00:00Every person who has lived through something horrific has their own journey of reconciling
00:08that into the narrative of who they've become.
00:11It's such an important part of the work that we do in trauma healing and recovery, which
00:18is to help the girls in terms of storytelling and how do they work in the trauma that they've
00:25experienced to their own personal narrative in a way that empowers them.
00:30Hi, my name is Elisa Roadcup.
00:32I am the Executive Director of Refugee, and today I'll be talking about how to be an advocate
00:39for the most vulnerable.
00:41My organization works to serve and to provide a lifeline to the most vulnerable of refugee
00:47girls, those who are unaccompanied, separated, and orphaned throughout East Africa.
00:52We're the only NGO in the region that is committed to the full lifespan of empowerment for refugee
00:59girls.
01:00We are not just one singular intervention.
01:02We realize that to empower a young woman to live into her full potential, that she really
01:09needs holistic support and services.
01:2050% of the girls who come to our programs in Nairobi are mothers already.
01:27The average age is 14 to 16, and usually they're having children out of surviving sexual violence,
01:35violence, or rape of some kind, something that we've really focused on in helping the young
01:43women in our programs to not only hope for a brighter future for themselves, but to actually
01:50gain the skills that they need to become successful students, mothers, entrepreneurs, and leaders
01:57within their own communities.
01:59We work always to be so aware of the long-term effects that sharing a girl's story will have,
02:09and ensuring that the story is told with thoughtfulness and sensitivity and care for the well-being
02:17of the girl, first and foremost, in contrast to the sexiness of a story that has a lot of dramatic
02:27impact, you know, and a lot of sort of gruesome details around trauma and war or violence or
02:33conflict.
02:34Empowering girls to own their own stories is really important.
02:38Jodi Williams, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, often says that in this broad question of what can
02:50I do, how can I actually make a difference in these global humanitarian issues, she challenges
02:58people to consider, you know, what would the world look like if every person just committed
03:04to one issue, if every person just did one thing.
03:08But I think people feel so paralyzed by the enormousness of the issues that there is this
03:15sense of feeling overwhelmed and that one person can't make a difference.
03:22My advice for people who are feeling overwhelmed but are looking to help would be to self-reflect
03:29on what pricks your conscience and then hone into that, educate yourself, surround yourself
03:37with people who are also experts and then commit to a particular agency or an organization
03:45long term to make a real impact.
