post Features LitWorld Teen Intern and LitClub Member Daija Spaulding
In my life so far, I have never been in the popular crowd. The popular crowd was made up of the kids everyone else wanted to be -- they were funny, had good clothes and money to spend. Instead, I was always the smart girl in class, the one that everyone ignored until they needed help with homework or something like that. I was basically invisible and alone. But reading books gave me an escape from my aloneness.
I grew up at the Polo Grounds Community Center in Harlem, New York. My elementary school was in the middle of the housing projects, and everybody who lived there went to school there. Everyone knew each other, but I didn't know anyone. While the other kids were outside playing, running through sprinklers and going to the park, I was inside on my bed, curled up with a book. I had a few friends, but they were out with the others while all I wanted to do was read.