VOL. 23, NO. 12	JANUARY 23, 1998

Washington Heights students, who are enrolled in a stay-in-school program run by the School of Public Health, accept applause after performing a play at the UN. Photo by Joan Roth.

unior high school students from a self-esteem and stay-in-school program based at the Columbia School of Public Health performed a play about domestic violence and women's rights at the United Nations' December launching of the 1998 Global Campaign for Women's Human Rights.

  The launching, attended by activists and researchers from Latin America, Asia, Europe and the United States, was part of the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.

  Speakers at the UN event lauded the student performers with such praises as "You are the future" and "Your understanding [of the issues] will make the world a better place," as the kids playfully egged on the audience for more applause.

  The students are members of the "Workers of Wonder" program, or WOW, which is active in two junior high schools in Washington Heights, a low-income area in northern Manhattan, and is part of the Community Health and Education Program at the School of Public Health's Center for Population and Family Health. WOW focuses on issues of self-esteem, behavior and teenage pregnancy, all of which are associated with high drop-out rates and low academic achievement.

  The student play was based upon the life of the Mirabal Sisters, whose execution by the Trujillo dictatorship of the Dominican Republic in 1960 inspired the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez as well as worldwide recognition of gender violence.

  Leaders from both organizations said that the theme of their global campaign will be to celebrate and demand women's rights, and that there cannot be human rights without women's rights. The WOW performance, they said, provided the perfect launching for the campaign, because it raised issues of violence against women from a generation ago that have yet to be resolved.

  WOW's performance was particularly meaningful because many of the students are Dominican, like the Mirabal Sisters. In their neighborhood of Washington Heights, many families are affected by domestic violence and violence against women.

  The WOW program regularly presents the creative work of its students to community activists and leaders in Washington Heights.

  Students at high-risk of dropping out of school are recommended to WOW, where they meet during or after school for tutoring, computer training and creative activities, which are intertwined with field trips and peer interaction sessions and designed to teach teenagers about the interaction of good health, communication skills and better jobs.