Woodlands Academy, Chicago Visitors Champion Malala's Quest for Girls' Education
Traditionally the Ash Wednesday service at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart marks the start of a major service project. This Lent students and faculty/staff at the all-girls college prep high school in Lake Forest are being asked to champion the cause of girls' education in the most vulnerable communities around the world through awareness and financial support of the international Malala Fund, which says more than 60 million girls are being denied their fundamental right to an education.
One way of achieving awareness and fundraising is the recent release of "He Named Me Malala," a film by Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim viewed by Woodlands Academy and more than 100 middle-school girls visiting from Sacred Heart Schools on Sheridan Road in Chicago following the Ash Wednesday service. Woodlands is one of the first schools to receive a copy of the film in cooperation with the campus screenings program of The Malala Fund.
"He Named Me Malala" is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan's Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls' education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world. "He Named Me Malala" makes its global television premiere Feb. 29 on the National Geographic Channel.
Junior Meaghan Lanctot of Lake Forest is leading this year's Lenten service project to raise funds for the Malala Fund by urging the entire Woodlands community and their Chicago guests to purchase braided leather bracelets, handmade by Lanctot and her team, for $5 each.
Malala Fund's mission is enabling girls to achieve their full potential by completing 12 years of safe, quality education. It does this by working with partners all over the world helping to empower girls and amplify their voices; by investing in local education leaders and programs; and by advocating for more resources for education and safe schools for every girl.
Pakistan, where 25-million children are said to be out of school, is one of the countries in which the Malala Fund conducts programs. The situation there was brought home to those attending Woodlands Academy's Ash Wednesday service by Danial Noorani, a Pakistani native who founded and heads the Elk Grove Village-based United States chapter of The Citizens Foundation (TCF). As one of the largest education-focused non-profit organizations in Pakistan, TCF has built more than 1,000 schools in that country, all of which encourage girls to enroll. Noorani is also the past president and a current board member of Apna Ghar', an agency that helps women who are victims of domestic violence find emergency shelter in Chicago and then helps them find apartments as well as counseling and legal help.
Woodlands Academy students listened and got the message. Junior Elizabeth Bartusiak of Lake Forest said, "While 60 million girls in the world can only dream and pray for an education, we are gifted each day with abundant opportunities to learn here at Woodlands and at Sacred Heart - Sheridan Road." Classmate Sarah LaVanway of Lake Forest added, "Thankfully young women like ourselves, who enjoy the opportunity for fine educations are becoming aware of this situation in our world. They are giving a helping hand to our impoverished, oppressed global sisters."
Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women. It's part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans the United States and 40 other countries. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy's identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org