Her shiny eyes and mesmerizingsmile reflect her strong personality, which clearly shows when she speaks.
Viola, 11 years old, is the youngest of two brothers, and an active student within her school.
Through My School and I project, Viola’s school went through some restorations which included the school’s buildings maintenance and classrooms’ renovations.
The project also encouraged students to become more environment friendly after transforming part of the playground into a garden.
“The project resulted in major changes for our school and its surroundings. Now that the school wall is higher, we feel safer. Also, the new trees made our school smell pleasant”.
Aiming to cultivate leadership opportunities for girls, extracurricular activities and sports were also introduced to the school.
Activities such as students’ union, camps, and physical Education (P.E.) classes were implemented for the first time.
The project also worked on encouraging girls to join these activities “We play basketball at school.
I would also wish to learn how to play volleyball in the future. Thanks to the project, we now have a variety of games at our school”.
My school and I also initiated a child protection campaign teaching the students about protecting themselves and their bodies from any sexual harassment they could be prone to; “We learned to value ourselves and not to let anyone cross our boundaries.
If anyone tried to harass me, I won’t be scared, I would firmly stop him, shout out loud and immediately report the incident to my mother or one of my teachers who will protect me” explains Viola.
One of the best traits that Viola and the other students acquired during the project’s camps is being cooperative and supporting each other; the camp’s team building activities didn’t only teach the students how to protect their bodies, but also how to empower each other and educate their friends and neighbors on how to protect themselves.
As a former class president in the students’ union, Viola believes this experience had a huge positive impact on her personality and enhanced her leadership skills.
Her love of helping others pushed her towards running for the students union’s presidency this year.
Viola wishes one day that her small village would be safe and totally free from any harassers, and be more empowering to girls, realizing boys and girls are equal.
She also wishes to become a doctor in order to cure the people of her village, as she would hate to see her loved ones suffer.
