Global Empowerment Theatre is proud to announce our newest program GETKenya in partnership with Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO)! Established in 2004 SHOFCO is an inspiring organization that combats gender inequality and extreme poverty in urban slums by linking tuition free schools for girls to accessible social services for all.
From July 6th – 17th GET staff, Ashley Olson and Douglas Harmsen, will facilitate our signature workshop at Kibera School for Girls, a school established and run by SHOFCO. Students will explore the issues most important to them including, but not limited to, gender inequality and what it means to be girls in Kibera.
Kibera, a Nairobi slum the size of Central Park, is home to about 1 million people who are overlooked by the government and do not have access to the most basic of social services. SHOFCO’s Kibera School for Girls is a beacon of change at the center of a community in need.
All of us at GET share SHOFCO’s belief that changing the life of a girl can change the future of a community. We are so proud to become part of SHOFCO’s ecosystem of services that allows the girls of Kibera as well as the surrounding community to reach their full potential.
Pictured below: Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner, SHOFCO’s Founders.
Meet GET’s Kenya & Zanzibar Team!
Ashley Olson is the director of our GETZanzibar programs and is thrilled to be leading GETKenya this summer. Ashley has been working in Zanzibar for three years as the head teacher and school director at Kiwengwa Nursery & Primary School. Ashley will move to Morocco in August 2015 to take on the role of Assistant Principal at Amicitia American School – Fez.
Douglas Harmsen was born in Kenya and raised in Canada, Holland, and Papua New Guinea. He has traveled to over 60 countries with family and independently. After moving to New York to attend The Juilliard School acting program he stayed to work as an actor.After 20 years and many productions across America and Canada, he later earned his Masters in Education and now teaches theatre, history, and English in New York City.