A special sisterhood gathered in Atlanta last November. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and former First Ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, and Hillary Clinton sat in the front row of a memorial service honoring the life and legacy of Rosalynn Carter, who paved the path these distinguished women walked — both in the White House and around the world.
Far across the Atlantic, over deserts and into the “Heart of Southern Africa,” my fiancé Gero and I took part in a life-changing CARE Journey to Zambia and Malawi, where we discovered another remarkable sisterhood of women leaders.
Gero was born in Germany, to which CARE in 1946 began to send food rations (later CARE Packages) to people suffering in the ashes of World War II. As a boy, Gero frequently heard stories of CARE Packages literally saving lives and providing nourishment in the form of food, to sustain the body, and paper and pencils, to sustain the mind.
Fast forward almost 80 years, and we were able to see how CARE’s work is now saving and changing lives through education. We witnessed a sisterhood of young mothers gathered for a parent education class as part of CARE’s Nyenyezi Program, an innovative early childhood literacy effort. Zambia’s Ministry of Education recently adopted the Raising Stars program nationwide, a huge step forward on the path to opportunity and economic empowerment across this young nation.
“I couldn’t read a word before participating in Nyenyezi,” said Mukhozenji, a 22-year-old divorced mother of three in a village at the end of a red clay road.
