Building community | Jessica Posner | TEDxMileHigh

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.
When a problem presents itself, do you stand by and watch it happen or do you tackle it head on? For humanitarian Jessica Posner, the answer is simple: do something about it. As a 25 year old, Jessica went to live in one of Africa's largest slums, a place no foreigner had ever taken up residence, and co-founded an organization that combats extreme poverty and gender inequality. In this jaw-dropping talk, Jessica tells about risking comfort and safety, tackling issues head-on, and bringing passion to do good for others.

Hi everyone.

So nearly five years ago,

I moved into Kibera,
the largest slum in Africa

while I was studying abroad in Nairobi,

a long way to go
for a girl from Denver, Colorado.

I did not spend my time in Nairobi
making out with giraffes.

(Laughter)

Soon after I arrived in Nairobi,
I found myself in Kibera.

I was introduced to a young
social activist named Kennedy Odede

who was born and raised in Kibera,
working to make change from within.

If everyone could just imagine this
with me for a moment,

Kibera is an area
about the size of Central Park,

but in this area there are
over 1.5 million people

living without access
to services of any kind.

No roads, no health clinics,
no sewage systems, no access to education.

In Kibera, life is bleak.

66% of girls will be forced to trade
their bodies for food simply to survive

by the time they are 16.

One out of five children
won't live to see their fifth birthday.

Life expectancy is 30 years of age,
compared to 60 in the rest of Nairobi.

But here I met Kennedy.

Kennedy was the oldest of eight children,
born and raised in Kibera.

His mother had him
when she was 15 years old.

Kennedy had a job in a factory,
earning a dollar a day,

which made him lucky,
but one day he was able to save 20 cents

and start a movement within the slum
by buying a soccer ball

and bringing young people together
to talk about these issues,

to perform theater in the streets,
to talk about gender violence.

Kennedy was especially committed
to the struggle of women and girls

because he saw his mother

as she endeavored
to put food on his family's table.

In Kibera, seven out of ten women
will experience violence,

and contract HIV at a rate 10 times higher
than their male counterparts.

Devastating statistics.

Kennedy had a dream.

He wanted to change his community,

but he knew he couldn't do it
without an education.

So I told him, as I was a junior
at Wesleyan, that he should apply.

And he said, "Well,
what are they going to say?

I have no formal education.
How will I get in?"

But Wesleyan said yes
and gave Kennedy a full scholarship.

He graduated last weekend
as the class speaker with honors--

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

And as he said in his speech,

it doesn't matter where you come from,
what matters is where you want to go.

So while at Wesleyan,
Kennedy and I had an idea.

We know that when you invest
in women and girls,

communities like Kibera change.

Women invest 90% of their earnings
in their families, paying for education,

for healthcare, changing economies,
making places like Kibera transform.

So we started the first free school
for girls in Kibera.

These are our amazing students.

Our school started three years ago
with the vision to serve

the most marginalized
and at risk girls in the slum

providing them with a superior education,

that would not only protect them
from rape and abuse,

but would also provide
a pathway out of the slum,

creating the next generation of leaders.

Our school is incredibly hands on.

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

Our school serves girls like Diana.

Diana's father lost his ability
to walk when he was a child

because his family could not afford
to take him to a health clinic

when he had an infection in his leg.

Now Diana is thriving.

Our students go to a school
that is incredibly creative.

We have theater classes, we have yoga

(Laughter)

and we have girls in preschool who are
setting gender goals for their community.

Goals like "I want every girl
to go to school."

"I want everyone to know"
- my personal favorite -

"that girls are smarter than boys."

(Laughter)

I remember meeting a group
of our second grade students

on the street a few weeks ago,

after they had interviewed
a business owner in the community,

and I asked, "What were
the questions you asked?

and one of our second graders
raised her hand and said,

"Well, I asked him
where he got his startup capital,"

and I thought, wow, I didn't learn
that word until a few years ago.

I can't believe that I heard
that from a second grader.

But it's bigger than that.

We thought, what if we could
not only have a school for girls

but change the way

the community as a whole
view girls and girls' education?

How might that fundamentally change
a community like Kibera?

So we decided, what if we could identify
the highest value services

and build them in connection
to a school for girls,

opening them to the entire community?

We started to think about
what does everyone want and need

and how to build an incentive structure
that values women and girls,

and shows the entire community

that benefiting women
actually benefits everyone?

We started classes for our parents
and savings and loan programs,

helping people to start businesses

and earn more money
to feed and educate their families.

We started a community health clinic,

focused on providing high quality
primary and child health care,

as well as women's health services and
a focus on HIV prevention and treatment.

We also started a peer educator program,

empowering young people
to talk to each other

about the problems in their community.

We started community centers
that offer services

targeting every demographic
in the community.

One of our most powerful is
a committee of community members

committed to ending gender-based violence.

This program was started
by a father at our school

after his 4 year old daughter was raped.

Her perpetrator was arrested,
but three dollars was enough

for the police to wipe his name
from the records completely.

He worked with us and we fought
for two months to get this man arrested.

He was eventually apprehended

and just sentenced to life
in prison a few weeks ago.

(Applause) Thank you.

After that her father said,
"What about everyone else?

People who don't have advocates,
support systems built in?

What do they do?"

So we built a community team
from all over the slum

who are talking about gender violence
and who are first responders,

prepared to connect victims to legal,
psychological, and medical support.

And this year, we've already worked on
over 40 cases successfully,

really creating a culture
that values women and girls.

We also have a cybercafe in the middle
of the slum with high-speed internet,

providing people access
to computer skills,

which are necessary to compete
in today's economy.

We have a group for women
living with HIV that teaches them skills

and enables them to earn a living

and make products
that are sold all around the world.

We have community members coming
together to clean up their community,

taking action on their own.

We have soccer teams for young people

to keep them busy
and connected to a bigger goal.

We just built the slum's largest
clean water tower

that will provide over 10,000 people a day
with access to safe drinking water.

(Applause)

We built toilets all throughout the slum
that literally say on the side of them,

"Donated by the Kibera School for Girls,"

making everyone invested in this community
dedicated to girls' education.

This year all of our services
will serve over 30,000 people in Kibera,

and we're just getting started.

What inspires me most
is when I hear stories of our girls.

A few weeks ago in social studies,

they were looking at the problems
in their community,

and every class had to propose
a possible solution

to one of the challenges that they saw.

Our preschoolers said
that we should start a school for adults

because their parents
can't read and write.

So we're planning to launch
adult education classes next month,

and we're just getting started.

Kennedy and I are actually getting married
here in Denver next week.

(Applause)

A week from today. Thank you.

(Applause)

And we have big dreams
about what is possible,

not only for this community but for
communities like it around the world.

Across the developing world,

78% of people living
in cities live in slums.

This is simply not acceptable,
and it affects all of us.

Here in Denver, Colorado,
it matters what happens in Nairobi,

what happens in Mumbai,
what happens to girls like Diana,

girls like Michelle,
and parents at our school.

So we're asking you to join our movement.

Log onto our website and become involved
in what you can do to help

because it takes all of us.

Thank you so much.

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)