UNEDUCATED
I'm 12, uneducated, and wish I was.
I'm sitting with a book that my mom,
saved me when she was younger.
But she never got to read it.
She never knew how.
She said: "when you go to school,
come, and read to me, I want to know.
"I never got to read it...
Our school got locked up, and we all left.
Barefoot through the prickled field,
All sad, and uneducated for life.
And I will be just like my mom,
When she was younger,
and She was poor, uneducated,
and lived with hunger.
Read for me, young and kind citizen,
what about is that precious book,
that my mom gave to me...
I am 12, uneducated and I wish I was
somehow educated, and somehow more free.

-poem by Tetyana Shabanu Klymko culled from Article 2 NEWS, 14, USA

----------------------
“In many cultures in Nigeria and many African countries, young people cannot talk in the presence of adults and this is worse for females. This socialization process tends to exclude young people from important decisions; a luxury that is available to youths in some other cultures. This process often leads to ideological poverty amongst our youth because they are bereft of ideas of their own or are forced to abandon these in favor of adults.”- Abdulkareem, British council IYD 2006