Everyday Inspirations: Resident Leads Organization to Help Kenyan Students

Everyday Inspirations is a series that features people in Patch communities who inspire others through their work, or people who have faced extraordinary situations and grown from them. They have been featured by other people in the community that have been inspired by the nominees.

Name: Katie Wood
Town: Peachtree Corners, GA
Nominated by: Elizabeth Wood

Why is this person an "Everyday Inspiration?" 
Katie is the definition of selflessness and I'm constantly inspired by her tenacity and determination to help others. Katie has always had a big heart and the smarts to create an idea to help end poverty. I like to think of her as a superhero on a mission to help save the world.

She recently started a crowd-funding website to raise money to send young girls to school. Katie believes that education is the strongest tool to changing these girls' lives and bettering their futures.

Has the nominee's life been changed in an extraordinary way? 

Two years ago, Katie quit her job at the World Bank and took a transformative trip to Nairobi, Kenya. While volunteering in the Kibera slums, Katie met a group of extremely bright eighth-grade girls. She was impressed by their intelligence and their ambition, but sadly, many of them could not afford the tuition to stay in school.

Living in poverty is a tough road for a girl in Kenya. Being forced to drop out of school leaves many of these girls on the streets, at risk for rape, HIV, pregnancy and many other unimaginable situations.

Katie was determined to help these girls secure a brighter future and has made it her mission to keep them in school. Meeting these girls completely changed her life and the girls' lives, as well. If Watch Me Go is successful in Kenya, she hopes to carry the project into other regions of the world to help more girls. 
 
How does this person work to make others' lives better?

Katie works tirelessly every day to make sure these girls are able to graduate high school. This is her full-time job and she no longer has the luxury of a steady paycheck.

Starting a nonprofit has not been easy and throughout the many struggles that have come up along the way, she has never considered giving up. She has completely put aside her own needs for the last two years so that she can positively impact the lives of these 40 girls. She is truly an inspiration and the world is better place because of people like her!