Teen Reporters are No Rookies

“From WNYC, this is Radio Rookies — true stories from New York City teenagers.” So begins “Growing Up, Getting By,” the hour-long special commemorating the tenth year of the Radio Rookies program at New York Public Radio. Since Marianne McCune started the program with a small workshop in 1999, Radio Rookies has been working with teenagers throughout the metro area, combining training in basic radio reporting techniques with a chance to tell their stories. Radio Rookies moves throughout the five boroughs of New York City, working in partnership with organizations such as The Next Generation Center (Bronx), the High School for Global Citizenship (Brooklyn) and Project Hospitality (Staten Island).

According to Kaari Pitkin, the program’s senior producer, McCune began the program with the goal of combining radio diaries with arts education for teenagers. Pitkin explains that an integral part of the Radio Rookies program is their willingness to work with kids from all educational backgrounds and walks of life. As such, the kids “come to the program with a huge range of skills and tools, and interests and curiosities, and strengths and weaknesses.” The most important attribute a teenager can bring to the table, however, is bravery; as McCune explains on “Growing Up, Getting By,” “You have to be courageous to be a Radio Rookie. … They dare to tell some of the most difficult stories: stories they are right in the middle of, whether or not they want to be.” Indeed, topics of Rookie stories include homosexuality, illegal immigration, and the ease with which teens can buy guns. They also explore some of the universal aspects of growing up, such as gossip, bullying and young love.

Health Through Water

An estimated one billion people worldwide are without access to adequate drinking water, a problem that 22-year-old Jordan Wagner of California and his dad, Pastor Philip, are devoted to help solve. Their organization Generosity Water funds 82 well projects in 15 countries throughout Africa, South America and Asia. Supported by individual and community donations, Generosity Water supplies an estimated 32,000 people with clean water.

In his trips to Africa since starting Generosity Water last year, Jordan has seen women and children lug heavy buckets of dirty water for miles, leaving little time for education or community development. He’s also toured hospitals where more than half the patients were admitted due to a water-related disease such as malaria or diarrhea, which kills an estimated 3.5 million people a year. “We shouldn’t be building more hospitals if we’re not stopping the reason people are coming to the hospital,” Jordan says. “For us, the first step is water.”

Generosity Water partners with local nonprofits in each community they help to engineer the wells, which cost about $3,000 each and serve about 400 people per project. Members of the villages help build the well. “The women make clay bricks; the men dig holes,” Jordan says. Generosity Water can’t travel to every project, so the nonprofits train community leaders on well maintenance, hygiene and sanitation practices, and the community leaders pass these skills along to residents.



Jordan, an innate entrepreneur, lost his lucrative mortgage company to the recession in 2008. Fed up with his health care recruiting position, he traveled to Africa to visit a well that his father’s church had funded through bottled water sales. The trip changed his perspective and brought him back to reality. “I came back really grateful for what I had and I wanted to dedicate the next part of my life to making a difference and giving them clean water,” he says. Since then, Jordan has spoken at schools and churches to raise water shortage awareness.

Communities that have worked with Generosity Water have seen vast improvements in health since installing wells. The Tanzanian government even opened a school near one of the wells.

In the next few months, Jordan will travel to five African countries – Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda – to check up on how existing wells are progressing and talk to communities who have applied for a well. Generosity Water hopes to build 1,500 wells by 2012.


All photos courtesy | Genoristy Water

Generosity Water

Striving Toward Change

Posted by Anthony Wald



Give Us Wings is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of humanitarian work in Kenya and Uganda. This grassroots organization’s success hinges on the relationship that it has developed with the people of Kenya and Uganda. From listening to people describe their lives and their needs, GUW evolved into an organization that restores and builds houses, started a clinic, and helps provide 20,000 people with clean water. Impressive accomplishments for an organization that grew out of listening to stories of struggle.

The events that led to its founding began in 1998 when Mary Steiner, now the director of Give Us Wings, volunteered in eastern Africa. After completing her volunteer commitment, Mary stayed in Africa to develop a book about behavior guidance for school-age children in the US. The story shifted when a local boy, Abdul, asked what she was writing about. She told him, and he said, “Why not write about children here?” Mary responded, “I don’t know anything about children here, but write me your story and maybe I will.” Upon reading Abdul’s story she was struck by his directness. She says, “Bam it hit me—this is what poverty looks like.”

Mary decided to compile a book of narratives about living with poverty. She explains, “The intense need and poverty in Africa can be overwhelming, but once people hear these stories, they’ll get it, they’ll respond.” Finding people willing to tell their stories was easy. “I just started doing this trust dance with people. Letting them know I was collecting stories,” she says. “I had no money to give them, and people just started lining up.”