student testimonials

VANIKA CHAWLA, STUDENT

Vanika, a 16-year-old student from Peterborough, Ontario was on a Directors of Change trip to Kenya’s Maasai Mara—an area where Free The Children is committed to helping marginalized communities within the region. After collecting water with local girls, she was helping to lug the jugs back from the river when several students she knew—Edwin, Panina and Mercy—ran up and started drinking from the jugs.

“It made me sad to see our friends drinking this disgusting water, it was brown and looked like water I would be afraid to touch, let alone drink, wash and bathe in” says Vanika. She knew that community members often die from illnesses caused by the river water. This made her think of her house back home in Canada where clean water flows abundantly from the taps.

Traveling to Kenya gave Vanika a new perspective on her own life, and it made global issues tangible: “The billions of people that couldn’t access clean water were no longer numbers. They were our friends.”

Images captured by Vanika and her fellow student filmmakers in Kenya illustrate how water is fundamental to addressing issues of poverty, girls education, health and sanitation.

LARA HINTLEMANN, STUDENT

Massa, an 8-year-old Maasai girl, pointed to the Canadian flag pin on her little collar.

She was showing it to Lara Hintlemann, a 17-year-old from Lakefield, Ontario. But when Massa found out that Lara was from Canada, her face lit up and she stopped pointing. With a huge smile, she took off her pin and stuck it on Lara’s shirt.

“There were so many things I loved about Kenya,” Lara recalls of her summer 2007 trip to Kenya’s Maasai Mara. “But there is one thing that stuck out to me in particular: the friendliness and generosity of the people.”

Everywhere Lara went, she found people smiling and waving: “Everyone seemed to be so happy, even though they didn’t have much.”

Thinking back to her home in Canada, she was shocked by the materialism of her culture, especially compared to the generosity of the Maasai, with Massa and her pin as a perfect example: “She had nothing and she wanted to give me something she loved in return for me spending some time with her.”

Now at home in Canada, Lara is determined to live her life exemplifying the generosity she was shown in Kenya. By sharing watershed experiences like Lara’s with North American youth, the Directors of Change program is able to encourage empathy, interpersonal skills and community contribution.

 

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