Meet Sayuni for Tweetsgiving

(c.Sanjay Patel, 2007)

As introduced in Sunday’s post, Tweetsgiving has a two-fold mission: to share gratitude and raise funds for a school in Tanzania.

I am filled with gratitude that my children always had a comfortable home, nice clothes, and food to eat.

Sayuni wants the same thing. She is a 6 year old student at Shepherds Junior in Arusha, Tanzania. Learn a little bit about her below (courtesy of Epic Change).

Sayuni lives in an orphanage a few blocks away from Shepherds Junior.  When we visited there, we met Mama Ana, a woman who couldn’t be older than about 20, who single-handedly – and without any pay – cares full time for Sayuni and 10 other orphans, ages 3-15.

While we asked for some details about where Sayuni came from, and what happened to her parents, Mama Ana knew very little, except that she was brought to the orphanage by someone who attended her mother’s funeral.  Like over 1 million orphans in Tanzania, Sayuni has lost both of her parents.

At Shepherds Junior, though, she attends school in an environment that doesn’t brand her with a mark of poverty or shame, in a uniform that is washed regularly by her teacher, Rachel, to ensure that little Sayuni fits in with her peers.

Please click HERE to join me in supporting Epic Change, via 12for12k, as they help with the resources to rebuild Sayuni’s school.

Meet Gideon for Tweetsgiving

(c.Sanjay Patel, 2007)

As introduced in Sunday’s post, Tweetsgiving has a two-fold mission: to share gratitude and raise funds for a school in Tanzania. 

I am filled with gratitude that my children recieved  good education and have become happy and successful adults.

Gideon wants the same thing.  He is a 9 year old student at Shepherds Junior in Arusha, Tanzania.  Learn a little bit about him below (courtesy of Epic Change).

When we aked Gideon to draw a picture of what makes him happy, he drew a picture of himself playing in the rain. He dreams of one day becoming an astronaut who reaches new planets.

When we interviewed Gideon’s father, a welder who’s volunteering his skills to help build the new school and is also a minister, Mr. Gidori wondered aloud how they could have the same God as the people he once visited in Australia, why they would have so much while his people have so little.

He went on to say, “if you tell a man he is weak, he will be weak, if you tell a man he is poor, he will be poor,” illustrating perfectly the reasoning behind the Epic Change model: we treat our partners not as recipients of charity but rather as leaders who possess the strength and resources (i.e., their stories) to improve their own communities – and even to improve other communities in need elsewhere on the globe.

Please click HERE to join me in supporting Epic Change, via 12for12k, as they help with the resources to rebuild Gideon’s school.

Sunday Service: Tweetsgiving (12for12k)

This week’s Sunday Service is an opportunity to once again support the work of 12for12k.  The organization has teamed up with Epic Change to make this year’s Tweetsgiving the best ever!  Funds raised during this celebration of gratitude will support a remarkable school in Tanzania.

Throughout Tweetsgiving (Nov. 24-26), I will be posting stories about the actual children who are directly impacted at the school, so come back often for inspiration!

What is Epic Change? 

Inspired by a volunteer trip to Tanzania, founders Stacey Monk & Sanjay Patel created Epic Change in 2007. They realized the power of the local stories they heard during their journey, and believed that they might be a potential means to raise funds to support the impoverished communities they visited and others like them across the globe.

 Their Mission

“We help people in need share their stories to acquire resources that will improve their lives.”

Epic change believes that people’s stories are assets that can be used as resources to improve their lives.  They help people in need share their “epic” true stories in innovative, creative and profitable ways to help them acquire the financial resources they need to create positive “change” in their communities.

Their approach

Epic Change uses donations to provide interest-free loans to local partners to finance their community improvement efforts.  They facilitate loan repayment by collaborating with their partners to share their stories through projects that generate income.  Finally, they “pay it forward” by recycling repaid loans to help fund Epic Change in other communities.

Shepherds Junior Primary School in Arusha, Tanzania

The Epic Change proof-of-concept project seeks to rebuild and expand Shepherds Junior, a small primary school in Arusha, Tanzania at which Monk and Patel volunteered in during their 2007 trip to Africa. 

->Mama Lucy Kamptoni, a savvy and passionate local woman, founded the school in 2003 on land she rented next door to her home using the income from her poultry business.  The school nearly closed in 2007 when a developer bought the rented land, and Kamptoni had no access to the capital required to relocate.

-> The school has grown from 6 students beginning in 2003 to 335 children in 2009; all between the ages of 3-13.

-> The school is entirely in English medium, but includes courses in Swahili, the country’s primary language, and has clubs that celebrate the vibrant culture and history of Tanzania.  In addition, the school focuses lessons on local social and cultural issues, including poverty, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, child labor and more.

-> The school charges tuition to most students, and uses its income to subsidize the costs of orphans and lower income children who attend the school.

-> It’s estimated that the new school will cost $175,000 to build and will take 3-5 years for construction and loan payback.

->In November, 2008, Shepherds Junior participated in national exams for the first time.  The school ranked #1 out of 117 participating schools in the Arusha District.

The information above is from a press kit provided by Epic Change.  To read it in its entirety, click here.

How you can help

To support 12for12k and Tweetsgiving for Epic Change, click here.  Scroll down to the secure donations link.  I put my money where my blog is, so to speak.  I hope you’ll join me.  Give whatever you can.  Every dollar makes a difference by opening up possibilities through education.

Don’t forget – come back during Tweetsgiving to read about the amazing children we are helping!

Words for peace

My last post talked about how words can be used harshly.  As always, I prefer to focus on the positive, so let’s shift gears from using words as weapons to using words for peace. 

Healing often leads to peace.  Physical, spiritual, or emotional healing is not always easy.  Words can help the process.  For a Christian perspective, this website offers short stories of inspiration for a wide variety of life’s situations.  Facing fear?  Experiencing growing pains?  In the middle of spiritual warfare?  Do the storms keep coming?  These and many more topics are covered.

Creative Affirmations reminds us that positive words come from positive thoughts.  The website not only provides a great list of positive words, but it also has a list of great phrases to start affirmations with.  If you’re stuck not quite knowing what to say, or what to write, this site will help.

Click here to read an article about the power of a positive atttiude, and how you can have positive words and phrases work for you.  Why not make positivity a habit?

Below is a list I put together.  These words could really change the world if used more  often, with sincerity and from a compassionate heart.  Imagine the possibilities:

I care about you.

How can I help?

Thank you.

Let’s talk about it.

You are remarkable.

That was so kind of you.

If you want to talk, I want to listen.

I’m sorry.

How are you, really?

You’re right.

Thank you for being in my life.

I respect your opinion.

I forgive you.

You inspire me.

I love you.

Just thinking these words lifts my spirits.  Imagine sharing them from the heart with someone else.  What other words would you add?  Please add a comment and share them.

Words as weapons?

I keep telling myself that, sometimes, you just have to move aside and let people believe what they believe.  It’s been a very challenging stand to adhere to.  I recently failed, once again.

There is fact.  There is fiction.  Then, there is opinion.

Opinion can be based on fact and it can be based on fiction.  The latter is where I get stuck.  A person’s well thought-out opinion based on a set of facts is fascinating to me.  I thoroughly enjoy stimulating debate, often learning much about the topic, myself and the other person.

However, opinion based in falsehood is disturbing to me, and generally exhausting to my psyche as I battle the urge to steer the person to check the facts.  Often times, as with this most recent experience, words can sometimes feel like a sharp slap on the cheek; the words become a weapon. 

Words are often nicely said, harshly intended.

As I usually do when stuck, I started researching.  I googled “Using Words as Weapons” and came across some interesting articles from very interesting places.  If you face the same challenges I do, follow these links and explore.

Michelle Toomey, PhD, is the author of a website called Liberation Psychology, The Choice of Intimacy not Conquest.  Using the Power of Words as Weapons or Tools is an interesting exploration of phrases that essentially have the same meaning, but have different intentions.  Read the two lists and see which words you use more frequently and consider why.  It has certainly given me pause.

I never heard of the term calumny before.  Last June, the Catholic church printed a lengthy article, Words as Weapons, on their website discussing calumny, especially as it relates to the blogosphere and social networking sites, tying it to the sin of bearing false witness.  Really  interesting take on the opportunity and danger of online communications and the very human need to be right.

There are even books on the topic.  “Unspeak” by Stephen Poole carries this lengthy subtitle: “How Words Become Weapons, How Weapons Become a Message and How That Message Becomes Reality.”  Exactly.

There is an amazing freedom in being able to share thoughts and feelings with a global audience.  As with any freedom, there is also a great deal of responsibility.  Just because you can’t see your audience, doesn’t mean they aren’t there; very real people with real feelings.  Whether blogging or tweeting or messaging on sites such as My Space or Facebook, use caution with what you post.

Start with the truth, and go from there.

image from http://languageartsgames.4you4free.com/fact_or_opinion.html

Sunday Service: Charter for Compassion

This week’s Sunday Service opportunity is not a charity or community organization that needs your support.  Today I am helping to share the Charter for Compassion; a way of being, based on the Golden Rule. 

I truly believe if this Charter were adopted worldwide, there would be no need for future Sunday Service posts.

Imagine if everyone in the world agreed to live by the principal of compassion.  All religions.  All governments.  All nations.  All organizations.  All tribes.  All families.  All people. 

Karen Armstrong had this dream.  After winning the TED Prize in February 2008, she shared her wish of creating a  charter for compassion, based on the universal Golden Rule, also known as the Ethic of Reciprocity: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” 

If you are a regular reader, you know that a couple years ago during a leadership exercise, I declared myself to be the possibility of peace through a  compasssionate heart.  The charter is another tool for me, providing a roadmap to support that personal declaration.  If I go off course, the charter can help put me back on the road I want to travel.

I encourage you to follow the link below, read the Charter, affirm its message and then go forward and live in compassion.  Join the Dalai Lama, Queen Noor, Desmond Tutu, Paul Simon, Deepak Chopra, Goldie Hawn, El Biddulph (that’s me) and the 11420 other people from around the world who have affirmed the Charter in just its first two days.

Click this link to join the conversation:

  The Charter ∞ Share ∞ Charter for Compassion.

Imagine the possibilities of a world fully present to compassion. What can you do today to help us get there?

Now that’s customer service

As a person who is responsible for the delivery of customer service, I know it when I see it – I know when it’s good service and I know when it’s not.

This past weekend, an employee at Macy’s (Polaris Fashion Place)  provided great customer service to me.

I like to shop at Macy’s.  I like their styles, stores, and staff.  This past weekend, I was shopping for some cooler weather clothes, taking advantage of Veteran’s Day sales.  I bought several items, took them home, put them away, and went on with my day.

Monday morning, I put on one of the tops I bought and got clunked on the head by something!  Turns out, the security sensor was not removed at checkout.  I didn’t have the right tool to do that at home, so I took the shirt and my receipt with me so I could stop at the store on my way home from work.

I hit a little rush hour traffic, but nothing terrible.  When I went to the counter, I explained what happened.  A sales clerk named Teresa immediately apologized.  She apologized not only that the sensor had not been removed, but that their error caused me to go out of my way and make an extra trip to the store.  She almost immediately told me that she was going to put 20% of the price back on my Macy’s credit card.

I told the clerk that while that was very nice of her, she really didn’t have to do that.  Her response was something like, “Yes, I do.  We made a mistake that inconvenienced you.  We want to keep you as a customer.  Giving you 20% back is the least we can do to make it up to you.”  She was so sincere, I really believed that she was speaking as a person with a heart for service.

Wow.

I know that mistakes will happen.  We are all human – not one of us is perfect.  We often talk about this at work with our customer service staff.  They may not always show it, but customers know perfection is not a realistic expectation.  When a mistake is made, what the customer will remember is how we respond.  How we recover service.  How we make it right.

Macy’s and Teresa did it right.  Thank you.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day.

To my son, a US Army 82nd Airborne veteran of two tours in Afghanistan and a tour in Iraq, and to all the other brave men and women who gave a part of their life to protect our freedom:

Thank you for your service.

A wall came down, and hope was raised

When I was 14, our family traveled to the central area of (then) West Germany for my Uncle Edgar’s wedding.  Perhaps someday I’ll write about the charm of a rural German wedding, but this post is about another site we visited.

Our parents took my brother and I to see the East-West German border.

I was in high school and had studied the historical facts that led to the division of Germany.  My parents chose to make history come alive by taking us children to see it firsthand.

I remember just a wide track of light brown dirt with rolling fences of barbed wire along it.  There was no grass.  There were no trees.  This was the “no-man’s land” where East German citizens would be shot dead if they attempted to cross it.  In the absence of any foliage, escapees could be clearly spotted by soldiers in the wooden guard towers that rose up out of the ground every 300-350 yards all along the border.

My brother, known then as Bobby, was about 9 years old at the time.  Like any boy that age, he was very interested in the fact that there were soldiers hanging out in those towers, probably watching us as we walked along the West German side.  And, like most little boys probably would, he tried to engage the soldiers.  Bobby, much to our mother’s horror, got down on one knee and pretended to shoot a make-believe gun.

Of course, he thought it was all good fun.  Our parents, on the other hand, were filled with fear.  I remember Mom, especially, pulling at his arm to get him to stop.  I think she was genuinely afraid that the guards were going to shoot back at us - and they would not be pretending!

My parents were born and raised in Germany.  During World War II, they were about 8-10 years old. Old enough to have very vivid memories of the horrors suffered by local farmers at the hands of Nazi soldiers.  Old enough to know that it was the war that led to my Opa’s leg being amputated.  Old enough to know that my Uncle Walter was taken as a prisoner or war in Russia.

Old enough to be terrified of East German soldiers.

Fast forward about 27 years.  I remember my parents being absolutely fixated on the television as Tom Brokaw reported the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.  Mom and Dad were consumed by the excitement of the wall coming down.  For them, it was much more than just a stone wall dividing and surrounding a far away city.  It was a symbol of the division of their beloved “Europa-land.”  To them, it represented the Iron Curtain, dividing Western Europe from the Eastern Bloc.  To them, the wall coming down was a hopeful sign, that would ultimately lead to a reunited Deutschland.

The wall came down twenty years ago.  What has happened since then is an amazing chapter in European and World History.  Think of the history we are living today.

Where will you take your children someday to take history out of the textbooks and make it come alive?  What lessons will you teach them?

Handle stress…before it handles you

I had a meltdown Saturday morning.

On the surface, it was because I couldn’t get a bandage to stay on my foot so that I could get a shoe on.  I had to shop for some business suits for an upcoming trip and did not want to go out wearing a protective boot for an infection that was drained Friday.  Of course, that was only the final straw.  There was much more that had come before.

Without going into all the details, let’s just say it was a combination of many factors: a series of unusual health-related challenges this year(none major, but all somewhat incapacitating nuisances), some work-related stress, some school-related procrastication, some decisions I’m trying to make in other areas, as well a health challenge impacting someone I care about.

On top of those issues, we got a Medicare decision last week about my Mom that was frustrating, Mom’s birthday came and went on Friday and it saddens me that she no longer knows who I am, my Dad’s 75th birthday recently passed which reminded me how much he has missed and how much I miss him, and both of my children are in the midst of major life changes – both very exciting and positive, but still…

I hit my stress “wall,” so to speak, and the more I tried to tell myself to stay positive, the more futile I felt it was.  The pity party was on.

For someone who has declared herself to be the possibility of peace, I couldn’t find peace for myself.  For someone who pledges a heart of compassion, I needed to find some for myself.

My husband, realizing after a bit that this was a real moment of emotional struggle, sat & talked with me.  Eventually, I regrouped and went on with my day.

Because this is the way the universe works, we happened to get the Fall issue of “b-Well” from the Cleveland Clinic in the mail yesteday.  While flipping through it, I came across an article titled “Stress: It’s not just in your head.”  Perfect timing, universe.  Thank you.

The current issue is not yet posted on their website, but an article on page 12 titled ”Stress: It’s Not Just In Your Head” offers these five tips to beat stress:

–> Take control of your schedule.  Prioritize what needs to be done each day and ask others for help.

–> Avoid negative “self-talk” and “what-ifs.”

–> Praise yourself for a job well done.

–> Take a five minute relaxation break and practice a relaxation technique such as deep breathing, focused imagery or yoga.

–> Accept that you may not be able to change certain situations.

If you are struggling with handling some of the challenges life has placed in your path, the Cleveland Clinic has an online stress management tool to help.  Click HERE, and take control of the stressors in your life.