Clarkston walks to support Global Village Project education

Tomorrow in Clarkston families are planning to walk two and a half miles to help refugee girls get a tuition free education. So a great cause here. Maria Guzman is live at the school's new campus and she's joining us now with more on on how this is helping students and with what the big mission is. Maria, good morning to you. Happy Friday. Hey, Lise. Good morning. Yeah, so this is happening, a global village project. And this is the only nonprofit middle school in the whole United States that's serving refugee girls. And I'm going to go ahead and introduce you guys to the leader here that is leading the Welcome Walk and raising the funds. So first up, I just want to. Ask you, talk to me about the Welcome Walk. How can people still be involved? I know you guys are preparing for tomorrow. Yes. So we are so excited to be at Clarkston Market at 9am to 12:30 PM tomorrow. Um, we have raised $181,000 so far. So that comes from our incredible community. And if you'd like to be involved, please go to gvpwalk.org to donate. Tell me about why you have this fundraiser. It's all about providing these girls a free tuition. Exactly. So this fundraiser funds our STEAM program, our bus program, our meals, our field trips, and everything our students need to keep the school operating and tuition free. And talk to me about the girls. Where are they from, their stories, and how they arrived here to Atlanta? Yeah. This year they're from 10 different countries and they've all fled their home countries due to war and persecution. And so when they come here, we help them. I know you guys have served hundreds of girls the past 18 years. Talk to me about their stories. Are they often coming back here and serving and volunteering? Yes, they are. So a lot of our students go on to college, they get their master's degree, two have come back to become teaching assistants at Global Village Project, and then for the walk tomorrow, some of them are coming back to speak, to do henna, to sell things from the businesses that they started. So yes, we absolutely love our alumni. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. So again, the walk is happening tomorrow and funds for the walk are going to help here. Just keep things operating and moving and help here, support the girls in their education. Again, that's happening tomorrow at 9am in Clarkston.