Author: Jess Lawrence, Director at Cairn Guidance
At the age of 15, my friend Nini Mohamed took an incredible journey— a difficult, life-changing trek to America by way of Somalia and a Kenyan refugee camp. His book, “The African in America” details the real-life struggle immigrants face while adapting to American culture, from unexpected racial divisions among Black Americans and African-born American Immigrants, to the need for acceptance within a community.
Motivated by his experiences and desire for supporting immigrants, Nini founded The African in America, a non-profit organization here in Louisville. Through The African in America, Nini creates opportunities for refugee youths to better connect with one another through his favorite sport: soccer. Every summer, Nini hosts free soccer day camps for 300 students in Louisville. Last year, through a partnership with the LouCity & Racing Foundation, Nini has focused on building a high school refugee girls soccer team.
A week ago, I showed up at one of the Friday night trainings and reconnected with the girls. I’ve had a few opportunities to be with them and it’s been a joy! Dove and Bras for Girls donated product and sports bras for each of the 40 girls on the high school team.
Last week, I re-introduced myself explaining my professional journey from 7th grade teacher to now working nationally to create healthy schools for students through my business, Cairn Guidance, and through our work with The Dove Self-Esteem Project.
As a national school health consultant, I’ve collaborated with Dove for nine years on no-cost school curricular materials, programs, and resources around body confidence, self-esteem, acceptance and discrimination, especially among Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ youth.
I invited the girls to participate in two activities before handing out their product. I first had them take three deep breaths, just to check in with their bodies. I challenged each of them to mentally scan their body, from top to bottom and pay attention to what their body was feeling.
I asked:
- Are you feeling confident?
- Are you cold?
- Are you hungry?
- Are you thirsty?
- Do you need to relieve tension?
- Do you need to eat a snack?
I explained that self-awareness is so important.
I had them form small groups of 2-3 and answer the following prompts. We had the opportunity to discuss them:
- What does it mean to take care of your body?
- What does it mean to talk kind about your body? Give an example
- What are you proud of your body for doing?
- If you feel negative about your body, what is something you can say to yourself in the mirror to combat that negative body talk?
- What is one thing you can tell a friend that does not involved body talk/appearance? For example… I love how you… you are so good at…
In response to the question about combatting negative body talk, they said things like:
- I’m strong
- My body plays soccer
- I’m healthy
For the last question- they said things like:
- I love how you play soccer!
- You’re so smart.
- You are a leader!
- You saved that ball, that was great!
- You’re a good friend.
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