Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time in the middle of College Station, Texas with a whole lot of mid-Spring Texas heat.
I was down South to join The Women’s Bakery Chapter Group at A&M – TWB A&M – for a campus-wide awareness event called “Rise.” The concept was dreamed up over a year ago by Alayna Davis, the Chair & President of the Chapter, and intern for TWB. Alayna is helping us to build a national network of chapter groups – the first one being at Texas A&M.
The event was designed to bolster awareness of the chapter group, and the work of TWB. Additionally, the beautifully-made and powerful documentary “Girl Rising” was screened as a way to inform attendees about the plights for girls and education around the world, a cause very near and dear to my heart.
Following the screening, we hosted a TWB informational, where I explained the Bakery in the Box Model and the impact of our work in East Africa. I fielded lots of questions from curious students, teachers, and community members. Perhaps more profoundly, we also engaged in conversations about the importance of locally-driven work, and why sustainability depends on it.
After I spoke about TWB, the chapter group hosted two other speakers, Dr. Janet Marcantonio, and Dr. Henry Musoma, both professors and connections to A&M’s business and international programs. Dr. Marcantonio shared pictures from her Peace Corps Service in Gabon, and Dr. Musoma shared stories about growing up in Southern Africa, emphasizing the power that storytelling holds for all of us. He left the audience with this thought, “stories can liberate us…they can also oppress us. Be the one to tell you story.”
Following the event, humbled and amazed at the energy for TWB at the school, I received an email from an A&M student who had come to learn about The Women’s Bakery.
She wrote in her email,
“...the women involved in with TWB remind me a lot of my mother, who's main goal was to provide for her family. I love to see empowered women doing good, not only for their families, but for the good of their communities. I feel that TWB has given these women a network, a personal community of their own where they can rely on each other and feel powerful being women, I am all for that…I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to feel empowered, and that is why I love what TWB stands for.”
Now, that, my friends, is bread power.
