Interview with Riley Carney

Posted by Gabe on December 20, 2009 under Featured Hero, Kids are Heroes | Be the First to Comment

We have had several “featured hero” segments, but this is the first time we have conducted an interview. Many of the children on the Kids Are Heroes web site are younger, but Riley is a bit older and what she has accomplished is no less than amazing.  She has a movement called “Breaking the Chain” that has the “goal of breaking the bonds of illiteracy and poverty for children around the world.”  She is also a young writer of children’s books donating some of the proceeds to her literacy programs.  Here is her profile on the Kids Are Heroes web site.

  What does Breaking the Chain represent to you and how did it get started?

I am passionate about promoting global literacy because I believe that the way to help people, especially children, break the cycle of poverty and exploitation is through literacy.

I created my nonprofit for literacy, Breaking the Chain, when I was fourteen, after learning that there are 120 million children around the world don’t have the opportunity get an education and that there are 800 million adults that cannot read or write, two-thirds of whom are women. These women and children are very vulnerable to exploitation. They are unable to get jobs and they cannot feed or clothe themselves. Only through education do they have the opportunity to make their lives better.

The mission of Breaking the Chain try to eliminate the bonds of poverty and illiteracy for children and their communities through education and sustainable development, both domestically and internationally. Building schools in places where the government cannot or will not build schools for their citizens seemed like a good place to begin. I adopted two villages in Africa, one in Kenya and one in Sierra Leone; I was able to raise enough money to build a school for each village, and to provide both villages with a water purification system. I’ve also created a children’s literacy center at a women’s shelter in Colorado, and bought over 1000 new children’s books for Reach Out and Read and The Heart of America Foundation.

This year, Breaking the Chain achieved tax-exempt status and my older brother, Nick, who is twenty, joined me (I wasn’t old enough to sit on the Board of Directors or to file the paperwork with the IRS).

 
How do you decide which new projects to take on?

The two most important factors in the decision-making process about what projects to take on are: first, how many kids will be impacted by what we do, and second, how significant the impact is.

I think that each of the projects that I have undertaken for my program Breaking the Chain will have a significant impact on illiteracy, and therefore, on poverty and the exploitation of children.

I believe that the two schools that I built in Africa will change the lives of the children in those villages for many generations. I was incredibly excited when I received pictures of the school and the children of my adopted village in Kenya. The children’s faces were so full of joy and hope that I knew that my efforts would impact those children, and generations of children, for the rest of their lives! They now have the opportunity to live a life full of options, rather than a life of desperation. The privilege of receiving an education and having access to clean drinking water was something I had always taken for granted, just as most Americans do, and yet, seventy-five million children worldwide between the ages of six and fourteen are denied basic education, and one in every five children does not have access to clean drinking water. I believe that I changed those statistics for two villages in Africa. I am looking forward to receiving pictures of the new school in Sierra Leone and of the children who will attend the school.

I also believe that the literacy center at the women’s shelter will impact many children, since the mothers and their children stay at the shelter during a very pivotal time in their lives. The children have suffered enormously and are often frightened or angry, or both. The room offers a place where they can feel safe, and it offers books and learning as a joyful means to escape a difficult situation. I believe that the literacy center will help reading and learning take on a special meaning for the many children who pass through the shelter.

I believe that supporting programs like Reach Out and Read, since the program has had significant impact on increasing literacy in low income areas throughout the United States, and because it prevents children from slipping through the education system before they even begin school. Studies have shown that exposing children to the wonder of books at a very young age and throughout childhood dramatically increases literacy. The most important asset that the program has is books, so I believe that by providing books to this program I have directly impacted as many children as there were books given.

I am really excited about our new projects this year. We have adopted another village in Sierra Leone, and will provide the funds to build a school and a water purification system there. We are also developing a domestic program which I think can have a direct affect on kids in the United States. It’s more difficult to dramatically impact children’s literacy in the United States because we already have schools in place, but many schools in the U.S. have very low reading proficiency rates. We can potentially have a significant impact on those kids. We hope to have that program in place within the next month or two.

It seems that you are very successful in raising funds for your various projects. To what would you attribute that success?

I think the two things that have most helped us raise funds are that I am very persistent and that I use a variety of ways to raise money. We’ve sold t-shirts, sent letters out to the community, and a number of other activities.

Here’s a related question  how do you spread the word?

Initially, I spread the word by twice showing a video presentation during school assembly at my high school and by writing letters. Now, I have written six books and the first book of the five-book series had been published, so I have been speaking at schools around the country to 4-8 graders. I talk to them about writing and about literacy, and then I try to inspire them to reach out and help others.

What drives you to continue to do this?  Will you continue your work throughout your adult years?

I continue to do this because I believe my efforts are making a significant difference in the lives of hundreds of children, and because I really believe that one person really can make a difference in the world. I plan to continue to combat illiteracy and poverty throughout my adult years – how could I ever stop reaching out when I know that I can make a significant impact?

What would you envision your organization doing in 5 years from now?

I envision Breaking the Chain continuing to combat illiteracy and poverty for children through education in much the same way it is now, but perhaps on a larger scale.

What have you learned from doing this?  How has it affected you as a person?

The most important thing I learned from my volunteer work is that one person can make a significant difference in the lives of many people. I think that we too often feel overwhelmed by the problems in the world and we throw up our hands in defeat, but if each of us were to set our mind to doing something, we really could change the world. I would encourage other young people to find something that you believe in and go out there and make it happen. There will be times when it is difficult to accomplish your goals, but if you persevere you really can change the world.