{"id":470,"date":"2025-05-17T03:11:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T08:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/?page_id=470"},"modified":"2025-08-25T16:21:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:21:00","slug":"rationale","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/rationale\/","title":{"rendered":"Rationale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Description of the Major<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Social Entrepreneurship and Community Advocacy is a major that reflects a deep commitment to creating solutions that support trauma-affected communities. Through this major, I am learning how to combine business innovation with social impact to develop sustainable programs that provide survivors of violence with access to mental, emotional, and social support. This interdisciplinary major equips me with tools in nonprofit leadership, policy advocacy, and trauma-informed care to drive lasting change in vulnerable communities.
My mission is to advocate for their rights, particularly access to education and tools for self-sufficiency. In the future, I plan to launch a nonprofit organization that promotes healing, empowerment, and economic development for vulnerable populations, starting from my home country and expanding globally. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah Balekage on the St Olaf Campus- November 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Personal journey<\/strong>\nI was born in a small town in eastern Congo, the fifth of eight children (four boys and four girls) in a close-knit family. My parents were entrepreneurs who ran a small business in Bagira, a suburb of Bukavu. Life was simple and joyful\u2014until 2004, when war broke out and everything changed.\n\nThe conflict tore families apart, left many women survivors of sexual violence, and forced children to grow up too fast. My father began working with the International Red Cross to protect children, and later with Finn Church Aid, helping women rebuild their lives through microloans and community support. Every weekend, he brought home flyers and stories from his work. That\u2019s when I first understood the pain my country carried\u2014and the power of showing up for others.\n\nIn a place where education was a privilege few could afford due to economic crisis, my parents insisted that all their children, boys and girls, would go to school. They also took in extended family members, helping them get an education too. Watching them serve others planted a vision in me early on: I wanted to be part of rebuilding my community through education and opportunity.\n\nIn 5th grade, I won a national writing competition that earned me a seven-year scholarship from the Congolese Petroleum Company. That opened the door to an international scholarship in Hong Kong, where I completed a two-year International Baccalaureate program with peers from over 90 countries. It was a culture shock\u2014but also a turning point. \nLater, I was named valedictorian and awarded a full scholarship to St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where I began studying Social Work and Family Studies. While the major gave me strong tools to support trauma-impacted communities, I realized I wanted to go further\u2014beyond clinical work\u2014to address the root causes of inequality back home. That\u2019s when I shifted and created my own major: Social Entrepreneurship and Community Advocacy, with a concentration in Family Studies and African & African Diaspora Studies.\n\nNot only this major and concentration gave me a new perspective on entrepreneurship but it also helped me better understand the African continent and the causes of its current struggles. Therefore, after founding Binti Voice Initiative, I decided to take my plateform on an upper level by translating it into an NGO but also hat I did not want my impact to end with me completing my college degree. I aspired for more\n\nThis path reflects who I am and where I come from. My mission is clear: to fight child marriage, promote education, and uplift Congolese women and children through innovative, sustainable solutions. My story is personal\u2014but it\u2019s also part of a much bigger movement for change in Africa.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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Senior Project<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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For my senior project, I am creating Binti Voice Initiative, an educational and advocacy platform that will amplify the stories of Congolese women and bring global attention to the injustices they face. Rooted in my personal journey and my academic focus in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Advocacy, this project is more than a requirement\u2014it’s my calling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The platform will serve two core purposes: to educate and to empower. First, it will raise awareness around gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo by sharing real stories and cultural context, challenging silence and stigma. Alongside that, it will include a fundraising component to directly support women by covering urgent medical bills and providing small grants for healing and recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what I\u2019m most passionate about is developing a digital storytelling app, a safe, healing space for women who have survived gender-based violence in both Congo and the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This app will allow users to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
  Record their stories anonymously using a voice-recording feature as a form of therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Join virtual support groups, guided by weekly prompts where women can connect, share strategies, and feel less alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Build community across borders, lifting each other up, one story at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This app will be especially critical in Congo, where there is a devastating shortage of mental health professionals. Many women suffer in silence, trapped by stigma and shame. Therefore, Binti Voice Initiative is my way of creating a bridge and offering connection, resilience, and hope where there once was none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
                                                      Read more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Description of the Major Social Entrepreneurship and Community Advocacy is a major that reflects a deep commitment to creating solutions that support trauma-affected communities. Through this major, I am learning how to combine business innovation with social impact to develop sustainable programs that provide survivors of violence with access to mental, emotional, and social support. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5322,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-470","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":695,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/470\/revisions\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/binti-voice-initiative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}