Educate a girl, change the world

At last night’s Dining for Women event the table topic printed on narrow slips of green paper read:

“How would your life be different if you hadn’t been allowed to attend school?”

Education is such an ingrained part of our lives it was difficult to have any meaningful exchange on the ‘what if’ premise. What proved more tangible was the $7,000 the eclectic group of Vancouver, WASH. women have donated to various organizations across the globe during the past seven months

Most Dining for Women chapters meet in women’s homes, but this group is a powder keg of female enthusiasm, filling a large meeting hall and taking on the world’s ailments one fundraising dinner at a time.

They’re fun women, working women, retired women, kayaking women, artists, photographers, gardeners, golfers. They play ice hockey, weave baskets and create software for Fortune 500 companies. They're running women and women running for political office.

They love to:

• Bake
• Bike
• Cook
• Dance
• Eat
• Read
• Swim
• Travel
• Walk
• Write

They believe in giving.

They believe in education.

They believe in accountability and scrutinize finances and management of the organizations asking for support. You’d be surprised how far a Dining for Women dollar goes. There’s no fat, fluff, or golden fleece awards. The $7000 the Vancouver women have donated in the past seven months is part of a $1.15 million kitty that is changing the future of women around the globe.

They believe in standing up. And each month, one woman stands up and shares. She tells us what it would be like if we didn’t have an education, if we didn't have a safe place to live, if we didn't have enough to eat or basic choices that make us human beings.

The Vancouver women cry and laugh and celebrate how lucky they are to have the opportunity to write a check, donate online, or throw cash in the basket that makes it from their corner of the world to another.

Then in that corner, on the other side of the world, women "laugh and dance and sing" because of a handkerchief size fragment of hope that life will be better because someone shares.

Will educating women somewhere else change us?

---

Prior post on Dining for Women: Can a good dinner change the world?

The August dinner raised money for Nurturing Minds in Africa, as shown in the video above. Nurturing Minds offers access to quality education in Tanzania with a particular emphasis on girls who are poor, marginalized, and at-risk of becoming involved in exploitative forms of child labor.

Dining For Women website.
Dining For Women Facebook

---

Can a good dinner change the world?

The path of our lives and our successes may be based more on the place where we are born then on our talent or skills. Dining for Women is organized around the concept that those of us born in places of opportunity can change the world when we share with those with no opportunity.

Once a month, women around the United States gather at tables and create a potluck of pre-packaged  or homemade dishes. The beverages run the gamut: water, coffee, herbal tea, wine. The table conversation isn't focused on jobs and careers so much, as shared experiences of family, friendships and neighborhoods.

The people the potluck invests in are the people most likely to change the course of their own family life, most likely to support their neighbors, and ultimately change their country.

Dining for Women invests in other women.

I attended a local chapter of Dining for Women last night. My entrance fee was an easy potluck dish: spinach salad with mandarin oranges, hydroponic tomatoes, and candied walnuts. The money I would have spent, had the dinner occurred in a nice restaurant, was instead donated to fund another woman's future.

In addition to the local Dining for Women gatherings, trips to these faraway places are organized to open our eyes in a hands-on way to the needs of others. Women who take these journeys return as project champions, bringing home the message that this concept is working. Keep dining. Keep donating.

A woman who sat at my table, Josie, took one of those journeys. She shared her experience traveling to Peru to learn about INMED, a program that rescues children. Another woman, Tina, took us on a virtual trip to Sri Lanka where we 'toured' the shelters of Emerge Global and learned how creating jewelry changes lives of abused girls.

Emerge Global supports Sri Lankan girls, ages 10–18, who have been removed from their homes due to abuse. To date, Emerge Global has transformed the lives of more than 170 girls who, despite tremendous obstacles, are now building houses, running businesses, and supporting other young women with the skills and resources they developed through Emerge. www.emergeglobal.org

The jewelry is sold around the world and can be viewed on etsy.

It's not welfare.

It's learning a trade. It's using what you have – hands and time, to create your own therapy while you wait to testify in court against your abuser.

Girls emerge when they stand up with courage to confront the family and communities who have physically or sexually abused them. Girls emerge when they embrace business practices by learning budgeting and banking skills, and learn how to save for education or a house. Girls emerge when they allow their creative spirit to awaken and spark their confidence, and discover they can change their world.

Sri Lankan girls have the right to believe in their own power. The woman who champions this message, is the founder of Emerge Global, Alia Whitney Johnson.

“Ultimately though, it’s about a girl. Just one. One human being." wrote Alia Whitney Johnson to Tina, last night's program presenter. "I took her hand when she cried and she took mine when I thought I’d break. And our story is far from over. But with a dedicated team, an ever improving curriculum, and more kilos of beads than I had ever imagined, we are slowly building a reality where she, and many others, can truly emerge into her own,” 

In six months, the local Dining for Women group has raised $6000. That money is dispersed to the far corners for good.

Yes, a potluck can change the world.

And just like the girls in Sri Lanka, you and I have a right to believe in our power.

Are you ready to emerge and change your circumstances, help your neighbors, and change your country?

What would it take for you to step out in courage, right now?

UPDATE on Vancouver, WASH. Dining for Women: Educate a girl, change the world.

---

Connect with Emerge Global

• Follow on Twitter: @EmergeGlobal
• Join their Facebook Group
• View recently created jewelry: Flickr photostream

---

Article from OregonianLive HERE.

Article from Columbian HERE.

Are you man enough to be global?

Why did it surprise the world ten years ago when USA Today disclosed total women using the Web exceeded that of men? It's as if we must learn over and over again women are engaged, intelligent and capable beings.

Today, the numbers of men and women using the Web remain closely aligned, but according to comScore's June 2010 report, Women on the Web, How Women are Shaping the Internet, the sexes approach and engage the Internet very differently. Paying attention is the bridge to creating viable products and success for our businesses, or walking the plank to failure.

If white, American males—who have been raised on quest and conquer values—believe they direct the Internet's future, perhaps a quick review of the statistics would be advised. Today, Internet usage is growing exponentially in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, with Asia leading as the largest majority of users (World Internet Usage).

That doesn't sound white or American.

This isn't a new frontier you can conquer and cast into a model based on United States' standards and ideals. This is an Eastern ocean running at high tide and American culture is not an adequate boat to float us gently into the future. We need to be aggressively learning and embracing other philosophies and customs, and stop pretending everyone is like us, or debasing them when they are not.

American businesses need to acknowledge both sexes have value in the Internet venue and in the company. And what would that value look like if it were practiced? Let's start with equal pay. And once we figure out how to value the people resources in the office, we need to broaden our global perspective to survive. The world around us is moving fast and we're going to have to row hard to keep up.

Do you think we're global enough? It takes effort. We'll know we're truly global when we've cultivated a greater world perspective, when we see more color in media entertainment: Asian, Indian, South American, Black. We'll be more global when we work side-by-side as equals.

"Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, you cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation." ~ Plato, classical Greek philosopher, (428 B.C.-348 B.C.).

Let's cultivate the world and the best it has to offer and honor the best in our own businesses, male and female.

There is a greater world out there. I've seen it.

I've been to Asia. Have you?


Download the white paper: Women on the Web, How Women are Shaping the Internet

Twitter Feed: 30 Hour Day to stock the food bank

Portland podcasters begin a global conversation to stock the Oregon Food Bank, to offer computer assistance to low income residents via Free Geek, and to collect Toys for Tots.

It's Live. It's Streaming. It's Entertainment. It's 30 Hour Day.

A local team has gathered international celebrities including international nonprofit tech consultant Beth Kanter, author Tara Hunt, Mayor Sam Adams in a pre-recorded interview, and other local online and offline celebrities.

The 30 Hour Day Web-site notes an evolving schedule with updates promised, and a timeline that is 'ish.'

Twitter capture (see below for link to podcast):
 
Click for Live Streaming of 30 HOUR DAY

REFERENCES:
30 Hour Day Event Web-site
@30HourDay Twitter account
ReadWriteWeb Blog of web trends and products