My Eleven year Old Heroine by Leymah Gbowee
This past weekend, I was fortunate and blessed to spend time with Mongai Fankam, the founder of “No Backpack Day”. Mongai is an eleven-year-old American of Cameroonian descent. She wrote to me about 2 years ago asking that I kindly visit Charlotte North Carolina to help raise awareness about her work and to raise funds to support it.
The plans have been in the work for almost 2 years, and finally I got to meet this awesome young woman. Mongai was 8 when she started No Backpack Day. However, she had harbored her desire to raise backpacks and school supplies for underprivileged kids in the US and parts of Africa since she was 3 years old. The desire was awakened when she travelled to Cameroon and saw kids carry their books in their hands or in plastic bags.
Mongai, for me, represents the good people in our world who have refused to allow themselves to see change as only being possible when powerful people engage. For her, what is important is looking at a asituation that is difficult and doing the little that you can to change that situation around. Mongai has raised funds for over 5000 backpacks and her movement has spread beyond Charlotte, North Carolina. I am convinced that there are many more Mongai’s out there looking for ways not just to use their skills and talents but to also serve as role models for others. I believe that making change is not as easy as it looks, but with courage, persistence and tenacity, everyone with an idea to change the world for th better can make an impact.
Thanks, Mongai, for allowing me to come into your space and learn from you.
Leymah Gbowee,
2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
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