INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN DAY 🌍 When Service Becomes Legacy: Why I Serve!!

Taking time today to reflect on this journey of service and what humanitarian work has really come to mean. For me it's never just been about projects, numbers, awards or reports.

It has always been about people especially young women and girls, walking with them through different seasons of their lives and being privileged to see what happens when a little support, opportunity and belief is given at the right time.

Humanitarian work has taught me that impact is not always found in the big moments.

Sometimes it is:

..a girl remained in school because someone stepped in at the right time.

...providing mentorship and meeting the girls in their communities for a heart-to-heart talk.

...listening to their fears, their dreams, their questions and sometimes simply being there.

...watching a young woman grow from a beneficiary into a leader.

... seeing a teacher equipped with the knowledge and tools to reach hundreds of children.

...seeing a girl off to catch an international flight to represent at a global stage the very organisation that once supported her journey.

...being part of a girl's dream of establishing her own venture and remembering how that journey began.

...sitting at a table where a girl becomes a judge at the very table where she once pitched ideas and realized that the girl who once needed a platform is now creating platforms for others.

...it is dancing with a girl to the altar as she establishes her home and begins new chapters of her life.

...writing recommendation letters and cheering girls on as they pursue various careers and opportunities.

... having girls return to serve the organisation that once served them as staff, volunteers and Board members.

...listening to a girl confidently defending the organisation and winning its first long-term indigenous grant.

These are the moments that stay with me. Not because they look impressively written but because they remind me that the work is bigger than an individual and perhaps one of my greatest dreams is seeing the girls we serve begin to own the vision, to carry it, build on it and take it further.

My Vision is building an organization that will outlive its Founder. I want to see the girls who once needed GEM become the women who protect, strengthen and grow it. I want them to look at the organization and know that they are not just beneficiaries but are part of its story. That for me is when service becomes legacy.

Over the years, this work has brought multiple global and local recognitions and honours for Humanitarian Impact and for all the work we are doing. And even though I am deeply grateful for every one of them, the awards are not the reason I serve, the real reward is seeing a girl discover that she is possible. Seeing her stay in school, lead, build, return to give back and become the very person someone else now needs.

That is what keeps me going. And after all these years, I am still here learning, serving, believing., building and holding on to the dream that one day, the girls we invested in will not just tell the story of Girls Education Mission Internationalbut will be the ones carrying the story forward.

Happy International Humanitarian Day to everyone who continues to show up for humanity, in the big moments and in the quiet ones that nobody sees.

#InsideLife of the #TheGirlvangelist Keturah Shammah

From my Hearts 💕 to Yours 💕 www.shammahketurah.com ❤️🌍