User:Jwstanly/Katie Meyler

Katie Meyler (September 7, 1982), is the founder of More than Me, an organization built on helping Liberian girls attend school. Raised in Bernardsville, New Jersey, Meyler grew up living in poverty while having to deal with an abusive family. In 2012, Meyler received a one million dollar grant for More than Me, from the Chase American Giving Awards. She was also nominated as one of the "Ebola Fighters" for Time Person of the Year in 2014. Meyler became a figure in the media gathering thousands of followers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube sharing stories from Liberia throughout the Ebola crisis. Meyler has also given multiple TED Talks and has addressed large audiences about the solutions and challenges of world poverty around the world through Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network. She is also a recognized spoken word poet.

Drugs and Abuse
Meyler struggled with physical abuse from a very early age by her parents and relatives. Meyler recalls her first memory of her early childhood as being burned by her father with boiling hot water. Meyler’s family also had a problem with drugs; Meyler claims that she walked into her kitchen once to find her dead uncle after he overdosed on heroin.

Poverty and Religion
Meyler herself has firsthand experience when it comes to living in poverty. Meyler’s family lived on government food stamps and she turned to friends and religion for support. Meyler states that her current religion is love. Growing up she was a member of many churches, however, she felt that the organizations had too many policies that she disagreed with. She even began to educate her youth group about homosexuality although it went against the main ideals of the church. She states that she has always used religion as a catalyst to allow her to help others and help herself. Her local church provided her with a car, college scholarships, and paid off the debt on her first credit card. Throughout her life Meyler continued to use religion as a means of connecting herself to others. Her local church also helped provide her with her first experience abroad, by starting a fundraising campaign to send her to Haiti.

Volunteering
Meyler’s volunteer work began when she was 14 years old and convinced the leaders in the church to allow her to work in the homeless ministry (typical age requirement was 18). She states that once she began working with the homeless people it felt natural and that she would go home and give thanks for the few things that she did have. From there she began to visit nursing homes and play guitar and sing for the residents. She then started to attend the local community college while keeping her commitment to volunteering with the church. After spending time there she decided to take a break from the church and attend a larger college, North Central University in Minneapolis. She would later graduate from college and go on her first trip to Liberia, where she would go on to establish More Than Me.

Jobs/Occupations
Meyler partnered with the Ministry of Education in Liberia to remake the country's education system. Before Meyler started collaborating with the Ministry, she discovered her love for poetry and speaking. At her local community college, she got her first taste of speaking publicly and began to express herself through spoken word poetry. She continues to write poetry and perform it in front of audiences to spread her message. The first time that Meyler was introduced to Liberia was through Franklin Graham's organization, Samaritan's Purse. Meyler states that when competing with other volunteers to go on the trip she had to plead in her letter to let her go and that the organization had simply decided to take a risk on her. She spent her first visit riding around on a motorcycle (eventually leading to a leg injury that could have sent her home) and helping neglected children with physical and mental disabilities. At first, she intended to go home but then when her time with the organization ended she found another organization that could host her in the area for longer. Meyler also began to use the social media platform Myspace to tell the story of the children that she met. She then began to receive money from people that had become aware of these posts and she began to see the power that social media can have for raising awareness for a cause. After returning to the United States Meyler was accepted into an organization run by Oprah Winfrey called the O Ambassadors that allowed her to tour the world and spread her message. Katie Meyler then got her 501(c)3 for More Than Me and started to develop the organization.

More Than Me
Meyler founded More Than Me when she was 27 years old in 2009. The main goal of the organization is to help get girls off of the streets and into schools. Meyler stated that many of the girls have few career options and often have to resort to sex work to survive, if not brought into the organization. The organization had always been a dream of Katie’s since she was young. The organization made a huge leap forward in December 8, 2012 when they were awarded a one million dollar grant, competing against many organizations from Chase bank. They have also received donations from other major foundations and have had many private contributors. In September 2013, the More Than Me Academy was opened; it was tuition free and was the first all-girls school in all of Liberia since the war. They now continue to provide girls in Liberia with scholarships, after school programs, supplies and free meals. Global research conducted by the organization Girl Up has now found that in 2009 over 40% of Liberian girls between the ages of 10-14 had never gone to school, a large number of them have become victims of rape. Girl Up’s finding suggest that having an extra year of primary school increases girl’s wages by 10% to 20%. More Than Me is trying to give the girls this chance at a better life.

Ebola Outbreak
When the Ebola epidemic first hit, Meyler had just been given her first building by the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for the More Than Me Academy. During Ebola Meyler converted the Academy building into an outreach center. For the next six months, Meyler and her team fought the crisis. With a More Than Me donor's help, Meyler bought an ambulance and set up a makeshift response unit. She was then recognized by Time Magazine as one of the people of the year for 2014 along with others in the category of “Ebola Fighters”. She stated that she thought about leaving but could not stand to see her students get killed from the virus. Around this time Meyler was invited to speak on the Forbes 400 meeting panel where she spoke about what did occur and what did not occur on the front lines of the Ebola crisis. Meyler used Instagram to spread messages about what she saw when fighting and to show people what was happening in West Africa during this period.

Social Media Influence
Meyler has often used social media to share her ideals. Meyler first used social media when she published stories of children she met in Liberia to get initial donations to start More Than Me. She also was selected for the Chase American Giving Awards due to the popular vote she won on Chase’s Facebook. Today, she mainly uses her Instagram account to show what life is like in Liberia through photos. Through this, she has gained tens of thousands of followers. Meyler feels sharing photos is the best way to help people get a sense of what life is like in Africa. She has been recognized multiple times for her social media work. Instagram’s CEO, Kevin Systrom, has complimented her for using Instagram to both raise awareness and help fight Ebola.

Awards and Recognition
Katie Meyler has received numerous awards for her education efforts in Liberia, as well as for her bravery in fighting the ebola outbreak.
 * 2014 Time Person of the Year (The "Ebola Fighters")- In 2014, during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Meyler and the More than Me team shifted priorities: they closed down the schools, instead running the buildings as relief centers. The More than Me academy building was transformed into emergency care center for children, called the Housing Observation and Pediatric Evaluation for 21 Days, or HOPE 21. Here, Meyler and her team took in children with nowhere else to go, and provide food and shelter for 21 days. From giving out 300 boots and shirts, to ordering an ambulance through a donation, Meyler and her team helped out in other countless ways as well. For these works, Meyler, as well as others who helped fight ebola, were Time Person of the Year for 2014, as the "Ebola Fighters".
 * 2016 People's 25 Women Changing the World- Meyler received this award for her volunteer work in Liberia, for founding the organization More Than Me, and for helping the Ministry of Education in Liberia.
 * Global Citizens 17 Badass Women to Follow on Instagram- She was given this recognition for founding More than Me, as well as becoming Time person of the year in 2014.
 * 2015 Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award- Meyler was given this award for the works she has done in Liberia.
 * Glamour's 4 Inspiring Women to Follow on Instagram- Meyler received this award for using instagram to spread awareness about the Ebola crisis in Liberia when it hit.

Poems
Katie Meyler has written many spoken words poems. She feels that they are a powerful way to convey what you have learned. Often her poems are on subjects that she personally has struggled with such as poverty or the Ebola outbreak. One of her poems, "Riding My Bicycle", was composed on a napkin from her backpack at three in the morning. Meyler likes to use her poems, and often starts and/or ends her speeches with them. Three of her most known poems are below.

Riding My Bicycle

 * I am about to ball my eyes out
 * All these emotions tucked inside need to find a way out
 * How did we become a society where we can walk passed a man
 * Sleeping in a suit on a wet street
 * Never asking ourselves twice
 * How did this come to be?
 * Or what if this was me?
 * We just walk by, walk by
 * Over and over we pass an eye
 * To the world outside of ourselves
 * Thinking if we put our arm out to help our sister out
 * There will nothing left for ourself
 * But that’s the only way out
 * For her, for you, for me
 * Don't get why I am the weird girl?
 * I'm crazy because I fight for a dream?
 * Well that’s right, that’s me
 * But don’t think I don’t bleed


 * My youngest memory is my dad trying to burn my skin off with hot water
 * Lived a life with a mom who said she wished I wasn't her daughter
 * Woke up next to my dead uncle, heroin was his slaughter
 * My older sister, my hero, in the emergency room twice
 * Almost lost her life
 * Cooked cocaine was her game
 * And now my nephew’s left with a mom whose cooked her brain


 * So what if it’s true?
 * I walk around trying to love you,
 * Because I want you to love me
 * And you don't get the message
 * So I play it on repeat


 * With my head up I smile at a hungry world
 * That wants to swallow me for every penny of passion I have
 * Chew me up and spit me out
 * Like I’m some kind of clown
 * But the spirit inside me won't let me stay down
 * I get knocked off the boat
 * My lungs fill up with water and I’m about to drown
 * But the last second the sound of hope is found and resounds
 * In a picture of an eight-year-old girl named Regina
 * Who slept on a cement floor with rats
 * Surrounded by thieves and held down by illiteracy
 * Regina still believed
 * And she looked at me.
 * I knew she would make it.
 * So I walk around the world naked
 * Showing my most vulnerable parts
 * Hoping to stir your heart
 * To shake you up, Mr. Numb.
 * I don't blame you
 * Because you've become what everyone else here has become
 * Marching to the beat of the "American Dream” drum
 * Except you failed to realize
 * It’s in America where people commit suicide
 * It’s in America where people pop pills to get through life
 * Is that home, where no one’s ever home?
 * Is that ring?
 * Is that vacation?
 * Or the opinion of that other apathetic, dissatisfied family
 * Really what makes you wake up every single day and go to that job you hate?
 * And I’m crazy??


 * Crazy is what crazy does
 * And this crazy thinks I can love
 * Ignorance, hurt, and hate away
 * In the way that I live day to day
 * I’m gonna dance the world’s sadness away
 * Or at least, I'll put a smile on your face


 * Standing like a fool in the middle of the street I sing,
 * "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, Won't let Satan blow it out, NO! I’m gonna let it shine…"


 * I'm gonna break in and liberate you from the chains that our culture
 * Has taught you to wear so well
 * What if one by one we let our Berlin walls crash down
 * And walked around with our frowns turned the other way around
 * And looked into each other’s eyes
 * To see the fire that flickers inside


 * We are not enemies.
 * We are not different political parties.
 * We are not our parents armies.
 * We are humanity.

She Is My Promise

 * I'm back on this bathroom floor again,
 * And it’s the middle of the night again
 * And flashes of your face keep me up again
 * It's you Abigail, you have stained my soul.


 * Is it a street worker? A sex worker?
 * You tell me, what is the politically correct way to say that
 * My 11-year-old friend Abigail
 * Is a war-orphaned prostitute?
 * Yes, this two-dollar hooker, this child, opens her legs to men
 * So that she can stay alive


 * And now I’m not sure if she's alive
 * And when I think about her
 * I don't have the words to describe


 * My friend Abigail is missing, she is gone, she is nowhere to be found
 * And I have promised her in my dreams
 * That I wouldn’t stop searching for her
 * And I call her name and no one knows her


 * Her community tells me, matter of factly, "She's vanished"
 * Her country shushes me, it’s not good for their reputation
 * My country tells me it’s not polite to talk about her


 * Here, she is the blame of a corrupt government in a country people know nothing about
 * Here, she is just another number, another abstract thought
 * That would never cross someone’s mind on a line to purchase
 * A cup of coffee that costs more than she'd make selling herself for one day
 * Here she's someone else's issue,
 * Another Facebook cause that people might check they like
 * Because it’s trendy


 * She is the bottom of the earth to a world that has been brutal to her
 * That has beaten her up and raped her in ways that people who can read would never be able to pronounce


 * This small child is gone and I've promised her,
 * I’d come and find her and I can't


 * So I’m up again
 * On the bathroom floor again
 * It’s the middle of the night again


 * And I need to scream her name
 * Abigail
 * Where are you?
 * I’m trying to find you
 * I haven't forgotten you
 * I won't give up on you


 * I'm struggling to find ways to talk about you
 * People here are offended by you,
 * Disturbed by you


 * I am too.
 * You keep me up at night
 * And I hope you always do
 * You are my vow, my promise


 * I’m coming to get you.

Thank You, Thank You my Lord

 * I’m sorry if I start crying
 * I keep seeing flashes of dead children


 * Men in moon suits shovel corpses
 * Bodies piled high in the back of pickups
 * Crowds across the street keep their distance
 * The sounds of mourning screams are constant


 * People lie like dogs on the street
 * Treatment units are full
 * Their cries for help go unanswered
 * A world afraid to come too close


 * In rubber boots on bended knee
 * The stench of death mixed with feces
 * His soft baby cheeks were against the dirt and dust
 * There was no ma for his hand to cup


 * Alone
 * In a bath of his own blood
 * His big brown eyes looked at the world with love
 * I asked him name
 * He could barely speak
 * Softly he tells me “I’m Charlie”
 * He reaches for my arm
 * But I back up
 * as much as I want to hold him


 * If only my songs
 * Could hold his face
 * Encircle him in a warm embrace
 * The soft notes down his back I’d trace


 * Thank you, thank you my Lord


 * Death tolls rising like the tide
 * Tension is more tangible than touch
 * Bodies are being buried in mass graves


 * While experts sip coffee and lattes
 * Have cocktail parties and all day debates
 * On the best strategies and philosophies
 * To determine the fate of these communities
 * That they have never even fucking been to?


 * So I beg you now please help!


 * Boots on the ground is what we need
 * We are out of water and PPEs
 * No bleach, no beds, and no IVs
 * Wages for employees??
 * Hospitals transmitting more disease
 * A country that lacks complete capacity


 * And there was Esther
 * Hairnet on her head
 * In a woman’s oversized flower dress
 * The people around her sang
 * Arms stretched to the sky in praise


 * But Esther wouldn’t stop crying
 * This is a survivor’s party
 * Except there’s nothing about her that’s happy
 * She survived Ebola, but when she woke up from a coma
 * She learned that her entire family didn’t
 * She was about to be released
 * Except no one was there to get her


 * In a country without adoption and with no foster care system
 * Where will she go?
 * And the world leaves her in the hands of the Liberian government that is vividly broken as you freak out about an outbreak in
 * Your country that will never fucking happen
 * “For God sake get a grip”


 * Sarah was stronger than any human being I’ve known
 * I gave her two teddy bears and a phone


 * We stood outside the Ebola treatment unit
 * I looked into her eyes
 * I told her she was going to be just fine
 * To fight with all of her might—
 * I lied.
 * She walked down that dark hall
 * And she never came back out


 * “Are you sure she was so strong?”
 * “Sometimes they just drop dead”


 * I couldn’t get the words out
 * I just looked at her mother
 * My lips quivered
 * I dropped my head and sobbed
 * She got the message
 * And collapsed
 * She flung her limbs in the air and shook


 * No place to say her last goodbyes
 * No “I love you baby,” no tears to wipe
 * No hand to hold throughout the night
 * No forehead for her to kiss goodbye


 * Sarah’s life is gone
 * The world doesn't stop, the debates go on, the blame goes on, the corruption, the disorganization, the fight for attention, the jealousy, this circus goes on.
 * She’s gone. Gone, gone.
 * We let this go on. And now her precious life has slipped gone.


 * Thank you, thank you my Lord


 * I’m not okay and no one gets it
 * No one
 * These images won’t go away
 * They stain my mind and keep me awake


 * I think about the little girl just dead on a bench
 * Or Sarah’s mothers face
 * I sometimes weep thinking about what an inhumane, lonely death small Charlie had


 * It’s sad and dark but then I think about all of the survivors
 * Like Esther. All she has lost but she has life
 * I have life.
 * And I must use it to the max.


 * This will never be okay until we make sure it never happens again.


 * I am so mad, so hurt and broken
 * The pain and hurt and horror are indescribable.