Patricia Mawuli Nyekodzi

Patricia Mawuli Nyekodzi: Ghana’s first female pilot

Now able to get a good look at the airplanes on the field, Mawuli Nyekodzi knew she wanted to be around them somehow. She asked if there was anything she could do there as she waited for her results from school, and was given a cutlass and mattock to pull out tree stumps and cut the grass on the field. Physical labor like that is typically men’s work in Ghana, but Mawuli Nyekodzi jumped into it without hesitation.

“Where I come girls are not … associated with pulling out tree stumps and things like that—it’s a job for boys,” she told AOPA. “So I just went in there and I did it. Being around the planes—that’s all I wanted.”

Her hard work paid off. Mawuli Nyekodzi earned her private ultralight pilot certificate on her twenty-first birthday to become the first woman to earn the West African country’s national pilot certificate. The certificate provides an avenue for Ghanaians to learn to fly general aviation aircraft in their home country, where certification has traditionally been geared toward commercial and military flying. Mawuli Nyekodzi is now an aircraft builder, Rotax technician, and flight instructor. The 23-year-old Ghana native is grateful for the opportunities she had at Kpong and gives back by teaching other young women to build, maintain, and fly airplanes; she also flies volunteer missions for the medical charity Medicine on the Move.

Read more at AOPA Online.

Giverny Barrett

Giverny Barrett aims to teach Burmese orphans to swim

image courtesy of newburytoday.co.uk

Giverny Barrett, of Wickham, Newbury, will be heading to the southeast Asian country in January as part of a gap year that will also see her travelling across Australia, starting in September.

[...] The Park House student, who is hoping to study occupational therapy at Cardiff University next September depending on her A-Level result this summer, will teach English in a Burmese orphanage associated with the charity, Graceworks, but also wants to teach the orphans to swim in her spare time.

The 18-year-old, who has been a swimming instructor at Northcroft Leisure Centre for three and a half years, needs funding so she can pay for the children’s transport to the nearest swimming pool, which is 90 minutes away, as well as their admittance to the pool.

[...] “I think they will enjoy the lessons, it’s a new skill for them to learn and one that could potentially save their life.

Read more at Newbury Today.

Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper to open LGBT homeless shelter in NYC

Cyndi Lauper is helping establish Manhattan’s first permanent housing for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in Harlem.

Many homeless LGBT youth face violence in mainstream shelters, forcing them to rely on a small network of gay-friendly facilities, advocates say. The True Colors Residence, set to open in winter 2011, will provide young people between 18 and 24 with a place to live while helping them get back on their feet.

“Kids are coming out in greater numbers as they see themselves accepted and represented on TV and in movies, but they’re still being kicked out of their homes or running away and living on the streets,” Lauper said in a statement.

“We need to make sure we’re taking care of them. This is the next generation of the LGBT community.”

Read more at DNA Info.

This is amazing! Homelessness in LGBT youth is a very real issue and I’m elated that Cyndi has taken this up. I think this is really going to make a difference in many people’s lives.

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner claims Himalayas climbing record

image courtesy of gerlinde-kaltenbrunner.at

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, 40, set the record after conquering the treacherous K2, her husband said.

“She is over the moon,” he said on Mrs Kaltenbrunner’s website.

Mrs Kaltenbrunner, a nurse, is only the third woman to reach all 14 highest summits, but the first two climbers used artificial oxygen.

Read more at BBC News.

Kirsi Pulkkinen

Kirsi Pulkkinen helps woman give birth in a park

Kirsi Pulkkinen set out with her 4-year-old grandson Lucas to take a short walk with her dog through a park in Limmared in Västergötland, the local Borås Tidning (BT) newspaper reported.

When the trio arrived at the park they stumbled across a woman who signaled frantically to Pulkkinen to follow her to a young woman who was down on the ground on her hands and knees.

Pulkkinen recognised the woman on all fours, having met her previously and seeing she was heavily pregnant.

[...] After explaining to the women that she was going to get help, Pulkkinen rushed off to a nearby care centre where she worked, with her dog and grandson Lucas in tow.

[...] From her workplace, Pulkkinen called for an ambulance and fetched some mattresses and blankets which she then took back to the park.

“Then I caught the baby,” she told BT.

Read more at The Local.

Sheila Wanjiku

Sheila Wanjiku teaches elderly Kenyan women self-defense

image courtesy of AFP/Tony Karumba

Outside the church, it sounds like a kung fu movie. Yelling and pummeling pierce the air.

“No! No! No! No! No!” the voices inside shout repeatedly.

The church door flings open, revealing a room of nearly 30 elderly women in their 60s and 70s who take turns chopping, hacking and pummeling a punching bag. Some even use their walking canes to pulverize the imaginary assailant.

This is a self-defense class for elderly women in the heart of Korogocho, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, with an estimated 200,000 residents. The class is run by No Means No, a local organization that offers various programs to protect Kenyan women.

Sheila Wanjiku of No Means No says she was part of a larger team that brought the elderly women of the Korogocho slum together in 2007. The team taught them a variety of martial arts techniques to defend themselves against rapists. Now the elderly women train diligently every Thursday and Saturday to protect themselves from attacks in the slum, an area rampant with crime.

Read more at Global Press Institute. Another article with additional photos can be found here.

Yes! This is great! As a side note, I couldn’t find who exactly was in charge of No Means No, but the article made it seem as though either Wanjiku or Beatrice Wairimu was. (I think a person by the name of Lee Sinclair founded it but is no longer affiliated with the chapter in Kenya.) Due to the format of this blog, I had to pick one woman to spotlight for this article, so hopefully my assumption was the right one. Do read the rest of the article if you have a chance — it’s very interesting (but know that it contains sensitive material because of the nature of the topic).

Cynthia Koenig

Cynthia Koenig creates WaterWheel to bring safe water to those without it

image courtesy of Josh Dick photography

When Cynthia Koenig, from New York, realized that one in six people lack reliable access to water she wanted to do something about it.

Her solution was a 25-gallon drum that can be pushed or pulled and takes away much of the burden of carrying water on the head, which is the traditional method women use in many parts of the world.

Koenig considers herself a social entrepreneur, a new breed of entrepreneur who has innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems and still desires to make a profit.

Read more at ABC News.