I'd heard about Women for Women International a few times while watching Oprah and had felt drawn to the organization. Then last month when Lisa Shannon was a guest on Oprah, again talking about WfWI I decided that that was it, I was going to become a sponsor. That night I got online, signed up for my commitment to send money each month to my new sister (that I asked to be randomly assigned to) and agreed to start writing letters too.
Shannon lives in Portland and writes, speaks and raises money for women in the Congo through WfWI and as luck would have it the fabulous Food Fight (our local vegan grocery store here in PDX) and their Let Live series had invited her to speak. Not so lucky was my household coming down with swine flu (don't even get me started about the irony and unfairness of my 2 out of 3 veg home having pig flu!) so I didn't get to attend, but Food Fight recorded it and put it up on their site! Worth the time to watch here is the link to last Sunday's talk:
http://foodfightgrocery.com/index.php/2009/10/27/change-one-mile-at-a-time-lisa-shannon-and-the-run-for-congo-women/
In the video Shannon explains where my $27 monthly donation goes:
*$10 to spend
*$5 to save
*$12 for training on nutrition, family planning, literacy and much more
What motivated me to be a part of this? I really care about our world and I have the means to share. I feel so blessed and lucky to do so. I spend almost $27 a month on my gym membership and now I will be matching that to give to a person in need, how awesome is that? And there's more! I really believe that for myself working on kindness and connection with the people I see everywhere I go, looking people in the eyes, speaking to people and treating people the way I want to be treated is what changes the world; brings out the best in all. The basics of love. Being love. And spreading love.
Thank you to Women for Women International!
Heartshapedsky 