Letters of Hope, I Hope

Women for Women matched me with a "sister" in Sudan named Monica who is in her early 30s, married, and cares for 5 children. My sponsorship allows her to attend a year long program that includes rights awareness education and job skills training so she can continue to support her family in the future. Monica also receives a portion of my sponsorship in direct aid so she can provide her family with basic necessities.

I am asked to write to Monica so that she knows someone in the world is supporting her. It's kind of weird to write to someone you hardly know anything about. I am told I may never receive response directly from Monica because most of the women in the program cannot read or write more than their name.

When I first received the information about our match, I wrote to introduce myself and provide Monica with a picture of me. This week I sent her a postcard from Ottawa thinking it might be interesting for her to see pictures of Canada's capital city. I also thought that a handwritten note would feel more personal. The Women for Women web site provides an option to write a letter online so I sent one using that method as well. That seems less personal but it will get to her more quickly.

All my letters have to go through the office in Washington, then they are forwarded to the office in Sudan. They have to be translated to Arabic and then read to Monica. It's a time consuming process that could take months. Anything that might be sent to me from Monica has to go through the same process in reverse.

So I just keep writing, hoping that my letters will eventually reach her and somehow be of benefit to my sponsored sister Monica.

Getting Ready

Today my sister Loretta started blogging about her 50th year. Although we live over 3,000 km apart we talk on the phone very frequently and are pretty close. We share our ideas and often do things in tandem. In our discussion today about her blog the idea came that I would maybe do the same thing after I turn 49 in October. But it sounds like fun so why wait? Loretta's first blog is called "Ready, Fire, Aim". This is me getting ready.

I had to decide what specifically to blog about while I'm waiting to blog about my 50th year. I considered what is significant for me at this time in my life and decided to blog about Living On Purpose. Have you ever thought about what might be your purpose in life? I've always believed that my purpose is to have a positive impact on the lives of children. In 2010 I happen to be doing a lot of things in my life that specifically relate to my purpose and I call that "Living On Purpose".

One of the things I'm doing is volunteering with Family and Children's Services, as I have been for over five years, and I really love the children I have been involved with. I have had several one on one matches which involves taking a child out approximately once a week, like a Big Brother/Big Sister. I have also helped with a woodworking club and a scrapbooking club for foster children. Occasionally I get out the old clown costume and help with their fundraising events. My current match is a 7 year old girl who makes a wonderful assistant clown.

Foster Parenting was modelled for me by my grandparents and aunts on my dad's side and I have always known it to be something I would do. My son has been on his own for a few years and there's a long waiting period for grandchildren. Meanwhile, I have an empty house and an open heart and there are so many children in need. So I have taken my volunteering with Family and Children's Services to the next level and applied to be a Foster Parent. I don't know how it will all work out yet, as a single woman whose job includes a lot of business travel lately, but it feels right so Ready, Fire!

Another thing I'm doing (with Loretta) is Wonderful, Powerful ME! Workshops for Kids - Empowering children to live an authentic life through the law of attraction. It is a way of applying my purpose to more children at the same time. Ultimately, I would like to expand this effort to include public speaking. Impacting large groups of parents/adult influences would indirectly impact even more children.

After watching Oprah one day, I embraced the whole concept of impacting more children in the world by impacting women. Women have a tremendous impact on their families and communities so when you help a girl or woman....oh just watch Oprah's video on "The Girl Effect". My point is that I decided to sponsor a woman in a country affected by war through Women For Women. I have been matched with a woman in Sudan, referred to as my sister, named Monica. She and her husband care for 5 children. I'd say she is a very good match considering my purpose.

I didn't initially relate it to my purpose, but I have been micro-lending through Kiva since July 2008. Whenever the entrepreneurs make payments, I recirculate the original money into new loans. I have made a total of 14 loans so far. The minimum loan is $25 so I'm not talking about a fortune here. I seem to have consistently chosen entrepreneurs who have children and a large number of the loans were for women or groups of women. So even though it wasn't consciously on purpose, my lending practices have actually demonstrated me Living On Purpose.

So there you go. Five things I'll be blogging about:
Family and Children's Services,
Foster Parenting,
Kiva microloans,
Women for Women,
Wonderful Powerful ME,
....and whatever else comes up that's On Purpose.