Friends, you are amazing. Simply amazing. Asha and I are so grateful to everyone who participated in our #HelpWomenAtRisk fundraiser for Ethiopian women. Every book purchased, every blog post and social media update, every moment of attention helped us honor a journey that began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, shortly after we turned in the manuscript for Minimalist Parenting.
Do you know about fashionABLE? Not only are their products amazing, but this company works to give vulnerable women in Ethiopia opportunities for employment so they can lift themselves out of lives of prostitution and are not dependent on charity. I had the honor of visiting fashionABLE in Ethiopia last fall and these women are why Asha and I are donating 100% of book royalties this month to Women At Risk (order the book via http://bit.ly/helpwomenatrisk to help the cause!).
One of the most beautiful things about the online space is how incredibly nimble people can be to make awesome things happen. In October when I traveled to Ethiopia as part of the ONE Moms delegation, our team created such an online stir about fashionABLE that they were able to create three new jobs. This past winter, fellow Ethiopia companion and dear friend Gabrielle Blair, of Design Mom and Alt Summit, worked with ONE and fashionABLE to challenge the Alt community to design an exclusive ONE/fashionABLE Mother's Day scarf. And today the beautiful Genet scarf is available for purchase (with free shipping today and tomorrow).
When ONE asked me to share a recipe in honor of Sweet Potato Day -- an effort to raise awareness about world hunger -- I immediately thought of a recipe I enjoyed one Thanksgiving in Maryland. Jon and I were away from our families and our dear friend Joe invited us to his mom Chris's house. It meant so much to me to be welcomed in for the holidays, and the food -- including Chris's sweet potato casserole with bourbon and marshmallows -- was insanely good.
Friends, I'm so excited to share some fun Minimalist Parenting news today. Thanks to the generosity of Isis Parenting, there is going to be a totally awesome (and fabulously do-gooding) Minimalist Parenting launch party here in Boston! Please join us on Thursday, March 28 at 6:30pm at Prudential Center to enjoy an evening out, meet other awesome parents, celebrate the launch of the book (I'll give a short presentation and will be available for high fives, questions, and to sign books), and support an amazing charity all at the same time!
Not long after I returned from Ethiopia, Bridget of @BostonSkin asked me about fair trade shea butter suppliers based in Africa. I didn't have immediate recommendations top of mind and canvassed my fellow ONE Moms for ideas; they of course came up with great leads! I've been meaning to share these recommendations for a while (er, several months now!), particularly given that if your skin is anything like mine, it is suffering along through the winter in a dry, chapped state. Here's to happy skin and supporting global businesses!
Today's Dear Boston Mamas query comes from new reader Amy via e-mail:
Hi Christine, I recently discovered your site and love it! It's super helpful for a working mother of a 6-year-old and 3-year-old. I find it refreshing, very well-written and with a great dose of humor. One question: I was inspired to clean out the junk. In doing so I've been able to give a lot to consignment (I love Growing Up and Revolve in Belmont) however, I have a lot of gently used toys, women's clothing and household items that I would like to go to charities who give these items away to the needy for free. Can you suggest and organizations? Perhaps Cradles to Crayons for the children's items? Any ideas for the adult items?
Through my work at The Mission List and via my travel to Ethiopia with ONE Moms, I've been thinking a lot about the hunger crisis this year, and taking small actions to contribute towards eradicating global hunger. Today I wanted to share about the World Food Program's Fill a Cup, Feed a Dream school meals program. The World Food Program views hunger as a problem that can be solved; they use a red cup to feed kids healthy, nutritious school meals and also as a symbol of hope. Amazingly, it only takes 25 cents to fill a red cup with porridge, rice, or beans and give kids a monthly ration to take home. Crazy, right?
Given the no-brainer nature of my family's morning routine (wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, etc.), it's heartbreaking to know that millions of kids across the U.S. are forced to go without breakfast. Especially when it's so absurdly easy to make breakfast happen. Well, actually, I should rephrase that. Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry program does the heavy lifting by working with schools to create breakfast programs for kids in need, but for the rest of us, we can make breakfast happen with the click of a mouse. And even a donation of $1 makes a big difference in curbing hunger.
Boys count too. Of course they do. But this fall, I've learned so much about the disproportionate challenges that girls face, most notably through what I witnessed on the ground in Ethiopia and digitally through Half the Sky and now Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old girl who was shot in the head because of her commitment to advocating for the right for girls -- for all children -- to go to school. This is something that's incredibly difficult for me to stomach; dropping Laurel and Violet off at school is just a basic part of our routine.
It's hard to believe that this time last month I was in Ethiopia with ONE Moms -- the trip still lives so vividly with me (I just dreamed last night that I was headed back to Africa). Many of you asked how you could help -- I hope to circle back soon with a list of ways to help the specific sites we visited while on the ground in Ethiopia. Meanwhile, today, I'm asking you to consider making a difference by taking two actions in twenty seconds. So simple. So easy. So important.
Our final site visit in Ethiopia represented the awesome and the ironic. Muya (which means talent) is a woman-owned, fair trade business that has "made it" in many ways. In contrast to the primitive yet productive trappings of fashionABLE, Muya is situated in Addis Ababa on a rather restorative feeling compound -- a series of modern buildings (vs. wood and tin roofed huts) nestled between plenty of foliage. They make a gorgeous array of home and fashion products and produce scarves for Lemlem (which distributes to clients such as J. Crew). Yet despite their successes, they still struggle to gain footing with sellers; largely, it seems, due to outsider stereotypes of Ethiopia.
Ever since reading Roger Thurow's The Last Hunger Season I've been thinking a lot about global food issues and about how simple agricultural educational practices (e.g., how to space out seeds, fertilize, water) are huge game changers when it comes to sustainability and helping farmers in third world countries not only feed their families, but access other necessities such as education. Our visits to USAID's ENGINE hub and a nutrition demonstration showed the progress being made in this direction.
The more Ethiopian families I've met and the longer the time apart from my family grows, I find myself increasingly wondering about how the girls are doing in school. Did Laurel have a good day? Was the special Italian, art, music, or gym? [I can never keep the schedule straight.] What songs did Violet sing today at circle? All of what I envision -- the shiny classrooms, piles of books, and endless snack supply -- lies in stark contrast to what I'm seeing on the ground in Ethiopia, whether at traditional schools or at the Population Council's safe learning spaces for girls suffering in urban slums. The program is called BiruhTesfa (bright future), and I really need to tell you about it today.
Today was a day of inspiration. We rose at 4am and flew from Addis Ababa to Bahir Dar. We then spent many hours traversing bumpy rural roads on a bus. Our first two stops were the Madera Woreda Health Office and Anbesame Health Center, which both benefit from USAID funding and have subsequently made great strides in providing maternal and child health, family planning, and nutrition services in rural areas. Our third stop was to the Sene Mariam Women's Beekeeping Group, a program that is funded by USAID's Feed the Future initiative and that was developed to provide training and create jobs for disadvantaged women. I was inspired not only by how impacting USAID's programs are, but by the courage of the women we met at all three stops.
This morning the ONE Moms journey took us to the Mojo secondary and primary schools in Mojo, Ethiopia. Both schools operate at ~1:45 teacher/student ratio and benefit from the UK Department for International Development (DFID)'s initiatives around basic services (e.g., sanitation) and education improvement (e.g., text books, teacher development). The on-site improvements (e.g., computers, books, lower student/teacher ratios -- the secondary school used to operate at a 1:67 ratio) and quantitative results (e.g., in the past 5 years, the rate for passing university entrance exams has climbed from 60 to 89%) are remarkable and I wanted to share some audio and video.
I have been a complete jumble of emotions since arriving in Addis Ababa on the ONE Moms mission trip. Yesterday, I was a bit of a wreck after bonding with a child at Mary Joy. But today, despite the painful histories and continued hardships to which I was exposed, I experienced a day of hope. I saw progress and great strides being made to improve the lives of Ethiopian women and their children. I saw it in the form of fashionABLE and the Hamlin Fistula Hospital.
The beginning of my journey to Ethiopia was not ideal. I slept through my 3:30 am alarm and was woken to the sound of my phone ringing -- the cab company calling to find out why I missed my 4:15 am reservation. Luckily, they doubled back and I made it to my flight out of Boston (barely). Then we had a 5 hour delay in Dulles (I am forever grateful to my friend Liz for her fine companionship and generosity during the delay) and the 13 hour flight to Addis Ababa. But anyway, I am finally here in Ethiopia!