"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
DO NOT donate money if you know you can TRY HARDER
I am aware that Alchemy’s assignment for ACT6 consists on raising funds for improving access to education or economic growth. I tried that, it is reflected in my post about direct investment versus "Dead Aid" .
Nevertheless, I could not help bringing up the fact that donating money is usually the most
effortless resource that we all turn to when we need to feel better with ourselves.
I am not saying that giving money away –said money intended to help someone else to achieve their personal goals- is wrong. It’s just that most women living in
poverty have other needs apart from economic support.
What these women really need is raising their self esteem, they need to get their
emotional wounds healed, they need to believe in the world again and regain
their trust and strength.
These psychological aspects are precisely harder for them to get from their
environment (an analysis reflected in my post "Why do we insist with FGM!!").
On the other end, we do not normally find ourselves in the position to lend our time
to volunteering and getting some training which could enable us to satisfy these kind of
needs.
I dedicate some of my time working for a non-profit association involved in
development activities for women in Colombia. We are a group of emigrants who live in Europe. We try to make the most of our privileged conditions and education to improve the situation of women and children who are vistims of 50 years of conflicts and violence in Colombia.
Apart from raising funds for a micro-credit system, we raise money for supporting
activities such as psychotherapy for children and women affected by their
unfortunate circ**stances.
I am even luckier! I have often the chance to empower women who come to the drugstore
where I work and I am always willing to hear their stories, I show empathy and
provide some advice on healthy practices to improve their quality of life.
Lately, I took training on methods to address common psychological issues in order to
assist my customers in a more effective way.
I encourage you all to try finding a way to put in practice similar activities, you will find
out that by empowering others you empower yourself.
Nevertheless, I could not help bringing up the fact that donating money is usually the most
effortless resource that we all turn to when we need to feel better with ourselves.
I am not saying that giving money away –said money intended to help someone else to achieve their personal goals- is wrong. It’s just that most women living in
poverty have other needs apart from economic support.
What these women really need is raising their self esteem, they need to get their
emotional wounds healed, they need to believe in the world again and regain
their trust and strength.
These psychological aspects are precisely harder for them to get from their
environment (an analysis reflected in my post "Why do we insist with FGM!!").
On the other end, we do not normally find ourselves in the position to lend our time
to volunteering and getting some training which could enable us to satisfy these kind of
needs.
I dedicate some of my time working for a non-profit association involved in
development activities for women in Colombia. We are a group of emigrants who live in Europe. We try to make the most of our privileged conditions and education to improve the situation of women and children who are vistims of 50 years of conflicts and violence in Colombia.
Apart from raising funds for a micro-credit system, we raise money for supporting
activities such as psychotherapy for children and women affected by their
unfortunate circ**stances.
I am even luckier! I have often the chance to empower women who come to the drugstore
where I work and I am always willing to hear their stories, I show empathy and
provide some advice on healthy practices to improve their quality of life.
Lately, I took training on methods to address common psychological issues in order to
assist my customers in a more effective way.
I encourage you all to try finding a way to put in practice similar activities, you will find
out that by empowering others you empower yourself.
Views: 21
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Comment by Chris Ke Sihai on April 28, 2010 at 3:03pm
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Great post! I agree that donating money is usually just the easy way out, a way of passing responsibility to someone else to do something.
You're right, it's up to each of us individually to do something.
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Comment by Ternura Rojas on April 29, 2010 at 2:18pm
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Thank you Chris, it's all about "teaching someone to fish instead of giving them a fish" even though I am vegetarian I agree with the idea :-D
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Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 29, 2010 at 3:33pm
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Absolutely! Far more useful (and affordable) than giving people money, is giving people a deep sense of being appreciated, valued, and loved as they are a very real part of something greater than themselves. And while this is a powerful thing, it's also pretty easy to do because the pen is mightier than the sword, and words carry magic!
Think of how strong you've felt when you got a simple card or even an email from someone who expressed their belief in you and your future... You can pass that power on to someone else just as easily!
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And, of course, you can always offer someone the message that You are a flower...
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Comment by Bonan Zhang on April 30, 2010 at 7:02am
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Wow thank you for your insights and courage!
I found that The Magic of Thinking Big was a powerful inspiration. I hope you can share some of the same thinking with the women you meet. There are supposedly translations of it, but I haven't found any. It would wonderful if a team could put together a translation of it.
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Hi Bonan, thanks for the visit, I found the spanish transaltion of the book :-) thank you!
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public servants
The exchange works directly for state and public workers and servants. It gives them credit in exchange for the amount of public work they contribute to the community. The more constructive they are based off a base rate the more credit they recieve.
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