Above / National Women’s History Month runs March 1-31. The image on the cover of Girl Rising is an attractive way to raise awareness while honoring woman during the month to celebrate diverse backgrounds.
Amazing things happen when girls are educated. Worldwide findings indicate that societies can be transformed in merely one generation when girls benefit from education. Barriers begin to drop: early marriage, gender-based violence, domestic slavery and sex trafficking among them. Girl Rising, a grass roots empowerment project from India, released a 2013 documentary focused on these and similar issues. Today the campaign has reached the Republic of Congo and Nigeria as well with its message of the power, passion and intelligence of girls and young women. And supporters the world over are jumping on the bandwagon.
7PM Wednesday, March 8
The documentary now has a companion book, Girl Rising, and that book will be shared in Naperville on Wednesday, March 8, at the Hollywood Palms Cinema, 352 S. Rte. 59 in Naperville.
This event begins at 7PM. Speaking at our local event will be Kayce Freed Jennings, the film’s senior producer; and Sokha Chen, one of the nine girls featured in the documentary (currently a student in Chicago).
Q & A Session, too! Tickets required
The presentation and reading will be followed by a Q & A session and then a showing of the powerful film. Tickets are required and exclusively available at Anderson’s Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson in downtown Naperville (630) 355-2665 or at the cinema door. Online purchases may be made at www.andersonsbookshop.com.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit A New Day Cambodia, a non-profit that offers shelter, food and education for hundreds of young children who previously eeked out a living in the horrific Phnom Penh garbage dump.
About the Presenters
Kayce Freed Jennings is co-founder of The Documentary Group, an independent production company, and senior producer of Girl Rising.
Before helping to launch The Documentary Group, Jennings was a producer at ABC News, based in London, Atlanta and New York. She covered international and national news events for virtually every news division broadcast and was on the staffs of Nightline, World News Tonight and 20/20.
Jennings serves as vice chair on the board of directors of Win, an agency that serves homeless families, sits on the advisory boards of SOLA – School of Leadership Afghanistan and The Bridgehampton Child Care Center, and was co-editor of Peter Jennings: A Reporter’s Life, an oral biography of her late husband.
She’s a graduate of Brown University, and studied government at the London School of Economics.
Sokha Chen, who grew up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is one of nine girls featured in Girl Rising, the film at the center of a global campaign for girls’ education. Her story is also featured in the new Girl Rising book for young adults. Orphaned young, Chen spent much of her childhood scavenging for survival in the steaming, squalid and dangerous Stung Meanchey garbage dump, searching for scraps to salvage and sell. In 2008, she was rescued by a non-profit called A New Day Cambodia, founded by Chicago photographer Bill Smith to help house, feed, clothe, and educate children from the dump. Chen took full advantage of the opportunity becoming a diligent student and earning a scholarship to one of Phnom Penh’s top private schools.
Chen is now in her first year at Kendall College in Chicago, where she studies hospitality. She wouldn’t tell you (but Bill Smith will!) – she got all As in her first semester, and she also received the Deans Scholarship at Kendall College.
Anderson’s Bookshops Calendar of Events
This Girl Rising presentation and film showing is part of Anderson’s Bookshops’ calendar of special author events. Anderson’s Bookshops specialize in book sales, author events, book signings, and building a sense of community, learning and fun. The store has been helping Naperville readers for six generations.
Additional locations include Downers Grove, at 5112 Main Street (630)-963-2665 and La Grange, at 26 S. La Grange Rd. (708) 582-6353.
Story submitted by Candy Purdom for Anderson’s Bookshop.
