We did it!

Our first annual Girls Run Red 5K run/walk was a success – thanks to our race director Sarah and all the volunteers, as well as the racers, of course! We had 76 people signed up to run and about 70 there on race day in spite of the heat and humidity (but thankfully no rain). Wind and Roots, owned by Sally Henton, did an amazing job on the trophies and Omair’s students from the mosque put together the medals AND volunteered on race day. The trophies and medals were a huge hit! And some of my students volunteered, too. Emily, of course, helped Sarah tremendously. Sola did an awesome job as the emcee, and many others helped woman the water stop and guide runners along the path. It was truly a team effort and we were glad to work with perioddallas as they came to town to see what Fort Worth is all about. Most importantly, we all had FUN.

We’re taking a breather right now from planning, but we’ll start again in a couple weeks as we hope to make this a recurring event. With a year to plan this time and knowing how we can budget it out – especially with additional help from Demery Cox at Cox Racing Services – it’ll be even bigger next year. Consider joining us on Sunday, April 5th. You won’t regret it!

Sign up. Run. Win.

We are three days away from our inaugural 5K and we are excited to see everyone who has signed up. Thank you to our sponsors and to our participants! There is still time to sign up – and it’s a pretty good deal, if I must say so myself. $30 online or $35 on race day to walk/run/jog 3.1 miles in Fort Worth’s beautiful Trinity Park. You get a t-shirt, a finisher’s medal, and a chance to win one of these beautiful age-group trophies. Seems like a win all around, right?

Of course, we could never accomplish all this without a LOT of help…primarily from our race director, Ms. Sarah Matthes, intern and person extraordinaire. We also have lots of volunteers who have lent a helping hand – people we know and people we don’t, and we are SO grateful to each and every one of you.

We still have lots of space for you to join us – so take the plunge and get in on the fun. Sunday April 7th at 7:30am (arrive a little early). Go to https://www.roadid.com/a/event-calendar/events/3421-girls-run-red to register, or sign up at RunOn Fort Worth (2600 W. 7th Street in the Montgomery Plaza center). Look forward to seeing you all there!

We need love!

We are officially just TWO WEEKS away from our inaugural Girls Run Red 5K and we need your help! We would love to see you out there walking, jogging, or running to win a trophy…regardless, all who finish will earn a beautiful handmade “medal,” kindly put together by my friend Omair’s high school students that he teaches at a local mosque, pictured here in the act. Omair said they had a wonderful time making these medals, and in light of the recent horrific mosque shooting in New Zealand, it provided some joy in an otherwise frightening, confusing, and extraordinarily sad time for these lovely teens.

I find it fitting that moments like these can help – I had no idea when we started this whole thing (Msomi AND Girls Run Red) the lessons I – and hopefully my team – would learn. Perhaps learn is not the right word when it comes to matters of the heart, however; affirm may be much better. I’ve personally never understand why the color of my skin, whom I choose to love, or what I choose to worship should be cause for concern to anyone else. If I am living my life joyfully, with love and compassion, and doing my best to be a decent human being, in the end isn’t that all that really matters? No, I’m not always successful. But I sure do learn from my mistakes, I hope. And when it comes to people, the more you travel and the more open you are, the more you realize that “we are more alike, my friends, than unalike” (the great Maya Angelou’s words).

So please, come celebrate with us on April 7th – for a number of reasons. Because you are able to walk when others aren’t; because you live in a country where you have the right to speak your thoughts without fear of governmental retribution; because it’s April in Texas and it’s likely to be raining or sunny – and warm regardless; because in the end, we’ve worked hard to bring you a race to help some who don’t have the means to help themselves and along the way we’ve made new friends and found new joys. Come share the love with us, get some exercise, and remember that it’s all going to a two amazing causes!

https://www.roadid.com/a/event-calendar/events/3421-girls-run-red

 

Strong girls make strong women

In honor of International Women’s Day it seemed appropriate to post for the first time in a long time. We are working hard but slowing a bit in our progress, as always happens with a new program. We are still working though, and that is the important part!

Our first big event is coming up in exactly 30 days, so please join us for our first Girls Run Red 5K in Fort Worth, TX! You can get to the registration link on the “activities” tab of this website or by clicking the hyperlink: https://www.roadid.com/a/event-calendar/events/3421-girls-run-red

You can walk, run, bring a pooch, or just come out and volunteer – we hope to see you!

International Women’s Day 2019 is an interesting moment in history. As the U.S. seems to want to push women and other marginalized groups’ rights back to the dark ages, we are seeing women around the world step and raise their voices to combat inequity and inequality in all things – pay, treatment, law, policy, and every day living. We applaud the bravery of these strong women and support them in their efforts. We also hope that Msomi will add to their ranks, providing opportunities for strong girls to become strong women who will tear down those glass walls and ceilings and bring forward the half of humanity that is currently not as privileged.

Stay strong and beautiful, fellow ladies! And never forget that we all deserve to be seen, heard, and valued. Happy International Women’s Day!

Perpetual forward motion

It’s almost the end of January already and I can’t believe how fast the time is going! Sometimes it feels as though we are standing still and the world around continues to spin, but then I get news and all is well. We hit another small milestone today – I received notice that our trademark application has been “allowed” for registration, meaning no one has disputed its originality and, after a couple more steps and a few more dollars, Msomi’s logo will be legally and exclusively ours. Hip hip hooray! Now if we could just get the government back open so we can learn the fate of our 501c3 status…

We also had our first meeting of the new year, which went very well. We are excited to be moving forward with our 5K in conjunction with period Dallas (you can register here: https://www.roadid.com/a/event-calendar/events/3421-girls-run-red or on our website). If you have any interest in helping us, do let us know! In addition, we have our first board in place and their duties have begun…thank goodness. All these little details that you never knew about until you had to do them. It’s been a great learning process, for sure.

Lastly, our June trip is now officially in the works and we look forward to getting as much work, fun, and work done as possible (yes, I said work twice). Jenesta is heading up our efforts to deliver some teacher training and enhanced lessons for our friends at Kosogo and Oldononyonyokie primary schools and we are all so excited to see our friends there again. Lots of traveling and lots of time to get to know one another, so good times will be had by all.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to you joining us on our journey. Oh, and for those wondering about my title, it alludes to running (appropriately). As an ultra runner (runner who does races longer than the 26.2 marathon), one of the mantras we use is “perpetual forward motion.” Meaning, if you stop, you’re likely to stop for good, so even a slow walk or crawl is better. Suits us at Msomi right now, don’t you agree?

Girls Run Red!

It’s been far too long, I know…with the new year arriving rapidly, I’m planning to be more diligent about providing updates.  Sometimes it’s slow, but that’s no excuse.  However, we have a lot to report this time around!

Up first, we are partnering with period.org’s Dallas chapter to direct our first official fundraising event!  We have planned a 5K run/walk in Fort Worth’s Trinity Park on Sunday, April 7th at 7:30am. Bring your dogs, your strollers, and your running shoes as you meander through the park and get some exercise while supporting two non-profits doing great work in the world. You can register here:  

https://www.roadid.com/a/event-calendar/events/3421-girls-run-red/registration

We are capped at 300 participants this year, so register soon and use the new year to motivate you to run your first – or 100th – 5K for two great causes!

Now that we have that out of the way, I’m happy to report that we have officially seated our first three board members, are headed to Kenya for our second trip this year to deliver those shoes that grow and get familiar with city we hope will be home to our (first) school, and are keeping our fingers crossed that the IRS doesn’t need any additional information so we can earn our 501(c)(3) status in January rather than April or May.  Send lots of good thoughts our way, please!

We are also starting to plan our big 2019 trip to Kenya, where we hope to continue our work through delivering more shoes that grow AND work with teachers at Kosogo and Oldonyonyokie primary schools to deliver high quality, focused lessons to students in English, Math, and Science.  We are SO excited about these partnerships and so very grateful for the relationships that got us here and allowed us to make these connections.  

Look for at least one more post before the end of our inaugural year – and visit our photo gallery after we return so you can see some of Brandon’s amazing photos from our December visit.  In the meantime, stay healthy and happy and we look forward to seeing some of you on the race course in April!

It’s been a bit too long

Life has a way of making you crazy sometimes, but I am trying to get back to this on more regular basis.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best!

I would like to say that today has been a good day.  My class this morning was fun and interesting (the topic; the students are always that) and my lunch time talk went over really well – it was about Msomi, which definitely helped.  But the thing I think helped me the most was finally owning that my vulnerability is important.  I need to be better about sharing my life so that people really understand where I’m coming from and why I’m trying to go where I want to go.  Of course it’s not all about me, but it has to start somewhere, so that somehwere might as well be the genuine me that’s been trying to burst out in one way or another for a pretty long time.

It’s nice to know that you’re going to be well-received and that people out there are going to see the real you – flaws and all – and not turn away.  Msomi is all about providing those moments for Kenyan girls; moments that allow all the facades to fade away, all the faces and shrouds, and letting the world see them for who they are in their strength and rawness, their joy and fear, their courage and sadness.  It’s about helping girls – no matter their age – learn that they don’t have to live in the shadows of others, be afraid of crying in public, or think they are “less than” because they don’t have x, y, or z.  It was school that did this for me, and I am hoping it is school that can do that for them – even if it’s just one.

It’s taken me over 40 years to finally embrace who I am and where I come from.  To find a way to use my story for good rather than, well, not so good.  I don’t want to manipulate, I want to inspire.  I don’t want to accept, I want to challenge.  Msomi enables me to do all these things and to live in a way the hopefully does that for others.  So what’s your story?  Why do you want to help?  What inspires you?  Tell me – and perhaps you’ll find it in one of these blogs do that you, too, can inspire, challenge, and grow.  I hope to hear from you!

International Day of the Girl Child

The Girl Child: A Poem by Naomi

The lives of innocent children have been shattered.

Come look my brethren,

Mighty dreams have been thwarted.

My sister is a commodity of trade,

Only reaching to the third grade,

She found herself under a share,

She became property of an exchange,

Having no say over anything.

I have been longing for revenge,

Heavy penalty but got nothing,

Feel the life of my innocent sister.

 

This is a public outcry.

I insist on stiff measures,

Both in oceans and in dry,

It is a grievance from all creatures,

The inhuman act of RAPE.

Four humiliating offenses,

To my sister who lacks defenses,

Feel the same of my innocent sister.

 

My sister is depressed,

No second for deep rest,

In marriage she is oppressed,

Her property lives in her chest,

Financially she is pressed,

Me beast of burdens is hard-pressed,

No matter how she tries her best,

Her efforts are all compressed,

Restricted from searching her light to the west,

Look! She is denied of her life’s zest,

Why her alone and not the rest?

 

A women has the right to rest,

If allowed she is able to invest,

In enabled she will pass any test,

This is a true word not spoken in jest,

Instilled in me in order to teach the rest,

Feel the discomfort of my innocent sister.

 

Before my heart was burning hot,

But now I am grateful a lot,

Finally I have reached my lot,

I wish to halt on this spot,

Make a change as small as a dot,

To relieve my sister from the pot,

Because there is strength in everything I’ve got,

There is ability in my innocent sister.

 

Now that our 501(c)(3) is filed, we’ve started the journey of searching for grant funding to get our school off the ground, which essentially means devoting hours to navigating the tunnels of the internet. That is how I came to discover today is the International Day of the Girl Child, with a theme for 2018 of “With Her: A Skilled Girl Force.”

This falls in line with Msomi’s mission perfectly. Yes, we want to provide education to girls, but beyond that, we want to stand behind our students as they acquire skills they will take into the workforce and use to support themselves. Before they even graduate from primary school, our girls will have the experience of planting, growing, harvesting, and selling their own produce. Nothing boosts belief in oneself quite like doing, and with girls already believing by age 6 that boys are more suited than girls to “really, really smart” activities, we need to help girls see their own strength as soon as possible and to believe in themselves as fiercely as possible.  #dayofthegirl #GenUnlimited

To learn more, visit the following:

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/girl-child

Links to some poems about International Day of the Girl Child

“U Have to Struggle More”

https://humanrightswarrior.com/2013/10/11/u-have-to-struggle-more-a-poem-for-international-day-of-the-girl/

Untitled

https://www.worldpulse.com/en/community/users/lisbeth-salifu/posts/88918

Thank you to Sarah, our current intern, for coming across this celebration and writing this post!