“Every so often, a book comes along that makes you say, ‘Yes!’ Simple Giving does that. At some level, we all want to give. But how to do it effectively is often the challenge. Jennifer tells us that and much, much more. Simple Giving is a must-read (and a definite must act-upon). A huge contribution to a much better world”. – Paul Dunn, cofounder and chairman of B1G1 (Guy 1 Give 1).
A Gallup World Poll survey between 2006 and 2008 found that those who donated to charity in the past month had a higher life satisfaction, whether or not they lived in a rich or poor country. We all know we should be more philanthropic – volunteer, give to charity, fundraise for a good cause or someone in need – but oftentimes we think we have to give a lot of time or significant amounts of money in order to make a difference. Jennifer Iacovelli, a writer, speaker, consultant and chief engagement officer of “Another Jennifer Writing Lab” contradicts this belief in her newly released book “Simple Giving: Easy Ways to Give Every Day” by exploring simple, every day ways to incorporate giving into our personal and professional lives.
When I first heard about the concept of Jennifer’s book Simple Giving I was delighted. Not only do I personally try to find new and fulfilling ways to give back in my life, Jennifer also happens to be a personal friend of mine who I met through philanthropic blogging. Her beautiful book Simple Giving is a must-read for anyone who wants a better understanding got how they can give and increase their philanthropy in simple, easy ways.
Jennifer and journalist Caitlin Kelly taking a break from the hot Nicaraguan sun during a site visit with WaterAid. Photo Credit: Jennifer Iacovelli
I have always dreamed of one day visiting a Maasai tribe, and with careful planning I was able to make my very own visit to a Maasai village after climbing Kilimanjaro this past July. I had read a lot about the Maasai and how their nomadic lifestyle and culture have been endangered and threatened over the years. I also know that there are a lot of touristy, unethical scams out there and I wanted to be absolutely sure I was going to a culturally sensitive, real life Maasai village. I did some research and found the perfect place for my visit, The Mkuru Training Camp in Uwiro Village, about a three-hour drive away from Moshi. The Mkuru Training Camp is a tented camp located at the foothills of Mount Meru, just outside Arusha National Park, within one of the most important biodiversity areas of Tanzania: the Maasai Steppe.
I had learned about The Mkuru Training Camp from some of my friends at the International Reporting Project (IRP) who had done a reporting project to Tanzania and had visited the camp. They said it was a beautiful place and my friend Melody of the IRP described her visit as one of the best travel experiences she has ever had in her life. It sounded like the perfect place for me to be introduced to the Maasai.
The grounds of the Mkuru Training Camp Maasai in Tanzania
The Mkuru Training Camp is run by Isituto Oikos, an Italian NGO (non-governmental organization) founded in 1996 that works in Europe and in developing countries to promote environmental conservation as a tool of socio-economic development. They have been working with the Maasai people at the Mkuru Training Camp toassist in conserving their culture and way of life. For a small fee, they offer tourists and journalists the ability to spend a night or two at the camp and immerse themselves in the local Maasai culture. I would be the only guest for the night.
The Maasai are among the best known African ethnic groups due to their distinctive customs and dress. As nomadic pastoralists, they traditionally herded their cattle on seasonal rotations across the open savanna of Kenya and Tanzania yet new laws instituted by the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments ended their traditions and forced many into camps where they have suffered poverty, malnutrition, lack of education and economic opportunities to survive. It is an all too common story with native cultures across the world and today many governments and NGOs are doing their best to preserve and protect these tribes from disappearing off the face of the earth.
The Mkuru Training Camp is a non-obtrusive resource center that lies within the heart of nine different Maasai villages covering a huge landmass that takes days to cover on foot. They offer resources on water and soil conservation, management of natural resources, land use planning, climate changes and energy, education and training, food security, and women’s empowerment. As a guest, I was able to pick from a list of several cultural activities to learn about the Maasai and their way of life. Besides the four-hour land tour of the Bomas (traditional Maasai mud huts) and the neighboring community, my next favorite activity was learning how to bead.
The Maasai women are known for their extraordinary beadwork that for centuries has been a mark of beauty and prosperity among the Maasai tribes of Eastern Africa. Through the creation of the Project Women program, Maasai women now have the opportunity to establish a business that reflects and celebrates their rich cultural heritage while improving their livelihood and protecting the environment. The program is an informal network of Maasai women’s groups that get together to make their gorgeous beaded jewelry and then sell it at local markets nearby. It has transformed these women’s lives as well as their children and family.
I had the opportunity to sit down and get a one-on-one training by a local Maasai “mama” named Mary. I realized that making Maasai jewelry requires a steady, careful hand and is not as easy as it seems. Here are some photos from my lesson.
Did you know that the first five years in a child’s life are critical for reaching important physical and mental milestones – and every year, more than 3 million children die from malnutrition? It is a tragedy that is entirely preventable and can be stopped.
This past September at the Social Good Summit in New York City, I had the opportunity to meet with Jeff Terry, head of Amway’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility, to learn about the work he’s leading to address childhood malnutrition around the world. Founded in 1959 in Ada, Michigan, Amway has grown to become a global leader in health, nutrition, home and beauty products sold through Independent Distributors.
Seeing a growing need to combat malnutrition, Amway harnessed their expertise on nutritional supplements to launch the NutrilitePower of 5 program. The program delivers Nutrilite™ Little Bits™– a plant-based nutritional product specially designed for under-nourished children from six months to five years old the essential nutrients they need to grow and develop healthier brains and bodies. Amway works with key NGO partners in the field to provide education for families and children as well as monthly health assessments to check on progress. To date, Amway and their partners have performed up to 47,000 health assessments to ensure progress over the long-term, and have provided over 6,500 with the nutrition they need to survive and thrive.
An Amway team visits families in Zambia. Photo credit: Amway
Jeff came to Amway over four years ago and has been working closely with their team on the development and launch of the Power of Five campaign ever since. Seeing a growing crisis in malnutrition and a strong urge to help save lives, Amway used their strong knowledge and expertise in the nutritional supplement industry to launch the Power of Five program which was named to represent the importance of the first five years of life in a child’s development. Continue reading →
“A great accomplishment shouldn’t be the end of the road, just the starting point for the next leap forward”. – Harvey Mackay
I woke up on the last day on Mount Kilimanjaro feeling tired, sore and irritable. My left knee had finally just given out and I still blame it all on my fall in the rice fields the day before the climb which injured my left leg. I never mentioned it before but I also have been battling a two-year annoying injury somewhere within the confines of my right hip. Right in the midst of the pain and physical therapy last April I decided on a whim that I wasn’t going to let anything including pain deter me from fulfilling my dreams. I was going to climb Kilimanjaro one way or another.
There is no place on earth like New York City. It is quite a city and I’ve been lucky to have visited on three separate occasions over the past six months. If you have never been, It is hard to describe New York City. It is so busy, overstimulating, overwhelming and congested with people from all over the world that as much as I love it, it also wears me out. Just walking a few blocks down the streets of Manhattan is enough to make my mind swirl and go into overdrive trying to process everything I see. The people. The places. The restaurants. The shops. The poverty and the wealth to the extreme. The homeless living in the dirt of a noisy street right outside of Prada. The brand new Ferrari pulling up curbside at a small cafe in Little Italy to eat. It is sometimes amazing and other times overwhelming.
In my early twenties I had the opportunity to live in Chicago for five years, right in the heart of Lincoln Park, and I also lived in Paris for a semester abroad during college. While both cities are large and amazing in their own right nothing compares to the sheer size, concentration of people and magnitude of New York City. I am not sure I could ever live somewhere so intense, invigorating and so over the top without going mad. (I loved living in Paris and Chicago by the way).
In big cities I need to find space and solitude which is a rare commodity. In Chicago, I had Lincoln Park and the lakefront. In Paris, I lived right across from Parc Montsourris in the 14th and found tons of green spaces throughout the beautiful city. In New York, there is an awful lot of concrete jungle outside of massive Central Park. So you can imagine how utterly delighted I was to find the High Line during my past visit in April.
The High Line is an urban park-like oasis in the heart of Manhattan and ingeniously built on an abandoned, elevated railroad track high above the street below. It is an extraordinary concept and example of inviting nature into urban planning.
“I prefer physical exhaustion over mental fatigue any day”. – Clotilde Hesme
After a three-hour sleep, it was time to get up, eat and continue down to the final base camp of the trip. The last thing I felt like doing was walking more yet I wanted to get down to a warmer place and closer to the end. My left leg were quite swollen which would eventually make my left knee throb the entire four hours down and for days after the hike. But I was determined to go. The thought of getting back to our hotel with a hot shower, a normal bed and alas a glass or two of wine kept me moving.
We had been incredibly fortunate to have had amazing weather the entire seven days on the hike. We never faced rain, the sky was clear affording us spectacular views of the peak and the valley below, and most important of all, it wasn’t too cold on our ascent to the summit. The only cloudy weather we had occurred during our descent down. It was gray and overcast but really it wasn’t bad at all compared to what it could be.
“Kurandza” = “to love” in Changana, the local language of our women in Mozambique
Last fall 2014 after returning from serving three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique, Elisabetta Colabianchi an American from California fulfilled a long-term dream of founding Kurandza. Kurandza is a purpose-driven fashion company that creates handcrafted jewelry and accessories with women in Mozambique. Their mission is to empower women, the majority of whom are HIV positive, through education and employment opportunities. In addition to receiving fair wages for their work, profits from sales go back to this community to fund development projects.
Kurandza got its start while Elisabetta was a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching HIV-positive women the skill of sewing so that they could earn a sustainable income and provide for themselves and their families. Today, Kurandza sells online and are supporting nine women in Mozambique.
Elisabetta with two women from her “Mother to Mother” support group at the local hospital where she worked.
Although I have already added Kurandza to my permanent page of “Gifts that Give Back”, I wanted to learn more about the story behind it. I had an opportunity to conduct and interview with Elisabetta to learn more about her inspiration behind Kurandza and what she hopes to achieve. Here it is.
Elisabetta in Geneva where she participated in a study abroad program at the United Nations through NYU.
A Conversation with Elisabetta Colabianchi, Founder and CEO of Kurandza
Me: Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? What did you study and why did you choose to be in the Peace Corps?
Elisabetta:I’m from San Francisco, California, but have lived in many different places that I still consider home. During college in San Diego, I studied Biology, foreign languages and Peace and Justice Studies. I was so fortunate to be able to study abroad in Mexico, Argentina, and in Italy, where I spent my junior year. In Milan, Italy, I took several courses in International Relations at the Italian university and also studied fashion. After college, I moved to New York City where I worked for an anti-hunger non-profit, helping low-income residents apply for public benefits and learn about financial literacy and nutrition. There I realized that I wanted to do similar work abroad, teaching people skills that would help them have a better future. I’ve always loved learning new languages, traveling and adapting to different cultures and making a difference, so I thought Peace Corps was the right next step. I was thrilled when I found out that I would be a Community Health Volunteer in Mozambique and would be learning Portuguese (the national language) as well as a local language, too!
Me: What inspired you to start Kurandza?
Elisabetta:As a Community Health Volunteer, I worked at the local hospital counseling HIV positive women on treatment adherence and the prevention of transmission of HIV to their babies. I noticed that many of the patients weren’t able to reach the hospital every month to pick-up their treatment because they didn’t have an income to pay for the transportation expenses. I wanted to help these women stay on treatment and continue attending their support groups and counseling sessions so that they and their babies would remain healthy. This is what inspired me to start an income generation activity for these women. My friend, Percina, thought that teaching these women how to sew would be a beneficial skill for them for their entire lives, and I’ve always been interested in fashion and creating jewelry, so we thought starting a sewing cooperative was a perfect choice!
With her friend and co-worker, Percina, at Elisabetta’s “despedida” going away party.
Me: What were some of the challenges you faced in starting Kurandza? Continue reading →
“Empowerment of and investment in girls are key in breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and in promoting and protecting the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights” -United Nations Resolution 66/170
Today, October 11, is the Day of the Girl, a day that just two years ago was declared by the United Nations as the International Day of the Girl Child to raise awareness about all issues concerning gender inequality around the world. It’s a day when activist groups come together under the same goal to highlight, discuss, and take action to advance rights and opportunities for girls everywhere. Fast forward two years and the Day of the Girl has become a global movement of hope, inspiration and advocacy to better the lives of half our planet who is being left behind.
So why girls?
As girls, we experience inequality in every aspect of our lives. There are a billion reasons why we need the Day of the Girl, but let’s start with just a dozen (all are linked to their source. Just double click on statistic and you can read it in full):
Life is abundant, and life is beautiful. And it’s a good place that we’re all in, you know, on this earth, if we take care of it. – Alice Walker
For those of you who are regular readers of my blog and know me, then you will not be the least bit surprised when I tell you that my happy place is being outside in nature. I prefer being in the mountains, hiking and breathing in the fresh, magical air but of course it isn’t possible that I’m always in this special place. Instead, I find beauty, peace and solitude in being anywhere outdoors and at home I generally find my happy place at my favorite neighborhood lake, Lake Harriet in Southwest Minneapolis. I walk and run around that lake year round, rain or shine, snow or sleet. I watch and marvel at the changing of the seasons and the cycle of life. I reflect on the migration of the birds who come and go with the changing of the wind. If I’m lucky, I see a pair of bald eagles or a distant loon. I’ve even see a wild turkey and a group of deer which seems crazy given the fact that I live in the heart of a city.
Fall is by far the most beautiful season in Minnesota and I take advantage of being in my happy place as much as possible. The air is so fragrant, the sun so bright and the sky is usually a deep, dark sapphire blue on most days. But best of all, is the magical tapestry of leaves in their deep scarlet reds to pumpkin and burnt orange and golden yellows. It is a time of year that I always feel incredibly vibrant and alive.
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower”. –Albert Camus
Lake Harriet Walking/Running Trail
I took this photo just yesterday on my walk around Lake Harriet, one of four urban lakes in Southwest Minneapolis that make up the “chain of lakes”. We are so fortunate to have over 10,000 lakes in this state and many in the city have walking, biking and running paths that are plowed year round. Continue reading →
There is one fact that is sometimes forgotten when climbing a mountain: What goes up, must come down. After the euphoric elation of reaching the summit at a little past seven o’clock, the reminder of the long, difficult hike back down hit me like truck. I was exhausted, famished and at an emotional high that would soon dwindle as I began my descent down to our base camp for some much-needed rest.
Our group of nine had split up into different pace groups, and I was alone with another climber from our group named David. Despite being as fit as can be (David just completed a marathon in Africa a few days before setting out on our climb), being in shape does not always guarantee your body will acclimatize properly. There are a number of reasons why you can get altitude sickness but it is never certain what exactly sets it off. Poor David reached the top of Kilimanjaro and promptly vomited behind the trail. He needed to get back down and fast.
Once the sun fully rose and I was able to take a quick breather, I took this shot of the rugged, steep trail back down.
For the last few nights I’ve been sleepless. I have debated over and over again inside my head whether or not I should write about an extremely controversial subject on my blog. About a topic that divides and tears America apart and makes the rest of the world just shake their heads at us: Gun Control.
After much thought, I decided that as a mother and as an American citizen, I could no longer be silent and just share my beliefs over Facebook with my friends. Instead, I would put together an emotional piece on why I believe we should have gun control and why we must put more pressure on institutions such as the media, our mental health care system and society as a whole to change the deep-rooted, dark culture of violence in America.
It is an overwhelming topic. In fact, often I don’t even know where to start. So I am going to try to lay out my feelings and beliefs now and see if we can have a real conversation about guns and our love/hate relationship with violence in this nation. Whether you agree or disagree on my beliefs, it is up to you. But until we start having a real, honest dialogue about what is happening in our country nothing will change.
Photo and Image credit: Everytown USA
The facts:
Gun violence in the United States results in thousands of deaths and thousands more injuries annually.[1] *
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, firearms (excluding BB and pellet guns) were used in 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) [2]
505 deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm,[4]
281 deaths due to firearms-use with “undetermined intent”[5] for a total of 33,169 deaths related to firearms (excluding firearm deaths due to legal intervention).
1.3% of all deaths in the country were related to firearms.[1][6]
In 2010, gun violence cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $516 million in direct hospital costs.[12]
Despite widespread concern about the impacts of gun violence on public health, Congress has banned the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from conducting research on gun violence.[18]
*Above content from Wikepedia. I cross-checked every statistic and source for accuracy.
Is this the world we want for our children?
Per Everytown for Gun Safety: “Since 2013, there have been at least 142 school shootings in America — an average of nearly one a week. How many more before our leaders pass common-sense laws to prevent gun violence and save lives? Communities all over the country live in fear of gun violence. That’s unacceptable. We should feel secure in sending our children to school — comforted by the knowledge that they’re safe”.
Perception versus Reality:
So why is it that people are more fearful of being killed in a terrorist attack or traveling to a “dangerous” country when there are more deaths by gun violence right outside our backdoor? Obama recently urged media to compare the number of deaths by gunfire each year to the total number of deaths from terrorism. The results were surprising. From 2004 to 2013 316,545 people died by firearms in the US. During that same period, the number of U.S. citizens killed overseas by terrorists was 277, while another 36 were killed in domestic acts of terrorism (Star Tribune Editorial “Placing the Blame on Another Mass Shooting”). My question is: Who is our government spending all our money on to fight? Yes, terrorism. What are we doing to fight our own mass killings in the US. Not much. Continue reading →
Did you know that 96 elephants are killed in Africa every single day? Over 30,000 African elephants die each year as a result of poaching.
I knew that the poaching and killing of elephants for their tusks was a problem however I never fully understood the enormity and magnitude of the issue until I listened to an amazing podcast on NPR’s “Fresh Air” called “GPS Trackers In Elephant Tusks Reveal Ivory Smuggling Route” (8/12/2015). It is a story that kept me at the edge of my seat for the entire hour and led me to read the full story in National Geographic (September 2015) by journalist Bryan Christy called “How Killing Elephants Finances Terror in Africa”. It is a fabulous, eye-opening account on how armed groups help fund operations by smuggling elephant ivory and how Christy developed fake tusks with hidden GPS trackers to track them down.
I love elephants and was fortunate enough to have seen them in the wild in South Africa on a safari (Check out my post: “Into the Wild My First Safari”). They are beautiful, majestic creatures. The thought that they are being killed simply for their tusks is horrible and something that must be stopped. However, it is not as easy as it seems.
This month, the Wildlife Conservation Society has launched a new campaign called 96 Elephants to bring awareness and take a stand on the fact that 96 elephants are killed in Africa every day. Founded in 1895, The Wildlife Conservation Society has the clear mission to save wildlife and wild places across the globe. In 2012, poachers killed approximately 35,000 elephants in Africa for their tusks. 96 elephants are killed in Africa every day for their tusks.
