On a recent flight I was reading an article on Martin Luther King Jr. in the Delta Sky magazine in which they interviewed some of Atlanta’s top civil rights activists in honor of the 50th anniversary of his famous speech “I have a Dream”. One comment made by Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE USA, an international humanitarian organization, stood out. When asked which words of Dr. King’s speech resonated with her the most she said, “I’m often asked why should I care about people in other countries. And I refer back to his quote, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. If we turn a blind eye to injustice anywhere, we’re giving in to that here as well. There is no divide between them and us“. (Delta Sky Magazine, August 2013).
Children living in Sub-Saharan Africa (photo credit: Wikipedia free commons)
Back in the fall, I had written a piece about a fabulous organization that I’m honored to be a part of as an advocate and ONEMom Community Partner, ONE.
ONE is a non-partisian advocacy organization that is backed by over 3 million members who work with government leaders to support proven, cost-effective solutions that save lives and help build sustainable futures.
Part of ONE’s advocacy is strengthened by the creation of ONE Moms, a group of powerful women bloggers, writers and other prominent advocates to help spread the word of ONE’s mission. These women have dedicated their time, energy, enthusiasm and passion for helping moms around the world have happier, healthier lives.
During the ONE Moms/Mums trip to Ethiopia last fall, the women visited fashionABLE, a nonprofit that works to empower women and create sustainable business in Ethiopia. Most of these women were rescued from prostitution and have been helped by fashionABLE to live a productive, healthy life for themselves and their children.
FashionABLE is a beautiful success story.
A few months ago, a competition was held by ONE | fashionABLE | ALTchallenge / contest where the Alt community was challenged to design a scarf to be voted on by conference attendees and then handmade in Ethiopia for an exclusive ONE | fashionABLE Mother’s Day Scarf. Fast forward to early April and the winning Mother’s Day scarf is now hitting the markets in the US. Each handmade scarf takes three days to make and is named The Genet after one of the amazing women who helped produce it.
Here is how the new scarf all began….
On Thursday, April 4th, there is a Pre-Sale of the scarfoffering two full days of free shipping (in the US only). After April 5th the pre-sale will continue with regular shipping. All scarves ordered will be shipped on April 17th in time for Mother’s Day. The scarf is absolutely stunning and has quite a special meaning as well.
Why its important? Genet and her child have been lifted out of poverty and into a sustainable life.
This week I’ve been actively following a group of amazing women who are part of the ONE Moms/ONE Mums delegation to Ethiopia. Today these women are flying home to the United States and the UK where they will continue to use their voice in sharing the stories and photographs of what they learned and saw during their week long journey in Ethiopia.
