Chamari

Chamari, an only child to begin with, has lost all of her family except the cousin she now stays with when home on college holidays.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

"Chamari is one of the chosen few -- the lucky ones -- but so many get left behind."

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

But instead, given a few dollars, Chamari will earn a degree in her chosen field and land a job that will place her solidly in the middle class.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

"Right on her doorstep" are the social problems Chamari has sidestepped -- and not just a tragic fate, either, but one of banal exclusion from the 21st century and the world she now clamors to see.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

Chamari plans to get out and cast her vote tomorrow, but will not say for which candidate: the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is credited for bringing an end to the 26-year civil war last May; or his contender, Sarath Fonseka, the army general who led forces to succeed in that effort.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

Without the possibility of schooling, a bright young person like Chamari would have ended up coerced into drugs and prostitution, or at the very least, "... would have been nothing more than a housemaid" earning next to nothing serving others in the village, as she points out.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

I tell Chamari about where I was on September 11, we talk about the suffering of that day, and the suffering her people have experienced over 26 years.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

"I want to travel -- everywhere," Chamari laughs, "maybe first -- your country."

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

We may not be able to bring back the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, or easily remedy our education system here at home, but we can, one by one, impact the lives of such young idealists as Chamari, who dare to believe that they can build the life they imagine and turn their world into a place of safety and freedom.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010

Ambition to rebuild: that is what drove Chamari to risk political violence to travel so far today, to talk about her life in hopes not just for her own continued funding (which I've already happily pledged to V-Day in support of their V-Peace Scholarship program, which supports survivors of violence like Chamari in their educational pursuits), but that other kids may share such freedom of opportunity.

Suzanne Skees: A Wise Investment: From the Haitian Earthquake to Schools in Sri Lanka 2010