Seeing the Need for Change
Raised in upstate New York, Michelle Vaeth’s parents nurtured in her an awareness of the world by ensuring that current events and politics were common topics around the dinner table. Social problems, especially discussions of poverty, played a key part in the family’s dialogue. Traveling extensively for business, her father would tell vivid stories of some of the poorest neighborhoods on earth, such as Rio de Janeiro’s notorious favelas, where families lived in houses made out of street signs. Michelle began to dissect these stories and think about the children who lived in these dire conditions. And she wondered how a child could go to school if she didn’t even have a house.
Michelle’s family also recounted stories ...