SHARE (SHannon's After-school Reading Exchange)

I founded a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization, SHARE, (SHannon’s After-school Reading Exchange), to empower girls in Africa through education, www.shareinafrica.org. I have seen with my own eyes how girls struggle to become literate because they are expected to perform household chores, such as fetching water, collecting firewood, and planting beans, instead of pursuing their studies. This is not the case with the boys! Each summer I see girls walking to school in bare feet, with empty stomachs, and sitting four to a desk in dirty classrooms. This really disturbs me. That's why I founded SHARE, and I am dedicated to addressing this problem of gender inequality by helping to empower school girls in Africa through literacy. I have spent the last 4 summers in Tanzania doing field work for SHARE. I helped transform dilapidated school rooms into libraries, equipping them with donated books from the US. I then open “girls only” reading programs to teach English. Our motto: “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader”. I organize fundraising events (raising $300,000), conduct book drives, spread awareness through numerous presentations around the US, and promote youth involvement, mobilizing 900 American students to volunteer thousands of hours for SHARE.