MEDIA VOICES
VOLUME FIVE WE DO CHILD RIGHTS. FOR CHILDREN
MEDIA VOICES MAGAZINE FIVEVOLUME2022SUMMER CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS Mara-Clarisa Boiangiu Kayleigh FernandaBollinMora Brenes Alison Custer Petra Lent McCarron Charlotte Reimanis Luke Walker ART DIRECTOR Petra Lent McCarron EDITOR Len Morris UNLESS OTHERWISE CREDITED, PHOTOS FROM ROBIN ROMANO PAPERS, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT LIBRARY COVER IMAGE ROBIN ROMANO
We hope you will keep this magazine, read it at your leisure and take the moment to contribute financially to Media Voices. Our Island non-profit works to advocate for children and you can learn more at mediavoicesforchildren.org and learnchildrights.org.
FROM THE EDITOR
Alison Custer (MVRHS Class of 2022) was in the audience when Media Voices presented units from Childhood Unbound, our new high school curriculum on child labor and slavery. Alison shares how this has affected her personal career path.
Fernanda More Brenes reports on the International Labor Organization’s quadrennial conference on child labor, recently concluded in Durban, South Africa and the renewed attention paid to children in agriculture.
There is no time like the present to get involved.
Len PresidentMorrisand Founder
Kayleigh Bollin has been taking photographs since she was 12 years old. Her photographs explore difficult themes of anxiety, depression, suicide and sexual assault. Her work has been featured at Featherstone Center for the Arts, and she is also the winner of the annual Scholastic Art Awards for photography.
Mara-Clarisa Boiangiu is a graduate of Arizona State University with degrees in Neuroscience (B.S.) and Global Health (B.A). Mara-Clarisa recently spent time in Peru working with 33 Buckets to provide safe water sources to remote communities.
This issue features a range of Vineyard Voices and draws heavily on our young people whose passion and idealism we’d do well to emulate and support.
Petra Lent McCarron writes on child marriage in the deeper context of gender just as Massachusetts becomes the seventh state to outlaw the marriage of underage girls.
Welcome to Volume 5 of the Media Voices for Children Magazine!
Luke Walker Is a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University.. But his most important credit is as a father, and his essay focuses on how we can weave better relationships with nature for our children by turning off computers and TVs.
Charlotte Reimanis is a rising senior at Thetford Academy in Vermont and one of the National Leaders of Operation Days Work, the longest running youth led- charity in the country. Charlotte explains why she works to help children in Africa she will never meet.
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MEDIA VOICES MAGAZINE
BY FERNANDA MORA BRENES
ONE IN TEN CHILDREN worldwide is suffering the scourge of child labor. In an attempt to reverse this alarming situation participants met for the 5th Global Conference on Child Labor in Durban, South Africa. Creating “The Durban Call to Action”, a document that reflects commitments to scale up action to eliminate child labor while prioritizing the elimination of its worst forms. The implementation will require social dialogue and can serve as a roadmap to action for companies, governments, communities, children, and survivors involved in every corner of the world.
The motto took on new meaning, and it kept echoing as the days went by. I have to admit I was skeptical about how to safely include children and survivors in the conversation, which slowly dispersed as I witnessed their example.
A story shared by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi starts with the question “why didn’t you come earlier?” This was a girl’s angry question after being rescued from a stone quarry. The power of those words hit me and immediately reminded me of the millions of voices who remain unheard, waiting for a new opportunity in life. The motto of the conference, “Nothing about us without us” was intended to remind participants that listening to the voices of survivors is essential to the work.
In fact, it was the first time children were included in the conference. In their firstever attempt, they provided a Children’s Forum panel, which opened with an artistic role-play representation of all the parts involved such as the government, kids and their families, civil society organizations, companies/ investors, and employers through the lens and children’s interpretation. And most importantly, as stakeholders in the discussion, they are directly susceptible to exploitation.
children’s views and providing safe spaces for
them to speak their minds is crucial for the tokenism”.theirmadechildrentoofwetothemforeducation.formakingneeds.topovertycounteractforpolicingconditionsclaimofyoungexperiencestheIneliminatingCallimplementationsuccessfuloftheDurbantoaccelerateprogressonchildlabor.conclusion,wehearneedtoamplifytheandclaimsofactivistsandsurvivorschildlabor.WeheartheirfordecentadultworkingalongwithpublicandsocialprotectionwomenandchildrentotheeffectsofthatforceschildrenworktocoverunmetbasicWehearthecallforscholarshipsarealitythemtocontinuetheirWeheartheircallvocationaltraining.Wehearwhentheysaytheywantexploretheirdreamsandheartheirneedforasensebelongingandcontributiontheircommunities.Thehavespoken,andhaveitcleartheydon’twantparticipationas“actsof
wanting to give them a voice. His main message was that education is the answer to the elimination of child labor.
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THE CHILDREN HAVE SPOKEN
Fernanda Mora Brenes has studied international human rights law specializing in women’s and children’s rights. She has worked for the Arias Foundation of Peace and Human Progress, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) and she was Coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of the Costa Rican International Law Association. She hails from Costa Rica.
South Africa proposed a process of corporate and governmental accountability to share the progress in implementing the policies they have committed to with the public. She also asked the media to consistently broadcast children’s issues to bring visibility to child labor and exploitation issues and suggested the ILO and UNICEF open children’s chairs to participate in decision-making processes. She finished by asking them to work with children and not for the Includingchildren.
“There were many testimonies given by children during the conference. A girl from Guatemala -who works in agriculture - highlighted poverty and necessity as the main cause of her being sent to work. But she also pointed out that another cause of child labor is often sexual exploitation by family members or third parties who prey on the vulnerability of children. She, therefore, asked for special protection against sexual violence toward child Alaborers.survivor
of bonded labor in India shared his experience working in stone quarries. After he was rescued, he realized that another life for him was possible and that he could learn to read books and study. He later became a lawyer to represent kids like him,
Another boy from Kenya urged the need to implement ILO Convention 138 on minimum age as a baseline for policymaking and governmental monitoring mechanisms for child labor, and made a strong conclusion on the need to create an effective mechanism for consulting children because the decisions made today by adults - without consultation with themaffect their future and their environment. Children need to have a say on matters affecting Athem.girlfrom
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Photograph courtesy of Luke Walker
A WORLD OF AWARENESS
These are questions I often hear from my 3-year-old when we stay in town. For a time, we had the opportunity to live near the Deep Fork Wildlife Management area in Oklahoma. Every day my son was outside watching the enigmatic lives of our local surroundings and asking questions. He built important relationships with the plants, insects, and most of all the lizards, referring to all of them as his “little buddy.”
Such sentiment is common and marketed by supporters of internet-focused technologies. When has Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Netflix, or Hulu filled our being with meaningful relationships, with touch and laughter? Social media and virtual entertainment are like nutrientdeprived food giving us the bare minimum for survival. This is not and should not be a sustainable way to live. Technology, no matter how fancy, cannot satiate our need for fulfilling relationships, those that center our lives and give birth to meaning.A large portion of mental health rests on the buoyancy of our relationships. For many indigenous peoples, nonhuman relationships are too important to ignore or neglect. Oral histories remind us that humans are only a small part of this living and interacting planet. And that we gain an essential part of our being by building and renewing our relationships with nature.
develops for some of us who inhabit the expanding cities, who value the intimacy of the natural world and consider ourselves a part of this shared world, not the steward nor the proprietor, but a participant. A gulf is created between our values and the way we live, bound by human conveniences and stuck in our ways. Many of us notice; something essential and foundational is wrong.
“WHERE IS MY LITTLE BUDDY?”
What do children see today? What example do we set for them? Phones, videos, cities, we are encapsulated by our technology. More dangerously, we are preoccupied by it. This is their example, this is their normal. Unfortunately, many of us as parents have encouraged our children to continue this draining practice.
But in towns and cities, there is no place for armadillos nor lizards to thrive. These human constructions exist to isolate us from our life-giving surroundings, to function as a great indoors. Our relationships and our sense of place are becoming increasingly human-oriented, we risk forgetting where we came from. We risk losing our nonhuman relatives, both figuratively and Cabinliterally.fever
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“BABBA, WHERE ARE THE ARMADILLOS?”
WE ARE MORE CONNECTED THAN EVER BEFORE
There, beyond our geometric walls and roads, lies a world of living relationships. There, in that world beyond the concrete confines of human habitation are lessons and teachings that go unnoticed by most. Like a library unrecognized, unvisited, and underutilized, its wealth of experience is untapped as many of us have become illiterate in the language of nature. distanced ourselves.
I taught my son to respect life, to notice it, and to never forget it was there. Early on he was taught to avoid hurting the smaller creatures. He would sometimes ask, “Why don’t we kill the bugs?” to which I would reply, “All life is sacred, all life is important.”
Let us set aside our phones, the cities, the internet, and pick up our children. Let us weave strong relationships once again, and be menders and propagators of good relationships, not only with our eye on humanity but on all things that are living.
“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”
We should be teaching all children that outside our cities - outside of the “great Indoors” - there exists a world more connected than the internet. A world of awareness. We must unplug to connect. A more intimate and sensile experience is out there for those who remember to smell, to listen, to feel, to taste, to see; and, to be aware of the less tangible things.
BY LUKE WALKER
LUKE WALKER is a Haskell Indian Nations University alumnus and member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. He is an unabashed supporter of environmental rights and protector of life. His interests range from indigenous language preservation to mental health and community.
To what extent of dissonance is created by teaching indigenous youth these worldviews; then depriving them of the experience necessary to build connections to our nonhuman relations? What example can be provided when the life-giving planet is being poisoned by our selfishness and addictions?
MEDIA VOICES MAGAZINE MVC
Sitting Bull
Kuna Boy Swimming with his Horse, Panama
BY MARA-CLARISA BOIANGIU
Photograph courtesy of Mara-Clarisa Boiangiu
If you weren’t the one breathing its lines Cowing under the weight of its dimly lit script Hidden amongst the crushing pages of patriarchy
With assessment completed, our team exited the little building. I couldn’t help thinking about the questions I’d never be able to ask her. I could only wonder what it would be like to live her life, to have her worries, to carry her children on her back, to walk the daily trudge, to the fields or to the town – spending her life ensuring that what she has reproduced, her children, will live a better life.
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HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
In Mollepata, mom was quiet in the room, appearing to observe the discussion on water health among the foreigners as a foreign conversation. I watched her occasionally snap a picture, move to hold her arms against her chest, quiet a child hidden in the corner, nod at the fall of his voice not at a lull in the conversation, look at us with interested glances and when we caught her eye, quickly smile after we did and shift away. I don’t think she expected to be asked for a contribution on what she thought: about the health of the children in her community, how clean water would affect it, and about her own health. She repeated his observations of kids being plagued with anemia, stomach problems, malnutrition, and diarrhea amongst the common ailments. Short, terse, and over with, she stopped speaking and gave us an out-of-rhythm nod and smile, maybe hoping that that was good enough to satisfy us.
You can’t tell the story
In Totora they were asked: “Porque es agua importante?” –“Why is water important?” “For cooking” a voice rang out. Instantly followed by a stream of melodic pre-pubescent voices: “For health” “Animals!” Kids giggled and nudged each other in between chants. They were proud when they answered, and we smiled in response. “To clean yourself!” “To drink! “Family!” An excitement in us all as we acknowledged the kids’ engagement and knowledge, one which masked the sad fact that this information was to be learned. Do they know? Know that most kids don’t have to be
Written word smudged and voice enveloped in a closed cover, only to be clumsily opened a crack, To peer within and grasp at its Allpageswe know is what we know –It’s her story, not yours.
with an acknowledging nod. We had just asked him what problems he’s noticed in the health of the communities he oversees. “Hay problemas, siempre hay problemas”/ “There’s problems, there’s always problems.” Index finger lightly pressed on his hand-drawn map of crude houses and water pipes and little people. “Basicamentes es agua”/ “Basically it’s water”. He shrugs. “Siempre es agua”/ “It’s always water.” She nods.
With fundamental needs comes fundamental worry. Once these needs are met, it’s then, and only then, that we can work our way up the pyramid of safety, love and belonging and esteem. What is the point of measuring up worth to a women’s right to choose, of imposing self-righteous beliefs?
Photographs courtesy of Mara-Clarisa Boiangiu
the topic of reproductive health and its respective rights, I was drawn to the reality of life after conception. How rights cannot even begin to be my rights until one’s basic needs are satisfied. Needs such as water to drink, food to eat, a place to live, clothes to wear. Needs that without satisfaction, consume.
taught this. That there are people who map the trajectory of water from capture point to reservoir to the houses of the 17 families in their community. Did I ever Inknow?tackling
MEDIA VOICES MAGAZINE
His sun leathered face crinkled
Through my work with 33 Buckets, a nonprofit that empowers underserved communities with clean sustainable water solutions, I’ve seen the bare actuality of what it means to live with fundamental worry. I’ve long operated on the side behind the screen, but this past summer I was finally granted the ability to immerse myself in this reality I knew so much about. This piece speaks in my voice but emulating others - I will never be any voice other than my own but I can spend my life trying to hear the voice of others.
My own life, her life’s purpose, cannot be boiled down to restriction. BY MARA-CLARISA BOIANGIU
Only half the story bound to the cover we like to tell Can we really feel – how they feel – how she feels Intake of worried breath without It’spausebliss of ignorance with a hand over your face, peering Between the spaces at what lies beneath
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is a graduate of Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University with degrees in Neuroscience (B.S.) and Global Health (B.A.).
Her path has often followed the intersection of medicine and the humanities, maintaining simultaneous involvement in lab research, poetry, health policy, and nonprofit work. This has led her in her pursuit of a M.S. in Global Health concentrated in Health Policy and Management this Fall 2022 at Georgetown University prior to continuation in the healthcare field.
Perhaps it’s time to focus on a better life for the people who come after us and a better life for those already living it.
Mother spans Mother Earth
Providing for the life that suspires after satisfaction
You shouldn’t speak of more life without better life
The right to be by writing to be Surpassed by handing her the ink Letting the pages dry.
MARA-CLARISA BOIANGIU
Photograph courtesy of Petra Lent McCarron
BY PETRA LENT MCCARRON
MARRIAGECHILD
As you might expect, the difficulty here is comparing apples to persimmons and kumquats. Some of these studies are based on vast sample sizes, others not so much. Some interventions are focused on poverty alleviation, which may, or may not lead to a decline in early marriage. Some interventions employ an “all of the above” approach, combining poverty alleviation with other measures intended to support human thriving. Other interventions are focused specifically on keeping girls in school and teaching them skills that outweigh the promise of short-term advantage in marrying them off. Some interventions are led by NGO’s, generally limited to 2-3 years. Government-led policies are far more effective, touching many more people’s lives and delivering results consistently and over many years. Scale and sustainability matter.
women grapple with the reality that women and children can be legally forced to give birth in dozens of states, that life-saving emergency treatment for ectopic pregnancy can be denied, that their own living breathing selves are apparently not quite as important as the potential of an as yet unviable fetus, we also need to reckon with loopholes in state laws that allow children to be married under the age of eighteen. Child marriage is the quintessential expression of gender inequality.
Aswebsite)American
Five states, the US Virgin Islands and American Samoa prohibit marriage before the age of eighteen. A strong bill is pending in Michigan, and Massachusetts just passed its bill raising the age
In six states, the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands, there is no minimum age for marriage. Until recently, Massachusetts was in this hall of shame. A bill prohibiting marriage before the age of eighteen passed the Massachusetts House and Senate and was signed by Governor Charlie Baker this July.
MOST US STATES PERMIT CHILD MARRIAGE.
A 2021 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found a 5.1% lower likelihood of marriage for program participants due to interventions that support school attendance and progress through cash or in-kind transfers.
A Get Out of Jail Free Card for Statutory Rape
At first blush, a 5.1% lower likelihood of child marriage worldwide seems, well, meh. Digging into what that number means is interesting, though. In a global review of low and middle-income countries from 2000 through 2019, the authors analyzed 34 different studies tracking the effectiveness of different interventions to prevent or delay early marriage – unconditional cash transfers to poor families, cash transfers conditional on educating girls, bonds given to families at the birth of a girl that mature when she reaches a certain age unmarried, safe spaces and skills training for girls, community interventions aiming to change social norms, access to factories and call centers etc.
We are very conscious of the harm that child marriage does when it happens abroad. We’re clear that child marriage is a human rights violation, that it “produces devastating repercussions for a girl’s life, effectively ending her childhood…before she is physically and mentally mature” according to the U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls. We are less informed about how often this human rights violation takes place in our very own backyard. In its recent study, United States’ Child Marriage Problem, Unchained At Last estimates that nearly 300,000 children were legally married between 2000 and 2018. Most of them are girls married to adult men. In many cases, marriage is used as a Get Out of Jail Free card to cover up the crime of statutory rape. The power imbalance in these marriages is so extreme, that underage girls are unable to file for divorce or go to a domestic violence shelter. Worldwide, child marriage is a driver of poverty and generational trauma.
Esther, a young Hassidic woman married at 17 [from Survivor Stories on the UnchainedatLast
of marriage to eighteen. The rest of the states have a patchwork of weak laws allowing children to be married once they reach the age of 14 (congrats, Alaska!) 15 (looking at you, Kansas and Hawaii!) 16 (cheers, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine!) and 17 (Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and many others).
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And yet, change is coming
“Having to say yes to something so serious at such a young age is like signing a contract in a language you don’t understand.”
LET THAT SINK IN.
It is also high time to reanimate the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. Find out if your state has ratified the ERA. A tsunami of letters calling for equal rights for women, both from states that have ratified and states that have not, will make the ERA impossible to oppose. It shouldn’t have to be necessary to assert that women’s lives matter, but unfortunately, it is.
PETRA LENT MCCARRON
MEDIA VOICES MAGAZINE
Petra is art director and associate editor at Media Voices for Children. She has worked at Galen Films for a long time. Too many years to count.
evidence of these studies, certain types of intervention are more effective than others. Measures specifically focused on keeping girls in school, whether through conditional cash transfers, bonds or giving families two chickens a year do work. Also extremely effective is increasing access to job opportunities for young women, for example in call centers or garment factories. In that context, a number like a 5.1% decline in child marriage globally is significant. It moves the needle. Every young woman who is educated is a woman who will advocate for her children to be educated. Generational change like breaking down gender inequality happens slowly at first, and then all at once.
But the fact of the matter is that eliminating child marriage is a marathon, not a sprint. Child marriage is an expression of gender inequality, and changing that is a matter of decades, not Onyears.the
Clearly, we have much work to do here at home to reform the laws and make child marriage a thing of the past. If you live in Massachusetts, it would not be a bad thing to put a letter to Governor Charlie Baker in the mail. If you live in a state that is legalizes child marriage, even better. Do not underestimate the power of a passionately reasoned letter to your political representatives.
MEDIA VOICES MAGAZINE
BY KAYLEIGH BOLLIN
MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE
When you wake up, what is the first thing you do? Check your phone? A staggering 80 percent of smartphone users check their mobile devices within 15 minutes of waking up each morning.
“It Never Stops” a male model looks both left and right at negative comments about body image to represent that social media affects mens’ body image as well as womens’.
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This may be due to the fact that humans brains are wired to find fast fixes of dopamine. When people get a notification their phones buzz and bing, which makes their brains release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that makes them feel good. “According to a 2021 study…, mobile users aged between 18 and 25 years old received a weekly average of 144 and 139 notifications from Instagram and Snapchat.” This causes them to repeatedly check their phones when they receive a notification. On social media, notifications that include negative information and comments are 63 percent more likely to be clicked on, which means that social media algorithms are designed to maximize signals which are bound to spread negative Ininformation.thephotograph
MEDIA VOICES MAGAZINE BY KAYLEIGH
According to RAINN 20 percent of sexual violence victims don’t report the crime because they fear retaliation. Retaliation doesn’t just come from the perpetrator but from friends, family, or peers. The survivor is looking for comfort and support, but when they receive a negative response it can inflict silence on the victim and cause them to avoid the topic of sexual assault, ignore the emotional impact of their trauma, and feel as though they are to blame for what happened..
This photo “Contradictions” was originally printed without the writing, then I took paint markers to write the quotes onto the picture. I redid this process three times before I finally liked how it looked. I wrote all the quotes onto a piece of paper and picked eight of the most common negative responses victims often receive. I chose to place those statements on the neck part of the model because the middle of the photograph is immediately where the viewer looks, and I want them to see those statements first. I want this photo to convey that daily comments could negatively affect survivors from coming forward.
CONTRADICTIONBOLLIN
SUFFOCATING
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The connection between anxiety and social media isn’t simple, or all negative. “It may be that depression and anxiety lead to more social media use, rather than the other way around.” It’s important to remember that on social media everyone has the ability to raise awareness, connect with people anywhere in the world, and share moments of beauty. By using social media in positive ways, teens can combat the often suffocating nature of it as depicted in this photograph.
For teens, posting content on social media that will receive likes can sometimes overwhelming.becomeThere is a constant fear of posting the wrong thing and then paying a social price for it. Through likes and follows, teens are “getting actual data on how much people like them and their appearance...and not having any break from that technology,” says Lindsey Giller, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute.
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VOICES
Do you have a voice in your head? Some people do, some people don’t. Everyone’s experience of voices in their head is different.
People may hear voices because of traumatic life experiences, stress or worry, lack of sleep, or taking recreational drugs. The most common type of hallucination is an auditory hallucination which is when someone has heard something that is not there. When people hear these types of voices, it is symptomatic of mental illness.
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“Voices” is meant to represent adolescents who are coping with hallucinations as a result of trauma.
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ARCHIVOS Y COLECCIONES ESPECIALES, BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CONNECTICUT
ROBIN ROMANO,
OVERPOWERING THOUGHTS
While recovering from depression isn’t quick or easy, people do have more control than they realize. The key is to start small and build from there. Taking the first step is often the hardest. Going for a walk or getting up and dancing to your favorite music, for example, are actions a person can take. These activities can significantly boost mood and energy for several hours. Possibly long enough to put a second recovery step into action, such as preparing a mood-boosting meal or arranging to meet an old friend.
In “Overpowering Thoughts” the purpose of the unfocused girl on the right side is intended to represent the depressing thoughts the girl on the left side is trying to overcome. Taking the steps mentioned above may help her do this.
SHAME
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KAYLEIGH BOLLIN is an artist and photographer. She is sharing her series of photographs on mental health challenges faced by young people particularly in the wake of the pandemic. These photos were first exhibited at the Featherstone Center for the Arts.
In many instances, authorities question victims of sexual assault about what they were wearing as though the length of their skirt is an indication of consent. “In 1999, the Supreme Court of Appeals in Rome ruled that a woman wearing jeans couldn’t be raped, reasoning that a rapist couldn’t forcibly remove a pair of pants.” The idea that clothing has anything to do with assault is global and persistent and can cause great shame to the victim.
A simple distinction between guilt and shame: guilt is the sense of “I did something bad,” whereas shame is the sense of “I am bad.” To change our culture and create communities that support survivors, it is important for all of us to recognize shame and messages that reinforce shame.
If you are supporting a friend or loved one, put aside your own discomfort to provide nonjudgmental support to someone who is struggling with trauma. If you are that person struggling with trauma, shame is a normal response to trauma, and sitting with that discomfort helps survivors and those who support them move toward Let’shealing.make
room to talk about shame.
BY ALISON CUSTER
the information on Human Rights violations and child labor was eye-opening and also somewhat shocking for much of our senior class - but necessarily so. We are rarely educated about the ways in which our daily-used materials are made and sourced and how they impact others.
Instead of waiting for a spark of hope, I like to remind myself that taking action - like supporting companies that are fair trade and
I was fortunate to visit the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia this February. The exhibits (interactive, auditory, and visual) were all incredibly provoking. Some were angering, some joyful, some disheartening, some hopeful. I am very grateful for such a meaningful experience, and to have learned as much as I
Having speakers from Media Voices for Children visit my high school to speak about Child Labor and Human Rights was a significant and powerful experience. It was particularly instrumental for me because I was able to receive a deeper understanding of how this passion can play into my education and career.Ithink
Behind what consumers see, there are lives at stake: unethical labor practices, people working in cruel conditions and facing the forefront of the climate crisis. Their stories aren’t often told.
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Many times, the experiences are incredibly heartbreaking to hear about, but it’s imperative that we learn and not just turn our heads (for some, that might be the easier thing to do). If we are ignorant of this, then the cycle continues. The rights, health, and safety of children around the globe are intertwined with our everyday lives, whether we are aware of it or not. However, if we are aware, we have a choice to act on it.
ALISON CUSTER is a recent graduate of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. She is planning to attend Connecticut College in the fall. She will study Environmental Studies, Government, Education and Dance. She is particulary interested in the pathway “Social Justice and Sustainability.
protect child rights, or emailing corporations demanding that they improve working conditions, or fighting in any way, shape, or form for the abolishment of child labor - is doing something, and is much better than doing nothing at all.
Once we are conscious of the crisis that is child labor, I believe the next step is action. I think it’s important for us to tap into our humanity and use our empathy as intuition. As I have grown older, I have begun to understand more and more how our actions, regardless of size, do have an effect. Choosing to only buy chocolate, coffee, sugar, etc. that are certified fair trade may feel small or insignificant sometimes, but by doing that, we are supporting businesses that actually care about the livelihoods of their employees and keeping children in school and out of the workforce. This is a much more ethical option than buying from businesses that actively show disregard and harm those who make their products.
I love finding companies that celebrate artisans and uplift the communities where they are based. I think that investing in these types of organizations is particularly powerful, especially when you can be assured that the profits support their empowerment and autonomy. It’s easy to feel hopeless and powerless when an issue is so large and so pervasive, but we create hope when we take action.
Idid.am
so inspired by those working to educate people on these issues and working to advocate for these children. In college, I plan to take any classes offered that are centered around Human Rights, and one day, I hope to work for a non-profit organization as well. This information and these narratives must be more widely known, so that we can all be more conscious of what goes on around the globe and how to work towards a better world.
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Connection
Once they had been divided into small groups, students were distributed into the community to work for town members. Many of the jobs included turning over and mulching gardens, raking lawns, clearing brush, painting sheds, and stacking wood for the cold Vermont winter that in early May, seemed far away. In turn, the students were paid for their morning of work. The local sense of community is always strengthened by the participation of TA’s 300 students on ODW Day.
ON THE MORNING OF MAY 4TH, 2022, students arrived at the Thetford Academy campus wearing boots, gloves, and rain gear. Despite the drizzly weather, they were ready to work: these high school and middle school students were happy to endure the rain if it meant raising money for organizations around the world. This long-standing tradition is Thetford Academy’s annual Operation Day’s Work (ODW) Day.
I first participated in ODW at Thetford Academy when I was a freshman as a volunteer in the community. I was very impressed with how the day was run and the result of the work we did. The next year I was really looking forward to leading a larger role of ODW but unfortunately due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ODW was not run for 2 years. By the time my senior year rolled around, ODW was back in business and I was more than excited to help reintroduce it to the student body, organize the community employers, and lead the day itself.
Having participated in ODW twice and once as a leader, made me realize how incredibly important the connections that come with ODW are. I enjoyed witnessing and being part of the connections between the student body and the larger Thetford community, and then the connection between the work we are doing here to the benefits it brings to students in Kenya. It is empowering to see these connections bringing people together to work for something larger than -Mackthemselves.Briglin, ‘22
ODW
Kai Harris, ‘22, splits wood at Thetford Academy’s campus. This wood will be used for campfires in Thetford’s Outdoors Program, and to heat the sugar shack to boil sap to make syrup next spring.
Photographs courtesy of Thetford Academy ODW
supported the Kenyan Schoolhouse Project along with
BY CHARLOTTE REIMANIS
Years ago, TA students found the inspiration to co-establish ODWUSA by the previously existing initiative in Norway. The original ODW program helped children in schools to raise millions of dollars each year for youth around the world. The funds were allocated to young people in conditions of forced labor, lack of education, or extreme health problems. Today, TA is one of ten schools in the United States (and hundreds around the world) that contributes to the ODW ODW-USAeffort.
- Mary Bosco, ‘24
two other organizations in the spring of 2022. Thetford Academy alone succeeded in raising over $5,000. A third of the amount went to the Kenyan Schoolhouse Project.
While working in Kenya in the early 2000’s, the filming crew of Stolen Childhoods (including Len Morris) noticed the dangers surrounding the children they worked with. There were many hazards to their immediate health, which could potentially have devastating impacts on their lives. Motivated to support these children, the Kenyan Schoolhouse Project came to life. Since then, thousands of Kenyan youths have found safer and more supportive futures. Many have been able to attend college on scholarships from the Schoolhouse
Academy ODW team is thinking about taking on the leadership position of head of ODW-USA. Whether or not this happens, the students on the ODW committee are excited to get back to work this fall and are looking forward to organizing and sustaining the work that ODW-USA has done.
Every day, students consume endless media and news that shape the way we perceive the world. Looking at it through a screen, that world seems too vast and too complicated, leaving many feeling like any act of good is only a drop in an ever growing bucket.
A week before the work day, all 300 Thetford Academy students piled into the gymnasium bleachers for our weekly assembly. The ODW team made our announcements from the gym floor, and as I looked out at my classmates, I saw an army. And I thought to myself, that’s a lot of water.
ThetfordProject.
Students (Maris Rossi ‘22, Hunter Harris ‘22 Cissy Dai ‘23 Rose Novotny ‘22) working in employers yard on the workday.
Students returned to campus after their days in the community proud to hand in the money that they had earned with hard work. There was no charity or handouts, only a great determination from students to get something done. As students filed into the cafeteria to check in, I noticed them looking at each other. It was in the same way I had looked at all of them in the gym that day and I knew what everyone was thinking. This is a lot of water.
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The purpose that I felt after that day was unmatched. My community had rallied and worked hard for causes that everyone believed in. For once, we could block out the constant noise of the world and focus on something tangible. With every piece of wood stacked, and every leaf raked, students knew that their actions were helping others around the globe.
Empowerment
How many high school students have the chance to organize a school fundraiser? Many (which, for our world, is a good thing). But how many organize a school fundraiser while dealing with last minute employer cancellations, a steady downpour of rain, the lurking threat of Covid-19, and one positive case—all before 8:00 in the morning? Probably very few. And how many endure all of the previous challenges while managing to raise more than $5,000 in a three-anda-half hour time period? Even fewer.
-Cecilia Luce, ‘24
Gordon Reo, ‘22, works in Thetford Academy’s gardens.
Leadership
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These circumstances make Thetford Academy’s 2022 ODW Day sound like a nightmare, but I feel so lucky to have been a part of the movement. I learned more from that morning than I have in any leadership seminar or school-run workshop. There’s really no way to learn how to lead others unless you throw yourself into the role of a leader. Plans changing, opportunities falling through, and a reasonable amount of stress are inevitable; and as hard as it can be to accept the cliché, it’s all part of the experience.
The entire state of Vermont is a small community, and the community of Thetford is even smaller. That’s why it felt so amazing to find common ground in our aspirations, and move past the obstacles to have a well-run ODW Day. In the scheme of things, $5,000 isn’t that much money. But for a tiny school (led by a tiny group of students) in a tiny state, our success was enormous. Our team was the backbone of TA ODW, and it was quite the project to undertake. But it motivated us to go further in our leadership, and we are excited to do the same for ODW USA.
I have been involved in ODW since I was in 7th grade at the Newton School in Strafford, Vermont. The ODW workday at Newton followed the same format as the one we lead at Thetford Academy. When entering Thetford as a junior, I was excited to join the ODW committee as I had prior experience and looked forward to helping start it up again after the pause for the Covid-19 pandemic. Since I was involved in the ODW organization piece as a middle schooler, it was fun to do the same as a high schooler in a bigger setting. I felt as if being involved in this initiative for a second time has helped me realize the importance that ODW has become in my life. Now, instead of being on the ODW committee as experience for leadership, I am because I truly care about the future of ODW, and I recognize the impact it has made in the lives of so many children, from preschoolers to youth my age all across the world.Iwould encourage those who feel they need more purpose in their lives to join an initiative such as this. The feeling you get from knowing you are leading something, and in doing so helping so many children get an education, is amazing. It has made me feel more inspired to do good things the rest of my life, and has made me realize where more of my interests lie-in humanity and the relationship we have with each other.Being involved in ODW has been a blessing and I hope I can continue to have a part in it for a while.
-Charlotte Reimanis, ‘23
Involvement
Thetford Academy’s John Marshall splits wood.
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Evan Rich, ‘25, works with cement for the foundation of a compost shed that was also poured on ODW day.
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Community
The day wasn’t at all what we were planning for, with the rain many of our employers chose to cancel. Luckily, employers willing to work through the unpleasant conditions happily stepped in and took in more students. The messy and complicated process to get students into cars and on buses was overstimulating for my team, but watching the last car drive away I felt a sense of pride of the work we had done and of my community’s response.
I watched as students, soaking wet and covered in mud, gave a cheerful goodbye to their equally soaked employers. I could see the work had been shared between student and employer, and that even during the rain, they were an unbreakable unit. Back at our makeshift check in table, every employer made sure to graciously thank our team and share how hard working their students were. I knew it was heartfelt, that their donations were more than just hours worked, and their muddy shoes were more than yard repairs. They worked to make a difference, to support communities in need.
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I believe my town’s greatest asset is our community, whether that’s through events held by the schools, or the libraries, or simply one person supporting another. I see this same strength and greatness within my own school. I see my peers cheer and rally for the school band during assemblies, or for the students speaking out for causes they care about. I saw strength in the community of students who showed up to Thetford Academy on May 4th, during the pouring rain, to make the world better. I am incredibly proud of the work my team and I accomplished and I am so excited to continue this work in the future. I truly felt my school and town community come together and I hope to grow the ODW program at TA and through schools in the US.
-Annie Hesser, ‘24
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