By Khalida Sarwari
It’s been seven years since she lost her grandmother, but Helen Kassa can still remember the words of wisdom she imparted upon her before her untimely passing. Education, her grandma told her, is important. And so is giving back to your people. Give back, but stay humble.
Helen, a 15-year-old junior at Prospect High School, traveled to Ethiopia with her family in 2007 to say goodbye to her grandmother, who died of leukemia. But while she was there, spending time in her family’s homeland for the first time, Helen noticed just how different life was for children her age in other parts of the world. Born in San Jose to Ethiopian parents who came to America to pursue education, she found the trip “life-changing.”
She recalls seeing kids walking through traffic, knocking on doors and trying to sell things to people.
“I thought they were bad kids, but actually they were the breadwinners of their families,” she said.
It was on that trip that she first connected with her grandmother’s words. Moved by the experiences she’d had and reflecting on her grandmother’s advice, Helen returned home to San Jose and spent the next two years raising money for kids in Ethiopia.
“After that I couldn’t not come back,” Helen said. “I kind of fell in love.”
When she went back in the summer of 2009, she had enough to buy school supplies for 1,200 elementary school kids. Then it was back home and back to fundraising. On subsequent trips in 2010 and 2012, Helen offered merit-based scholarships to three high school students, bought blackboards and sports equipment for the younger kids, and paid for the construction of a science lab where students could learn about STEM subjects and participate in hands-on learning.
All in all, she said she’s raised about $10,000 by crowdfunding from every possible source. That includes placing a donation box in her parents’ 7-Eleven business, collecting donations from her family and donating any money she receives on her birthday or Christmas. When she took on a paid internship at a labor union this summer, she saved 10 percent of every paycheck to donate to her cause, which she turned into a nonprofit earlier this year, called Giving Hope to Kids Like Me.
“A little bit money here and there and it all adds up to what we’re trying to do,” she said.
Helen is raising money for another trip to Ethiopia next summer. This time around, she said she wants to introduce a leadership program to empower young girls like her to pursue higher education.
“You can’t compete on the global market without being educated,” she explained.
Much of the economy in Ethiopia is based on agriculture, Helen said, and so the youth will usually follow in their parents’ footsteps and go into farming, oftentimes neglecting their education, and “girls are seen as housewives.” But, at the same time, she doesn’t want people to get a negative impression about a country that, despite its problems, has beauty and promise.
“It’s not the typical image of famine and hunger,” she said. “It’s a country worth respecting.”
And barriers to education are not limited just to the African continent. Helen believes there’s also a need for empowering girls here in Santa Clara County. That’s the main goal of her nonprofit: to make education more accessible to kids in the Third World and in poverty-stricken areas of the South Bay.
To that end, she is teaming up with New Reality Foundation, another organization that fiscally sponsors Giving Hope to Kids Like Me, to offer female empowerment programs locally. There’s one planned for Sept. 20 at 230 Market St., San Jose, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program is free and open to girls in Santa Clara County and will provide leadership training and lessons on creating a business plan and working for a nonprofit.
Helen also wants to turn her nonprofit into a school club and bring together fellow schoolmates that might be interested in helping with her cause. Doing this type of work, she said, has affected her vision of the world and plans for the future.
“I don’t think it should just be me,” she said. “I think other kids should be involved and exposed.”
For more information about the Sept. 20 event, email Helen at hkassa1@yahoo.com. Contributions to Giving Hope to Kids Like Me can be sent to the New Reality Foundation offices at 1300 Clay St., Suite 600, Oakland, CA, 94612.
