Alia Whitney-Johnson: Emerging Voices, Emerging Vision: Engaging Youth in Global Service

Free and Open to the Public: Refreshments – Thursday’s Talk is at 7PM

On Thursday October 9, 2008 evening at the Gilford, NH Public Library, Alia will tell her story of founding Emerge Global while in college. Emerge Global is a nonprofit that works to develop the economic and personal capacity of girls and women in Sri Lanka who have survived tremendous abuse. Her presentation will focus on Emerge as an evolving story of inspiration, tremendous obstacles, and community development. Moreover, she will talk about how educators, students, and schools can get involved in Emerge’s evolving mission or can begin their own service learning programs.

This free public event opens the 2nd Sant Bani School Educational Conference “Conversations in a Changing World” and is partly sponsored by a Community Grant from the Franklin Savings Bank. Read more about the conference here .

Alia Whitney-Johnson is a senior at MIT, studying environmental engineering with a focus on international development. She has helped refine a process for converting agricultural waste into charcoal for use in Haiti, conducted tsunami relief work in Sri Lanka, worked to develop appropriate technologies in Guatemala, and has been a consultant to the World Bank. She is currently an advisor to Worldwide Mobility, an organization working to ensure access to appropriate wheelchairs in developing countries. Her greatest passion, however, lies in her work with women survivors of abuse in Sri Lanka. After traveling to Sri Lanka in the summer of 2005, she founded Emerge Global, Inc. Emerge Global is currently launching its second project: a community with homes, a school, and a women’s cooperative for a group of deserving young women who are currently being sheltered in the Sri Lankan prison system for protection from abusive family members.

Link to the Emerge Global Website
(right click and open in a new window)

Location of Talk: Gilford Town Library.