Social Awareness Project
Eli
Stiewing 810
Table
of Contents
1. Overview
2. Gretchen
Wallace and Conscious Social Change
3. “Benches”
4. Writing
“Benches”
5. Hairspray
and Racism
4. Bibliography
Overview
I found doing the Social Awareness Project a
challenging, inspiring and moving experience. I was challenged to think more
deeply about the world I live in and to look more closely at issues that I may
have only glanced at in passing before, such as the issues of homelessness and
the plight of veterans that I explored in the writing of “Benches.” I was
inspired by the power of theatre film and music to make a statement about
social issues and have an impact on the way people think about these issues,
such as racism, in “Hairspray.”
I was inspired and moved by Gretchen Wallace’s approach
to social change and the amazing story of Seraphina Hacimana, whose simple
ideas touch the lives of over 9,000 people every day. I hope you find as much
to think about in this project as I did in creating it.
Gretchen Wallace and Conscious Social Change
My aunt, Gretchen Wallace, is one of the founders of the
“Conscious Social Change” movement, and I interviewed her for the Social
Awareness Project because I feel she is changing the world every day. She
believes that to create positive change, you must invest in your own
self-awareness. It is a process, “led by responsible and ethical change agents,
who engage in their own practice toward deeper self knowledge and personal
transformation, while striving to advance positive change for the common good.”
Gretchen implements this approach to change as the founder and president of
Global Grassroots, an international non-profit with “a mission to catalyze
women and girls as leaders of conscious social change in their
communities.” My aunt Gretchen is
changing the way that people go about creating change in the world, and that
starts with ourselves.
Gretchen has developed the Five Principles of Conscious
Social Change. Principle One, “Cultivate Presence,” means, “being fully present
in every moment.” This means we take the time to truly listen to ourselves,
which will helps us to truly listen to others. Principle Two, “Become Whole:”
to take the time to understand ourselves, and why we do what we do, so that we
can understand others, and why they do what they do. Gretchen explains that,
“The unexamined self has been at the root of many activist movements that have
turned violent as well as leadership attained through oppression.” Principle
Three, “Ensure Balance,” is the commitment to self-care as we go out into the
world and care for others. Principle Four, “Stay Attuned,” is to use presence
to stay responsive to the needs in a situation as opposed to being driven by
our what we think should happen. And Principle Five, “Leading From Within,”
means leading collaboratively with presence, creativity and clarity.
Global Grassroots, an example of leadership and an
organization based on these five principles, operates in Rwanda and Uganda,
seeking the most vulnerable women and girls they can find who have ideas for
social change. These are girls and women who want to solve priority social
issues in their communities affecting other women and girls, such as domestic
violence, illiteracy, sexual exploitation, water access, etc. Many of these
women and girls are widows from genocide, subsistence farmers, teen mothers,
girls who lead their orphan-headed households and women with only an elementary
school education. The organization runs a program called The Academy for
Conscious Change, where women and girls are trained to start their own
organizations, based on their own ideas.
In this program, the students do the work of healing
from trauma using mind-body approaches. They are taught mindfulness based
leadership skills, “so that they can develop the self awareness and confidence
to become compassionate leaders, and all the skills needed to start their own
non-profit organization from scratch.” The entire program takes fourteen to
twenty-four months. The women begin with a forty-hour training program. Global
Grassroots teachers then coach the women as they develop their social venture
plans. Gretchen shares, “When it meets our criteria, we fund 100% of their
start up costs with a grant, and then provide ongoing support as needed over
the first 12 months of operations. We know have over 500 change agents who have
graduated from our programs who are serving 40,000 women and girls each year.”
I asked Gretchen what was the greatest challenge she
faced in her work. She described the pressure to secure funding for her
projects and trainings. She shared that because the work she does is complex
and takes time to implement, donors have less interest in her programs than in
something basic and concrete like mosquito nets to prevent malaria. But when I
asked Gretchen what kept her going in the face of these challenges, she shared
three stories, each demonstrating the power and impact of the work she is
doing. I was most inspired by the story of Seraphine Hacimana, a forty-year-old
mother of 8 children with a 1st grade education.
Seraphine, after doing the Global Grassroots training,
started a team of 19 women who called themselves “The Hardworkers.” With an
initial $2600 grant and ongoing support, Hard Workers designed their own
non-profit clean water solution. Clean water is hard to come by in Galanga, a
remote region of Rwanda. Women must walk many miles to get water, often at a
dirty creek. Women who are disabled from the war, elderly, blind, pregnant or
HIV positive are too weak to walk for miles. Some send their girls to fetch
water, which prevents them from going to school. Some can afford to pay a man
to get water for them on a bicycle, others who can’t afford to pay, exchange
sex for water delivery. With their grant money, a water tank was installed next
to a church within walking distance of this remote community. The tank collects
and purifies run off water from the roof of the church during the rainy season.
During the dry season, they pay for water to be delivered by truck from the
city of Kigali. Gretchen writes, “Hard Workers supplies 100 households,
totaling 800-1000 people, with fresh clean water daily. The revenue generated
from those who can afford to pay, ensures the most vulnerable, including the
blind, pregnant, disabled and elderly always have water for free. The organization
is focused not only on ending sexual exploitation for water, but ensuring the
elimination of water borne disease and protecting girls’ ability to attend school.”
Seraphine and The Hardworkers’ story is a powerful
example of how Gretchen’s work is changing the world. The team went on to use
profits to pay orphan’s school fees and to provide annual health insurance for
vulnerable women and their families. They have paid their loan forward by
establishing a small revolving loan fund for vulnerable women. They have now
established three more water tank sites, and provide clean water for over 9,000
people. Seraphine is a respected leader recognized by the Rwandan government.
Based on Gretchen’s many experiences with social change in the field, she has
created a curriculum that is now accredited for undergraduate and graduate
students at The University of Virginia. I have so much respect for Gretchen and
the work she does. She created a way for these women to listen to their needs
and the needs of their community, and create a workable response. If we all
learn to listen to and understand ourselves as we listen to and understand
others, the world will be a better place.
Benches
F, A, Dm, Bb,
Out of high school nothing to do, filled out a form for
something new
Tryin in boot camp to get a clue, now I’m one of the
proud and few
Shipped out to Afghanistan 2010, out in the desert with
a 1,000 men
Sittin in the desert now as then, see it happenin again
and again
Chorus:
Benches, it’s like lyin in the trenches
I am so alone
And there is no home…
Danger came from everywhere, me and my buds took our
share
So many corpses with empty stares turning into my
endless nightmares
My best friend died in front of me, his eyes looking
into eternity
My leg disappeared in a sudden blast, my whole life
shattering just like glass
Chorus:
Benches, it’s like lyin in the trenches
I am so alone
And there is no home…
Back in the US, try to learn to walk, What’s the point,
I can’t even talk.
All I see are ghosts from a crazy war, can’t work, can’t
sleep, can’t think no more
Lost my home all my family and my friends, can only see
through this crazy lens
I sit on this bench and wait to die, a broken prisoner
of Semper Fi
Chorus:
Benches, it’s like lyin in the trenches
I am so alone
And there is no home… to go back to
Writing
“Benches”
I started
by wanting to write a song about homelessness, and came up with the hook,
“benches and trenches.” When I went a little deeper into the topic of
homelessness, I discovered that 33% of the homeless male population is
veterans, and 26% of the overall homeless population is veterans. There are now
more homeless veterans from the Vietnam War than soldiers who were killed in
that war.
I decided
to use the Afghanistan war, or “Operation Enduring Freedom” because it was a
recent war that has happened in my lifetime, and its veterans are young. As I
read about this war, I saw that it led to many senseless deaths and injuries. I
imagined that my character, the one who sings this song, could be an unfocused,
aimless teenager, who joins the Marines, because he didn’t know what else to do
with his life. In the horror of the guerilla warfare in Afghanistan, he becomes
a traumatized and wounded soldier, comes back from this war, and is no longer
able to walk or make sense of his life, or connect with people. And so, he
becomes homeless, without the mental or financial resources to take care of himself.
Hairspray and Racism
Last spring
I was in Roland Park Middle School’s production of Hairspray, written by John
Waters, and first produced in 1988 as a film. It was later staged as a musical
on Broadway in 2002, and then made into a film again in 2008, the form in which
I first saw it. The film is set in 1962 in Baltimore, MD, and addresses the
issue of race, as a group of white and black Baltimore teens attempt to
racially integrate a live televised teen dance show.
I played
the lead male character, Link, who is one of the “Nicest Kids in Town.” Link is
afraid to take a stand to integrate The Corny Collins show because he is afraid
it will jeopardize his career as a performer. Corny sings, “Nice white kids who
like to lead the way, and once a month we have our negro day!” Even though
Corny would like to integrate the show, his wealthy backers want to keep it
segregated, and he must toe the line or loose his show. It is Tracy Turnblad,
an unassuming, enthusiastic and open-minded girl, who ends up leading the
charge.
Tracy meets
some of the black kids in detention, and discovers a whole new world of
movement and rhythms. Link, and several others, is finally convinced to go up
to “North Avenue” to visit Motormouth Maybelle’s record shop, where they dance
to the new sound of rhythm and blues. Together, Maybelle and Tracy lead the
charge to change perceptions around race on television. Maybelle sings about
equality, “There’s a dream in the future. There’s a struggle we have yet to
win. Use that pride in our hearts to lift us to tomorrow, cuz just to sit still
would be a sin.” In the end, all the kids, both black and white, boogie
together on the Corny Collins Show.
It was
amazing to participate in this production in a school that is primarily African
American. I could see in the cast itself some of the same characteristics that
show up in the play- fantastic dancers, amazing singers, and great actors. I
also saw that my school is still somewhat segregated; the white kids tend to
hang out with other white kids, and the black kids tend to hang out with other black
kids most of the time. Most of the white kids in Baltimore City from families
with money go to private schools that are predominately white, and there are
still places in Baltimore that no white kids would go. Only since 2011 have
high school graduation rates for African American boys been greater than the
drop out rates.
“Hairspray”
is still relevant to our times, even though it seems as if there is more
integration on the surface in America than there was in 1962. But just last
week, Ferguson, Missouri exploded in a firestorm of anger when a judge failed
to prosecute a white cop who shot an unarmed black teenager. I feel sad that
our society has not come further than this. I feel that the issue of racism in
America needs to be overcome. Maybelle’s words still ring true, “There’s a
dream in the future. There’s a struggle we have yet to win.”
Bibliography
Gretchen Wallace and Conscious Social Change
Benches
Hairspray and Racism
