Advocacy Project Connects the World Through Technology

Even if they aren’t rich, most high school students living in Washington, DC, can count on a few basic elements: a warm bed to sleep in, three meals a day, access to health care, and education. But recently, thanks to volunteer Kristina Rosinsky from The Advocacy Project, students from the summer program at the Washington International School received a wakeup call that made them realize how much they genuinely had, compared to others their age around the world. Raise money for this idea and other ideas.

Rosinsky created a role-playing game for the students that would help them to understand what it would be like to be an impoverished teenager living in the Kenyan slums, forcing them to come face to face with the challenges such children would deal with on a day-to-day basis.

"You are sick and it is the weekend. You have a fever and you're sweating and vomiting so you fear you have malaria. You need medical attention. All the money you have is what is in your pocket, a total of $3.59. You never went to school so you do not know how to read or write. You live in the Kibera slums."

The student who drew that card is one of the luckier ones. Another DC student who participated in the game, Thanya Chartsakukahajaru, was “a penniless, homeless, starving person on the street,” she said on the group's website . "I had 10 cents and my choices were to go steal food or go to the dumpsite. I stole food...I ended up in jail."

These games are not simply based on research from books and news articles—the Kenyan teens’ experiences are taken from the real-life stories of 12 Kenyan students, who participated in a program with the Advocacy Project, posting blog entries and photographs about their lives on the street. For most of the students, it was the first time they had ever used a computer or camera.

Along with participating in the role-playing game, the DC students were given the opportunity to read the Kenyan teens’ blog entries and learn more about their lives—and were taken aback to realize what heavy issues their African counterparts were faced with on a daily basis.

"I'm surprised by the violence that's in their lives and the issues they're dealing with, (such as) marriage at 14 years old," said one of the students, Catherine Golub.

The project helps to give American students empathy for the Kenyan teens in a way that books and movies never could. Next, the Advocacy Project hopes to build on this new connection by promoting online interaction and video conferencing between the students in the two countries.

The Advocacy Project works to help people in developing countries all over the world tell their stories, sending Peace Fellows to volunteer with partner organizations all over the world, bringing communication tools to help residents in the local communities tell their stories and raise awareness of the issues they face each day. The organization believes that empowerment begins with connection—the Advocacy Project is working to ensure that the voiceless will finally have the opportunity to speak out.

How you can help : Learn more about the Advocacy Project’s fascinating programs around the globe, and the people and communities they are working with, on their website. To help the group continue to promote social change through communication and advocacy, make a donation to the Advocacy Project through Razoo.