Antioch teens raising money to help orphans in Ethiopia

ANTIOCH, Calif. (KGO) -- An Antioch teenager's Sweet 16 birthday won't be a celebration of excess or even focus on her. Instead, it will be used to help orphans half way across the planet.

Nubia Wilson decided a birthday party wasn't the right thing to do, especially after she volunteered in Ethiopia earlier this year, witnessing first hand extreme poverty and seeing children in the streets walking barefoot to school. The school only goes up to fourth grade, so Wilson is trying to add a fifth grade class. The starting point was telling family and friends in December she didn't want a big birthday party.

"And a instead of gifts, I asked them if they could donate to the cause and I created a page on Crowdrise for them to donate there and I got over $2,000," she said.

Wilson says it feels good to help, but that she has to work harder now to raise more money. She's hoping to raise $10,000 and her family is getting involved by letting her auction off some of their Ethiopian art work and artifacts next month.

Wilson hopes to hand deliver the money that she raises to the school that's on the outskirts of the capital this summer. She said she'd like to grow up to be a humanitarian lawyer.

If you'd like to find out how you can help, click here.