A petite new year's request...

Although I'd like to kick off the new year with a blog that's fresh, funny, optimistic, resolution filled, etc-- for now I'm just going to post a mass email I just sent to most of my address book. I'm torn between shame for mass emailing and excitement about taking action for something I care deeply about...and hopefully the big bucks will start rolling in shortly!

Hi all,

I don't usually do this-- despite working for a nonprofit I am loathe to actually ask people for money-- but the current situation in Kenya, and a personal friendship with a Kenyan woman named Stella, has driven me to make full use of my email address book. Feel free to stop reading, delete, or de-friend me on facebook if offended by the mass email. I promise not to do it often!

I've worked at GlobalGiving for about three years, and one of the best parts of my job is getting to work with (mostly over email and phone) some amazing people around the world who are doing amazing things in their local communities. Stella Amojong Omunga started a small NGO in Eldoret, in western Kenya, doing health and education work with teenage mothers. We became fast friends over email-- she is funny, eloquent, enthusiastic in a way that even spills over into electronic communications, and totally dedicated to her work. Her reports about her use of funds are detailed down to the penny, and while some people will tell you that only large donations make a difference, Stella was always deeply grateful for any $10 or $20 or $100, and could stretch it to do amazing things.

I got increasingly worried watching the news after the Kenyan election, especially after dozens of people were burned alive in a church in Eldoret where Stella lives. I emailed Stella to see how things were going and the first sentence of her response made me pause: "I'm terribly ashamed to be Kenyan right now...what we are witnessing is beyond human comprehension! I'm even taking a huge risk to check my mail, our country has been turned into a war zone: no food, no drugs, no transportation...its simply hell!!" She described the lack of food, medicine, and supplies, and how she is personally sheltering women and children at her home. "We are regrouping and doing anything in our power to provide humanitarian assistance." (full messages below if you're interested)

GlobalGiving has created a fund to support Stella and our other partners who are responding to the situation in Kenya and we're trying to raise some funds quickly in order to get them to the ground where needed as soon as possible. You can donate online here: www.globalgiving.com/1980 (or for you Tar Heels in the crowd, Carolina for Kibera is a great organization working outside Nairobi: http://cfk.unc.edu/) I know things can be tight after the holidays, but I promise that even $10 will be well spent in Stella's capable hands. And if donating isn't your thing, forwarding this message or the link or just spreading the word is helpful too.

Thanks for reading, happy new year, and here's hoping for peace in 2008.

Dana

From: Stella Amojong Sent: Sun 1/6/2008 8:25 AMTo: Dana LedyardSubject: RE: situation in Kenya
Hi Dana,

I'm glad that people like you exist...we are quickly reaching a melting point here. The last few days has seen mass evacuations of displaced families while the few remaining in safe havens still face startvation. I'm glad that relief has started trickling in but many fear that the worst is yet to come.

I'm not sure getting foodstuff or other supplies would be a good idea: all roads are barricaded by armed youths and unless you have heavy paramilitary escort, getting to the ground/villages is simply hard. Relief agencies, like Red Cross, are donating basic food to the displaced families, but this is not enough. Our bank has been opening the local branch sporadically and I believe it will continue doing so next week. We have had to sell some domestic electronic equipment (fridge, cookers, TV) to raise some quick money to buy food. Prices are quickly escalating and supplies are beginning to diminish but we still hope for the best.

My preference would be to send in the money and we can use our local networks in sourcing for basic food, drugs and other necesities. Indeed you can direct other donors to our project so we can have as much impact as possible. The key word here is URGENT.

Once again, thanks for you quick response to our plight. Say a small prayer for us.

Regards,
Stella

From: Stella Amojong Sent: Fri 1/4/2008 4:20 AMTo: Dana LedyardSubject: Re: situation in Kenya
Hi Dana,

Thanks for your concern. I'm terribly ashamed to be Kenyan right now...what we are witnessing is beyond human comprehension! I'm even taking a huge risk to check my mail, our country has been turned into a war zone: no food, no drugs, no transportation...its simply hell!!

Yes, indeed they are now even burning people who have taken refuge in churches. The situation in Eldoret is the worst and believe you me, GEMINI has not been cowed by all this. We are regrouping and doing anything in our power to provide humanitarian assistance and on a personal level, I'm providing shelter to the most vulnerable women and children and psychological counseling to the affected families in a nearby church compound.

If there is anything that GlobalGiving can do to enable us alleviate the situation, we would be so grateful. What we currently need is lots of foodstuff, drugs and clothes. We will still have a lot to do after all this is over and we look forward to a year with so much tears...but with your assistance, things will be OK.

Thanks so much....and, oh by the way, Happy New Year (You are the first person to hear this from me!!!)

Regards,
Stella

The only thing better than one blog...

Is a second blog! Since I update this one so frequently (insert sarcasm and guilty feelings here), I've decided it's time to expand. Luckily I won't be the only one handling blog numero dos-- this one will be me and fifteen or so of my bestest GlobalGiving buddies.

Last week was the official launch of GlobalGoodness-- I've cross posted what I wrote for today, but you can also check out previous posts from my fellow GG all stars Mari, Dennis, Donna, and Kevin.

Enjoy!

Over the river and through the woods…

As Thanksgiving approaches, I can’t get these holiday carol lyrics out of my head. Working on the project team at GlobalGiving, I have the privilege to work with the amazing project leaders and innovative organizations that list their work for funding on our website. This also means I get an up close and personal look at the challenges our partners face on a daily basis. Here is one description of the journey to send an e-mail in Malawi:

“Well, first I leave the school and hop on my bicycle. After riding my bike for two hours over dusty, bumpy roads, I arrive at the internet café. Then I write out my e-mail carefully by hand and give it to the owner. Assuming the internet isn’t broken that day, he logs on to the only computer in the village and sends the e-mail for me.”

Rather than braving the river and woods to get to grandmother’s house, each day our project partners face challenges ranging from lack of electricity or internet connectivity, natural disasters like floods and earthquakes, health crises including malaria and HIV/AIDS, non-existent transportation infrastructure, or unstable political environments. Tasks that seem like no big deal to those of us in the U.S.—sending an email, turning on the lights, making a phone call—can be time consuming and difficult. With all of these challenging circumstances it’s a wonder that anything gets done at all!

But the most exciting part of my job is that not only is stuff getting done, our partners are tackling the most difficult challenges our world faces right now and achieving great results. It’s a testament to the determination, creativity, passion, and insight of the projects listed on GlobalGiving that each day I get to read updates from the field like this:

“The Roteang Village children have nearly completed the immunizations…” from "Provide 570 Children with Lifesaving Vaccines" in Cambodia.

“One of our a pioneer teachers at Nyaka told me last year that because of his job at Nyaka, he has been able to buy land, take care of his twin sons and daughter, and take care of his aging mom and dad…” from "Nyaka School for Children Orphaned due to HIV/AIDS" in Uganda.

“Through these two projects, we secure transportation and safe passage for women who are fleeing their homes to reach the shelters or other refuge…” from "Safe Houses for Iraqi Women" in Iraq.

Whether arriving via the back of a bicycle, the dusty Indian mail service, carrier pigeon, or solar-powered dial-up email, project updates keep donors informed about all things (good and bad) going on with the project on the ground. Clicking “submit” isn’t the end of a donation to a GlobalGiving project—it’s the beginning of an adventure!

From this blog to God's ears

So roughly 10 hours since my last post, it's dropped to 65 degrees and a steady rain is falling, convincing me that my blog is basically a direct hotline to the (wo)man upstairs. I'll take requests for future posts via email, so send me all your most important requests ;)

Fall. And rain. Stat.

It's hovering near 80 degrees as we approach 10pm the last week in October. I'm sweating, contemplating turning the air conditioning on just so I can fall asleep in peace. Brian is hiding out in the basement with his dad so I can't even sedate myself with bad reality television, my uber cute jack-o-lantern has shriveled and molded on the front porch, and California is going up in flames before I even have a chance to get turned down by those fancy grad schools I think about applying to.

To steal a phrase from Alan, where the eff is fall? Cool, crisp, beautiful leaves? Maybe some rain while we're at it? Jeebus.

If you're looking for a wicked smaaaaht blog post (and not just me complaining about being hot) check out Eli's take on my take on Triple Crown Winners. Not only does her post beat the crap out of mine, her BoSox beat the crap out of my Indians too :(

How many more weeks til basketball season???

Summer camp, but with more gin and tonics

I spent a blissful weekend out on the eastern shore of Maryland (Chestertown) with four wonderful college girlfriends (and yes I know it's Tuesday night, and I'm no longer in weekend bliss mode because I've worked two days and am now stressed). But back to happy Chestertown...

We gathered for a birthday celebration (Happy birthday to Ann!) but quickly found many more things to celebrate-- new jobs, recent engagements, successes at work, completed tests, new cities, and finally (finally!) that crisp, cool fall weather I've been waiting for. Although we were in Chestertown for just a little over a day, it felt more like summer camp than a weekend escape. Amidst all the serious grad schooling, wedding planning, re-locating, social impacting, and Big Life Decision Making, we also filled our days with bike rides (no hands!), candy corn, pumpkin patches, delicious meals, giggling at the Office, and lazing on the porch looking out at the Chester River. Time slowed down and it felt like Canada, complete with cocktail hour on the deck courtesy of Dr. Collier and his famous g and t's.

Although we all kept apologizing for not keeping in better touch, getting back together made me realize how lucky I am to have these fabulous ladies in my life in the first place-- and that we are the kind of friends that don't need to talk on the phone every day to stay close. I was inspired (between the Sikh wedding planning and the UNC friendships) to dig up this blog post from a few months back-- one of my favorites from a Carolina blogger I stalk and a much more beautifully written ode to college friends than I could ever write!

Video from Nepal

Thanks to the Global Fund for Women's fall newsletter, I found this video about Lucky Chetri and the Three Sisters Trekking Company in Nepal (I blogged about them after having lunch with Lucky this summer). It's short, sweet, and sure it give you mountain envy...



Prior to receiving the newsletter I wasn't aware that Lucky was a GFW grantee and it reminded me of what we call "triple crown" syndrome around the GG office-- individuals or organizations who are Ashoka fellows, and Skoll grantees, and Tech Laureates, and Schwab fellows, etc. While I don't want to begrudge awards and funding to amazing organizations, it can feel a bit like a fraternity or country club-- once you cross a certain threshold, the privileges and riches just keep piling on and it's the same folks at the award galas and grantee conventions and featured in newsletters.

At the same time, I spent a few days in September at a Guidestar International conference talking about sharing due diligence, building systems that feed off each other, and reducing workloads for NGOs as well as foundations. How can we create scalable systems that drive more resources to high impact organizations, while also extending our reach into grassroots community organizations and surfacing the best new ideas to reward alongside the pedigreed triple crowners?

Life, by the numbers

It's been a head-spinning six weeks or so, and besides the most obvious number (0, that would be blog posts) I filled some time on a flight counting various aspects of recent life.

6: countries visited...yes, I'm counting the layover in Ireland :)
13: airplane flights
2: weekends with my grandparents, who retained their spots as the funniest people I know. After a particularly funny dinner in Canada Brian and I decided we would have paid at least $15 or $20 just to listen to them talk for a few hours. I think they should take their show on the road.
8 and 1: sandwiches and jars, respectively, of pimiento cheese fed to us by the aforementioned grandmother (see the almost empty plate on the deck). Yes, she still hand cranks it, no, it's not just a southern food, and yes, it's awesome.
1: shoe theft witnessed on the overnight train from Paris to San Sebastian. I watched this old guy putting on a pair of shoes in the next row and walking off...turns out they weren't his! And he stayed on the train, wearing the stolen shoes! Even the not so swift French train police could crack that case, and our train neighbor got his shoes back.

3: tapas bars in one night in San Sebastian, Spain.
We thought that was pretty good until we saw the Spanish grandmothers and toddlers staying out late into the night while we stumbled back exhausted to the hotel. I blame the 1 L of sangria consumed at tapas bar #1.
2: weddings. Congrats to Mary and John Pitts and Kate and Peter Devlin!
25: relatives, roughly, at Koopers Tavern for a post-wedding brunch in Baltimore. My ukelele playing uncle put on a show which was great, until Brian and I realized after singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm with the dancing little cousins we might not be able to show our faces at Koopers anymore...so long, favorite crab dip. You haven't been the same since they stopped serving you in a bread bowl anyways.

38: points in touch football scored in our first Baltimore Sports and Social Club game for a dominating victory. Brian is the QB and I'm the "hiker" which I much prefer to being called the center.
34: points scored by Appalachian State to beat Michigan in the Big House! Although I've talked plenty of trash about NC football being weak, I'll take that victory any day. Buckeyes are still undefeated.
20%: historically low voter turnout in the primary race for Baltimore mayor, which Sheila Dixon won. She did re-pave our street (conveniently 5 days before election day), but we're also on track to hit 300 murders for the year so not so sure she was my first choice...
1: angry cab driver chastising me for not voting. I am a bad person...or just a person who works in a city 50 miles away, gets on a train at 7:15 and returns on the train at 7:40 and shares a car with her husband and can't get to the polls. I am still feeling the civic duty shame spiral, which I might try to make up for by reporting for jury duty Nov. 17.

Numbers are an easy way to explain the exhaustion, lack of communication, and multiple bouts of illness over the past six weeks, and they are also easier to calculate and process than all the emotional highs and lows that I'm still wrapping my head around. The idea of staying put for the next 6 weeks (well, except for that pesky daily commute) is pretty appealing right now-- an unusual thing to feel as I'm usually game for any kind of travel, anywhere, to do anything.

Lately I'm also feeling more acutely the seemingly quickening pace of life and time passing...maybe it's being married to a schoolteacher and all the flurry of activity that back to school time brings, or maybe it's working at an organization where 40% of our business can happen in the last month of the year due to holiday donations. Staring these next few months in the face feels exciting but daunting at the same time! Brian and I were running errands a few weekends ago and walked past a young couple pulling a stroller out of the trunk, re-assembling it, pulling the baby out of a car seat along with all the gear...we looked at each other and laughed thinking the exact same thing-- it's at least a few more years before we're ready to tackle that challenge. As B said, sometimes getting the dishes done every day feels like a big deal, so how on earth do you add another human (or hell, even a dog) into this crazy mix and survive? Then again, I did get sucked into watching 3 episodes of Beauty and the Geek (that would be my reality TV shame spiral to accompany my voting failure shame spiral) so something tells me I have more free time than I think I do...