What: The
Kibera Girls Soccer Academy is a free secondary school for girls in the slums of Kibera, Kenya utilizing education, athletics and artistic programming as tools to empower and inspire. Abdul Kassim, a resident of Kibera and an educator and organizer started
the school out of a friend's home and has since then organized around different individuals and organizations to help build up the Academy to where it is now - 120 students a year, two story building, four classrooms, a working science laboratory, and a fully
stocked library. A local news channel did a story of the school and Abdul. Watch this link
HERE to learn more.
Initiative: Ellie Roscher, author of "How Coffee Saved My Life" has committed to telling the inspirational story of Abdul Kassim and the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy for her next book. Ellie is currently a graduate student at Sarah Lawrence
in the creative non-fiction program - one of the top writing programs in the nation. She will be in the Kibera Slum for the summer following around Abdul, working with students and staff, observing, writing, eating, walking, and talking with everyone that
is a part of the KGSA family. It's Abdul's motivation and passion that she hopes to discover more about and write on it. How does one man from the Kibera slums grow up surrounded by extreme gender inequalities and become inspired to start a free school for
girls? What keeps him going, how does he continue to do it each day?
Impact: Having a book on KGSA's story will dramatically increase the exposure around the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy. In turn, this will lead to more prospective volunteers, donors, partnerships, and a heightened knowledge surrounding the
injustices that take place in urban slums such as Kibera. It is one of Ellie's goals to have Abdul and the girls be as much a part of this book as possible in terms of writing and story telling. It's important for our students and Abdul to have their words
be heard the way they want them to be heard. This book will highlight the strength and power of community, it will demonstrate a type of resiliance that many have never seen or heard of, it will impart the importance of educating women - especially as a way
to create foundation and stability out of poverty.
Other Work: In addition to the book, Ellie will be working directly with KGSA's Journalism program and the
SHEDDERS magazine company. She will be working with them on how to tell their own stories through different social media outlets, how to engage a larger community, and looking at what makes a powerful
story. She will do this through different writing exercises, reflections and assigments.
