George C Marshall High School sophomore, Taylor Lane, of Dunn Loring, had listened her whole life to amazing stories of people who had made a difference in the world through courageous acts of heroism or selfish acts of compassion. Both of her parents had lived through the Rwandan genocide, now marking its 20 year anniversary, and led the evacuation of innocents out of the country. From their experiences, Taylor had been taught to believe in the “power of one,” that anyone could make a difference in the world.
So when it came time for Taylor to choose her Girl Scout Gold Award project topic, she was inspired to do something that would help kids on a global scale, just like so many inspiring people in her life had. That’s when Taylor got involved with a special project sponsored by UPS to build a health clinic in an impoverished community in Bosencheve, Mexico. “When mom told me about the town and the kids living there, who had never before had access to basic health care, I knew that I wanted to reach out to them, and kids all around the world, and give them the habits necessary to live healthier lives.”
Taylor embarked on her project to reach out to as many kids as possible about the importance of living healthy. She began by going to Bosencheve, Mexico and gave an in-person talk in Spanish to the kids in the community. “I have only been studying Spanish for a couple of years so I had to put in a lot of time and effort with a tutor to strengthen my speaking ability to really be able to connect with the kids.” Coordinating with the UPS team building the clinic, Taylor gave all 127 kids at the local elementary school across the street from the newly built health clinic “Healthy Habits” kits, that included donated supplies of toothbrushes, toothpastes, soap, combs, toilet paper, seeds for a vegetable garden, among many other items, that she had requested from companies like Proctor and Gamble, Colgate Palmolive, and Quantum Dental Supply. “I talked with the kids about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, so they would be able to be healthier now that they had a health clinic in town but also have the tools necessary to stay healthy.”
“I didn’t want to just stop with Bosencheve, Mexico though; I wanted to reach more kids around the world.” So Taylor assembled a group of kids from the local community who spoke a variety of languages to make videos in their native or second languages that could be used in foster facilities and refugee camps all around the world. She created videos in English, Spanish, French, Hindi and Arabic. Hindi and Arabic were really important for her, having read so much about the work of Mother Teresa in the poor communities in rural India and the plight of the Syrian refugees in the camps in the Middle East.
As a final step, Taylor created a website that could be accessed anywhere in the world for use by humanitarian organizations dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world. “Thanks to the Internet, the world is really shrinking and it creates so many opportunities for us to learn and share information with others,” said Taylor, reflecting on her project. “This project was such an incredible one to work on because not only did I get to teach kids from around the world about something I am passionate about, but I was able to learn from them too.”
Taylor said that often kids feel lost when they are being lectured at about all of the things they need to do and be. But through kid-to-kid interactions, she said you could bridge those gaps and help kids embrace what they need to do. “I hope that my project inspires kids to teach others about having healthier habits, in order to show the world that kids really can make a difference in the health of our world.”