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Volcanoes, Culture, and Activism

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Hello Fellow World Changers! Recently, my family and I visited the big island of Hawaii. We had the wonderful privilege of getting to stay there for two weeks and getting to experience the birth of Pelehonuamea or Pele the Hawaiian Volcano Goddess who is said to live in the Halemaʻumaʻu crater of the Kilauea volcano. The big island of Hawaii is made from five volcanoes. Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Hualalai and Kohala. To the Hawaiians, Mauna Kea is considered a very sacred place because the snow goddess Poliʻahu, an enemy of Pele, resides on the peak. She is said to wear a cloak of white kapa that she sometimes drapes on the mountain. Here is a story of their rivalry. “Poliʻahu mingled with humans on the East slope of Mauna Kea. One day, while hōlua sledding with mortals, she was joined by a beautiful stranger who challenged her. The stranger had no sled, so she borrowed one to run against her. In the first run, Poliʻahu easily passed the stranger. Graciously...
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Shopping for a Better World

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Hello Fellow World Changers! Long time, no type. Did you miss me? I recently came across the UNICEF USA website upon reading this fascinating article about how refugee children in the Kakuma refugee camp struggle to get an education.   UNICEF, (United Nations Children’s Education Fund), a non profit organization founded in 1946, works to support many of the world's suffering children. They work with communities around the world to tackle difficult problems like clean water, immunization, and education. For example, the Education in Emergency Program, located near camps like Kakuma, provide safe educational spaces and opportunities for refugee children. The Kakuma Refugee Camp (established in 1992 in northwest Kenya) was initially meant to house 23,000 refugees, is now home to over 181,000 fleeing youth. The article talks a little more about the children that they serve and the difficulties they encounter in trying to get an education. Low teacher:student ration (1...
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Half the Sky Exhibit

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Hello Fellow World Changers! Yesterday I went to the opening of the Women Hold Up Half The Sky exhibit at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor Center . The exhibit features stories of women whose lives have been positively impacted by education, economic empowerment, courage and hope.  My family and I listened to a speech about a woman's personal experience with domestic violence, how it was very hard to escape from it and, how it negatively affected her confidence. Thanks to a supportive community, she is now healing and fighting domestic violence. We made buttons emblazoned with inspirational sayings (For mine I wrote the first line of my favorite quote,  “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”  ―  Mahatma Gandhi) We also assembled hygiene kits for girls in poor communities that are having their periods. According to the Days for Girls website, their goal is to promote health education and for every girl to have access to feminine...
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Book Review - I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

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Hello Fellow World Changers! I just finished reading a book called  I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali. It is an autobiography written by a Yemeni girl named Nujood who is forced to get married to an evil man 3X her age. I believe the book had several purposes; to show how child marriages destroy a young girl's childhood, to share Nujood's personal experience with child marriage, and to show the way that she was able to take matters into her own hands when the women in her family were not able to assist her in her escape. It was a very powerful book but also contained some content that might be inappropriate and/or confusing for younger children and it was sometimes  a little hard to understand ( I am twelve and don't know everything!) I highly recommend this book for teens, pre-teens, and adults who are interested in social justice and especially the topic of child marriages. Thanks for reading my review.  Let me know what you think! ( Warning . ...
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Free Rice - Clicking for Hunger

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Hello Fellow World Changers! I just found out about of this awesome website called Free Rice . It is a fun and educational way to raise awareness for malnutrition and to donate food to malnourished families. For each answer you get right, ten grains of rice are donated throughthe World Food Program to help end hunger. It has a free sign-up and it is really easy to get an account. 1. Got to  ( http://freerice.com)  and click the sign up button. 2. After filling in the needed information (you will need an email address) press REGISTER. 3. When you have created your account, you can go to the subjects button at the top of the page to view the subjects that you can do. Once you pick a subject, you will be asked to answer a question on the screen. If you answer a question correctly you will see your bowl of rice filling up on the side of your screen. 4. Join my group, The Strive Blog , to collect points together! Happy clicking!
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Strive Goals

Hello Fellow World Changers! I am excited to start this new blog as a way to encourage me to find ways to let others know about social issues in our world today. Why Strive?  I chose STRIVE as the title to this blog because it stands for:  S olution T ransformation R evolution I nformation V olition E ducation If you have any ideas for what i should learn about, (right now I am researching hunger) please contact me. Thank you!
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