The Global Fund For Children

Going to America

• By Kudirat Initiative for Democracy in Nigeria on September 2nd, 2011
• Category: Blog, Sub-Saharan Africa

For the last two years, GFC has partnered with the Adobe Foundation to participate in Adobe Youth Voices (AYV), a program that empowers young people to share their voices and express their understanding of the world through the use of new media technology. Twenty-seven of our grantee partners currently participate in the AYV program. Young people from these grantee partners are engaged in innovative media making, including learning how to use Adobe software like Photoshop and Premiere Elements to create animation, digital art, videos, and more. The following guest blog was written by Maria, a youth artist from The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy in Lagos, Nigeria. Maria had the opportunity to attend the Adobe Youth Summit in August 2011 in Santa Clara, California. The Summit brought together youth and educators throughout the world to share knowledge and learn new media making skills.

California, USA – The Adobe Youth Voices Summit afforded me my first experience in the United States of America, and to think I almost did not make it! I had an error on my ticket—this meant that I had to be issued another ticket and didn’t get on the same flight with my educator and the other youth.

At first I was apprehensive about travelling alone, but my educator, Temitope Tejuoso, assured me that there was nothing to worry about and told me I might experience something called turbulence, which is just like driving through bumps on the road. She said even though they were leaving before me, I would get there before them and I should see that as a consolation for missing the experience of travelling together as a group. This lightened me up and made me look excitedly toward travelling, albeit alone.

The event had a total number of 90 participants (16 educators and 74 youth artists) from 16 countries around the globe. Countries represented were Argentina, Belarus, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Romania, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom, and USA.

My First Day
I arrived at the Santa Clara University campus at 12:35 PM and was received by Kate Goddard, Jennifer Zimmermann, and Tony Streit. They put me through the registration process and showed me to my room at the Dunne residence hall on campus. I then went to the lounge. About 6:00 PM, my educator and the youth I was supposed to travel with arrived. We all went to dinner and met at the lounge with all the educators and other youth to run through the agenda.

Each youth was introduced to the other group members. My team was in the environment group. Youth and educators were in separate activity workshops and did separate activities. The night was spent meeting one another and looking forward to an exciting week of activities.

Meeting Laura Ling
On Wednesday, 3 August, we had a guest speaker—Laura Ling, an American journalist—who shared her story about her captivity and freedom and encouraged us to be a part of change in our community. She said we were never to give up on hope.

After the speech, we went into our various production groups to talk and make a decision on what to create and how to achieve it. We decided to talk about the importance of nature to our world, making use of stop-motion animation. All the props used the video were created by us with the help of Adobe staff (Karen Lum and Jamar Seay) who were part of the production group.

After breakfast on Thursday, we went on a tour, going first to Adobe Systems, where we were welcomed by the head of human resources. She introduced us to our tour guide and gave us words of wisdom and encouragement.

Tour of Adobe Systems
Adobe was founded in the year 1982 by Dr. John E. Warnock and Dr. Charles Geschke. We went round to see different places in the Adobe Systems office. It is such a beautiful edifice, and earthquake proof too. The building has a spa, a gym, a cafeteria on each floor, and a basketball court for the staff to relax in. We had lunch. The lunch was one of the best in my entire stay at the event. After the tour of the Adobe office, we went to the Pacific Ocean beach and drove through Golden Gate Park, where we had a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We then stopped at Pier 39 to do some sightseeing and some shopping.

Create with Purpose
On Saturday, 6 August, all media created by youth in the different groups, as well as those created by the educators, were viewed by all participants and organizers. After lunch, we were presented certificates of participation and encouraged to continue creating media to bring about a positive change.

In the evening of that day, we went to the city cinema to tell our story to a larger audience. We also had the opportunity to meet and take pictures with the Black Eyed Peas (guest celebrities). We were given the opportunity to answer questions from the audience, if any.
After the event, we went back to the university lounge where we were hosted, and there we partied till dawn. It was a happy and sad day for most of us because it was our last night at the summit and all our new friends would be missed. We exchanged contacts, said parting words, danced, and had lots of fun.

The Departure
Like the saying goes, “Whatever has a beginning, has an end.” It was time to go home; to our families, friends, community, and reality.
The most interesting thing for me about the summit was learning how stop-motion animation was created, all the love that was expressed and shared, and most importantly appreciating other people’s culture and values—not for what I expect of them, but for who they are.

I met Maab and Samera, who proved to me that being deaf doesn’t mean they can’t be a part of global change, and that they are not controlled by the circumstances they are in. They are deaf, not dumb. (I was inspired.)

I also learnt that the basis of it all was being able to connect with people, assist, and be a part of global change.

I want to thank The Global Fund for Children, Adobe Youth Voices, and Education Development Center for giving me my first travel experience!