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Just do it: make a difference this Christmas

December 21, 2010

I believe that everyone who reads this blog wants to be of service in the world. As the original Gyspy Girl, Alex, said in her description of a Gypsy Girl:

We believe in global consciousness. We think, care and act globally.

So I knew that you would want to meet Letha Sandison.

Over the past four and a half years since I first met Letha (online), I’ve watched with great admiration as she has built Wrap Up Africa, which is the only NGO focused on improving access to treatment for pediatric cancer in Africa.

Wrap Up Africa’s mission is to ‘provide hope, empowerment and support to Ugandan families struggling with cancer.’

In Wrap Up Africa Letha has combined sustainable entreprise – in the form of a beautiful locally produced fashion line – with health support. The fashion line creates jobs for local tailors and producers. The clothing is beautiful (see the photo on the left and check out the website), and Letha and her team have gone to significant lengths to ensure that the entire production process supports the local textile industry.

Letha started Wrap Up Africa after visiting Uganda in 2007 with her husband, who works with children with HIV and malaria. As she walked through the pediatric cancer ward, she says: “I was astonished by what I saw. Families were living all over the grounds, sleeping outside, huddling against the building for shelter for months at a time.”

Parents and children come from all over Uganda and as far as Congo and Rwanda, but the treatment is expensive and there is virtually no aid available. Parents may have to decide whether to use their savings to pay for chemotherapy for one child or to care for their other children at home.

She knew she had to do something. In her own words:

It breaks my heart that today where you live often determines if you live. Children with cancer in African would have a 75% better chance of survival if they had been born somewhere like the US or Europe. It is so difficult for me to reconcile that there really are two different worlds we live in. I can not imagine being a mother in a place like Uganda, watching my child suffer and grow more ill with each passing day and feeling powerless to help. I want to help the children have the best chance possible to fight their cancer.

Since March 2007, Letha has worked with local partners in Uganda to build an amazingly effective model for change. The importance and value of her work has been recognised by the Clinton Global Initiative and the Livestrong Foundation. Whenever I talk to Letha I’m absolutely astounded at the amount she has been able to do with so little. What fuels her?

I asked her. And she told me it was joy.

“I am filled with joy when I play with the children and hear them laugh. They have a deep wisdom that I think often arises when one is confronted with a life threatening disease. They all have such wonderful goals for their lives and want to be doctors, teachers and nurses. I really think that these kids could be the ones to help create lasting change in their countries if we can help them survive. They understand what is really important.”

Ultimately, Letha hopes to generate enough funds from clothing sales to pay for the care of all children who cannot afford it. Wrap Up Africa’s goal is that their treatment programs will be self funded so that they are protected and secure. It amazes me how much progress she has already made towards that goal in such a short time, but it will take several more years before they are able to fully self fund. In the meantime, Letha has a mondo beyondo dream of her own:

“My goal is to help to get at least 365 children into care by the end of March. That is less than half the children who need treatment.”

You can help Letha make this dream come true. One way to help is to buy some of this beautiful clothing or host a party for your friends and family. Another way is to make a direct donation towards getting 365 children with cancer into treatment.

You can make a one-off donation or sign up to for a regular monthly donation. Maybe you could spread the cost of treatment for one child ($1000) over the year by signing up for a $85 dollar a month donation.

Make a donation – if you (alone or together with friends) can donate $85 per month you will be providing treatment for one child with cancer.

Spread the word – write a blog post, or send an email to your friends and family. Or support Wrap Up Africa by connecting with them through social media and then helping spread the word.

Follow Wrap Up Africa on Twitter

Like Wrap Up Africa on Facebook

Just do it

I asked Letha if she had any advice for other Gypsy Girls who want to make a difference, but who are not sure quite how to go about it.

The best advice I can give is to just do it. I really believe that if one is passionate about something, willing to make personal sacrifice, can bring love and presence to their work (even when times get tough…and they will) and most importantly never give up then anything is possible. I try to view obstacles as opportunities and remember there is always a way forward and often through challenges I have been lead to better solutions.

We are all capable of using our gifts to make an impact no matter what scale or where that impact occurs it is a wonderful thing when people decide to engage. There is nothing special about me, if I can do it then anyone can!

Live Twitter chat with Letha

If you have any questions at all for Letha – and I know I can think of hundreds – then you can chat live with Letha on Twitter later in January. I’ll be joining a group of other Gypsy Girl writers and friends to host a special chat with Letha. If you want to be sure not to miss out on the chat, follow Letha on Twitter for more details nearer to the time.

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Posted in Aware, Fearless, Generous, Informed, Inspired

the gypsy girl effect

December 6, 2010

post by Alex, video by The Girl Effect.

Tara Mohr from the Wise Living blog put out a call asking you, me and every blogger out there, to spread the word about the Girl Effect! “The Girl Effect” is a campaign site created by the Nike Foundation stressing the importance of investing in adolescent girls in the developing world. When an adolescent girl in the developing world gets a chance to grow healthy and go to school, she becomes a healthy mother, active citizen and educated member of her society. As she is able to transform her own future, the future of her family, community and nation, she creates a ripple effect ~ The Girl Effect ~ decreasing world poverty, creating thriving communities, and slowing down the spread of AIDS. Sounds good, right?

But in order for a girl to thrive and reach her potential, we need to provide her with an education system, health programs that are tailored to the unique needs of adolescent mothers, agricultural practices that train females to become skilled and productive farmers, and policy implementation that actually reaches girls. That’s where our responsibility as knowledgeable privileged folks comes in!

I can tell you that as a new mom, I’ve never felt more compelled to act in the behalf of girls around the world that are suffering with poor health conditions, HIV, and the lack of equal opportunity when it comes to obtaining education. I surely would not want to see my little girl married, with child, or selling her body by the age of 14. Definitely not. So I’m definitely moved more than ever to “do something” to improve and save the lives of girls around the world. When matters get close to our own heart we are more likely to jump in and act. And that’s what I’m getting to with this post: the world needs more than a donation to get back on its feet. As I followed link after link in “The Girl Effect” website, I clicked on all the different organizations and wonderful projects that it supports, and suddenly I just felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Odd? Should I feel hopeful with the work that is being done? Yes. But the truth is that when one is removed from the work, the reality does not sync in. As I browsed along, it just got fuzzier and fuzzier, perhaps a tad exotic even. By the end of it I was thinking: “Oh well It seems to me that there are so many wonderful programs out there already, and that they have collected (thank god!) a nice sum of money. But still… It’s never enough. And will my money make a difference? Will it even make it to an actual girl? Not sure. Oh well. Next!” And off I went with my day! Sad. Worse, I suspect I am not alone. Yes, there are a lot of wonderful change makers out there, angels even, that are relentlessly trying to make miracles out of nothing. What hard work they have in their hands! It’s a tough job to keep raising money day after day, because indeed, it is never going to be enough when you and I mail occasionally our $20 bucks! When you look at a number like 600 million adolescent girls in need of our help, I think that we need to do a little better than that. Don’t take me wrong, every penny counts, of course. But what I am feeling is that occasional donations will never end poverty. It does not matter if you give $20 or $2000 or $2million, because we still will always need more to turn the world around! Unless…

Well, unless we “get involved” with what / who we give money to. Take “The Girl Effect” for instance and embrace it. We must “GET OFF OUR BUTTS” and give our MONEY + TIME. NOT just our MONEY. This means that if acting locally is all we can do, than let that be what we do, as long as we are involved. As long as we can serve that hot soup to our city indigents and see the hunger in their eyes, the stink in their clothes, the cart that they push with a few dirty belongings, the sores, the tears, and their hope too. We ~ the privileged ~ need to feel it and experience it in order to activate our compassion. Watching it on on TV or YouTube is not going to cut it. Seriously. We need to go there (wherever it is that we are called to go) and get our hands dirty, because although there are already many heroes out there doing the work, we need to understand what they are trying to tell us. We need to make it a matter of our own heart.

So that’s where Gypsies like us can make a difference! Oh yes! Because we can go places and shine our light in person! We can travel the distance. We can roll up our sleeves and get to work as volunteers and caretakers wherever we are needed. We can go see for ourselves and spread the message through our art, writing and photography. We can be advocates! We can speak up, lobby, and work to enforce good laws and change discriminatory policies. We can follow up in person and watch that the money donated gets to wherever it needs to go. We can report back and gather more troops to come along. We can do all this and really (oh yes! now I feel excited again!) change the world! That way we are not just generous, we are “the girl effect” personified. We are the change we want to see in the world.

In other words…

You can do the bare minimum ~ go ahead ~ this is a no-brainer:

Visit The Girl Effect website
Learn more and watch videos of real girls in developing world
Write about The Girl Effect at your blog. Add your link to the Gift Effect blog campaign page
Mobilize! Spread the word by tweeting about this blogging campaign, and use the hashtag #girleffect.
Donate to The Girl Effect

Then you can put on your gypsy shoes and do it gypsy style ~ for real!

Volunteer! The Global Giving Website has a list of several programs that need your help!
Travel and participate by visiting IN THE FIELD Global Giving project sites.
Study and intern with Global Giving Partners and Universities.
Embrace the cause and BE the Revolution. Create a campaign, project, effort, artwork that reaches others and continues rippling away, touching, changing, saving lives.

Muse on this today:

What can you do to make the world a better place, with your work, with your own two hands? How can you embrace The “Gypsy” Girl Effect?

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Posted in Fearless, Generous, Informed, Nomad

Four things to consider before you volunteer abroad

November 17, 2010

Young girl in an IDP camp in Afghanistan

by Marianne Elliot

I’m a change-maker, a human rights advocate, a yoga teacher and a writer. I came to yoga via more than a decade as a human rights advocate, an activist and a humanitarian worker. Amongst other things, I needed to learn the lessons of yoga in order to make my activism more compassionate and sustainable.

Part of my purpose in life is to support and motivate others to find their own authentic and unique way to serve the world, using the lessons and tools I’ve learned on and off the yoga mat. Alessandra has invited me to write here about my passions – being of service in the world, a change-maker, a kindness revolutionary.

I know that one of the ways that many of us Gypsy Girls dream about combining our love for travel and our desire to be of service is through traveling as a volunteer. I just love the spirit of generosity that lies behind this kind of dream, and I’m absolutely committed to nourishing and cultivating more of that kind of generosity.

I’m also absolutely committed to sharing the knowledge I’ve picked up in the fifteen years I’ve been working in the not-for-profit and international development and human rights sectors.

Because the truth of the matter is that good intentions, while absolutely essential, are not sufficient. The best intentions in the world won’t guarantee that our efforts actually do good. I can tell you from personal experience that well-intentioned efforts can have unintended negative effects. Sometimes precisely the opposite to what was intended.

Even where a volunteer program is having some measurably positive effects, sometimes those are being outweighed by larger, longer-term negative impacts.

So how are you supposed to know whether an opportunity to volunteer abroad is going to have a predominantly positive impact?

I highly recommend a series of posts about volunteering overseas, written by Saundra Schimmelpfennig, founder of the Charity Rater LLC and author of the ‘Good Intentions Are Not Enough’ website.

Here is my summary of the four key issues Saundra suggests we consider if we are thinking about volunteering internationally:

1. Good volunteer projects require a significant commitment of time

Volunteering requires a significant time commitment. It takes time to understand the local needs and to develop a successful project. Organisations can be hurt if they invest more in a short-term volunteer than they receive back. If you pay a voluntourism company, make sure they have invested significant time on the ground.

2. Don’t volunteer to do what a local person could be paid to do.

By working for free to do something a local person could be hired to do, you are essentially undercutting the local labor market, thereby continuing the poverty cycle. Volunteer in ways that support, rather than undercutting the local job market.

3. Examine your motivations

Before volunteering it’s important to have an honest conversation with yourself and examine your motivations and whether putting yourself in the lives of aid recipients is the best way to meet your needs. If your motivation is to help people, start by helping people in your own home town. If your goal is to meet local people, consider other possibilities like joining WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms).

4. Manage your expectations

Although volunteering overseas can be a life-changing experience, it’s also one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Managing your expectation before you volunteer will help you have a more successful volunteer experience.

Bio: Marianne Elliott is a change-maker, a human rights advocate, a yoga teacher and a writer. She is the creator of 30 days of yoga: an online course to establish a regular home practice of yoga and to build a kinder relationship with your own body. She is currently writing a memoir about her life as a UN peacekeeper in Afghanistan.

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Posted in Aware, Fearless, Generous, Informed, Nomad