#bringbackourgirls
Before I can encourage buying a Mother’s Day gift from even as amazing an organization as Half the Sky Movement, I must reflect on the kidnapped girls in Nigeria. The fear of the girls and their parents is horrific. The group responsible is so clear in their seeing women as chattel. I encourage you to support organizations that recognize that we still have such a long way to go till women and girls are respected as equals.
Half the Sky Movement has documented the needs of girls and women worldwide. It is fitting to consider them and the items they are selling. Follow this link…
Mothers’ Day
Moving the Apostrophe to Help Mothers Around the World
This Mother’s Day, we’ll be taking Nicholas Kristof’s advice and moving the apostrophe to make it Mothers’ Day — honoring not just individual mothers, but moms around the world. Here are ways you can join us in the celebration.
Gifts
Brave Collection
Handmade by female artisans in Cambodia, a necklace from the Brave Collection’s Limitless collection costs $75. The Sky and Sun pendants say kmean dean komot, which means “without limits” in Khmer. In addition to providing the artisans with an above-average wage and benefits like health insurance, 10% of the profits from the Brave Collection are donated to fight human trafficking.
Embrace
For $200, you can donate an Embrace Warmer and help save dozens of low birth weight babies. Embrace will also send your mom a card and a beautiful, limited edition sterling silver necklace with the word “Embrace” engraved on it.
Fistula Foundation
For a donation of $65, the Fistula Foundation offers a pair of Dignity Earrings in gratitude. Other gifts for an additional donation include a matching necklace and bracelet. The Fistula Foundation supports fistula treatment in 19 countries, funding more fistula obstetric surgeries globally than any other NGO in the world.
Somaly Mam
Buying a Freedom Scarf ($50) from the Somaly Mam Foundation helps support survivor rescue operations, shelter, and recovery in Southeast Asia. Hand woven by a trafficking survivor, each scarf is one-of-a-kind. The Empowerment Store also sells bracelets, silk ties, and bags.
Thistle Farms
Thistle Farms products are made by the residents and graduates of Magdalene House –– a residential program in Nashville, Tennessee, for survivors of prostitution, trafficking and addiction. Working at Thistle Farms provides the women with valuable job skills, and gives them the opportunity to put their earnings in a matched savings account provided by Magdalene. This Mothers’ Day Lotion-Soap Set is available in citrus-vanilla, lemon-sage, lavender and Tuscan earth for $20.
Maternal Health
Edna Adan
Making a donation in the name of your mother is a great way to make a difference. The Edna Adan Maternity Hospital is dedicated to meet the health needs of women and children in Somaliland. Since opening in 2002, the hospital has reduced the maternal mortality rate in Hargeisa – in fact, the mortality rate among Edna Adan patients is dramatically lower than the national rate. Visit their website here to make a donation to the hospital.
Every Mother Counts
Take action and raise awareness of maternal health by supporting Every Mother Counts’s #every2 campaign. Upload 2 photos of the day you were “born,” run 2 miles using the Charity Miles app (which will donate $.25 per mile to Every Mother Counts), share 2 facts about maternal health on 2 of your social media networks, donate $2 to Every Mother Counts, give 2 gifts with one purchase — one for your mother, and one for mothers around the world and invite 2 friends to take actions of their own.
Books and DVDs
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. With Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet with extraordinary women struggling there. Purchase the book and DVD.
However Long the Night
However Long the Night is Tostan founder Molly Melching’s book about her experiences in Africa. Molly started Tostan over twenty years ago, but she has been living in Africa since 1974. Tostan engages communities in a grassroots education model, resulting in reductions in maternal and infant mortality, female genital mutilation, and forced marriages.
I Am Malala
Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban for fighting for her right to an education. She survived and at 16 became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her autobiography covers her childhood in Pakistan, her parents’ support, and her continued fight to ensure that every child is able to attend school.
Virtual Gifts
Heifer International
For $72, you can give a woman a Dream Basket filled with shares of a sheep, heifer, goat, rabbits and a flock of chicks. They’ll learn to feed and care for their livestock, and use the resulting milk, wool and eggs to earn income and feed their families.
Kiva
A loan of $25 can help low-income borrowers make a better life for themselves and their families. For instance, the money you lend can help Yasmeen in Pakistan buy a sewing machine, or you can choose to help Razia in Kyrgyzstan buy sheep. As the borrower repays the loan, the money you gave is deposited back into your Kiva account, making it available to fund another loan or withdraw and spend on something new.
Mothers’ Day Movement
This year’s Mothers’ Day Movement campaign is for the ClearWater Initiative. ClearWater looks for simple, effective clean water solutions, emphasizing community involvement and long-term sustainability. Currently, ClearWater serves more than 40 communities in Uganda.
Opportunity International Quilt Patch
Be sure to thank your mother by designing a patch to be included in the online Global Opportunity Quilt! The Quilt is intended as a tribute to all the inspiring women in our lives. Here’s the link: https://us.opportunity.org/tributes. While there, consider making a donation to Opportunity International, which has provided nearly 5 million women around the world with loans, savings accounts, insurance and training to work their way out of poverty.
Save the Children
For only $20, you can buy 4 baby blankets for Save the Children; $50 can buy a goat or a sheep for a family; and $100 will buy a bicycle for a health worker who needs transportation. In exchange, the woman you are honoring with your gift will receive a greeting card. For over 80 years, Save the Children has been working all around the world to improve the lives of children – including right here in the U.S.
Shining Hope for Communities
Honor your mother and help mothers and daughters in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, build paths out of urban poverty. Your donation will be doubled up to $50,000 as part of its Mother’s Day Matching Challenge and your mother will receive a Mother’s Day e-card.
Women for Women International
You can honor the women you love by buying a symbolic gift through Women for Women International.The gift you choose will go towards helping women in war-torn countries rebuild their lives. Examples include a Gardening Basket ($50), which will give a woman the tools she needs to start her own organic garden, or six baby chicks ($30), which will be raised to produce eggs to sell at market. Women for Women International will also send an e-card to the woman in whose name you made the gift.