SNG's for Ephraim

Back in February I sent an SNG of $100 for Ephraim for whatever they might need most. In May I received the letter and photos showing what the money was used for. Ephraim and his family received 50 kilos (110 lbs) of flour, cooking oil, sugar, 25 kilos (55 lbs) of mealie meal (a coarse corn meal) and beef.

The report stated that his mother would use the flours, sugar and oil in her income generating activity (she's a street vendor) and that the profits would help the family greatly. As for the beef, the family was going to enjoy that themselves. Here he is with a happy grin next to the goods.

When I received his progress report for this year, it stated that he was no longer in school due to lack of funds. So I called and asked to find out how much school would cost for him. Upon learning that it would only cost $125 to send him back to school for the year I sent a check.

Here he is with his new school clothes, shoes and notebook, all of which was included in that same $125, ready to go. What a great investment! Honestly I can't think of a better way to spend my money or a place where it could possibly go farther. Naturally I'll be sending money for school each year from now on until he is out of high school. I hope it will make a big difference in his life trajectory.

We have a new family member!

Her name is Paola Emma and she's from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Guayaquil is on the coast, a busy port city of 3.3 million. As you can imagine it gets very hot and humid there. She turned 12 last December. She's 4'6" and weighs 62 pounds. Her favorite school subjects are Science and Grammar. She speaks Spanish. In her spare time she likes to play with friends and ride her bike. She helps out at home with dish washing and general housework. Her father is a bricklayer and her mother is a homemaker. She has 2 older sisters, one younger sister and 1 younger brother. Her home has a wooden floor and a corrugated metal roof. It consists of 1 bedroom, a kitchen and a living room. The family sleeps on

wooden beds and cooks on a portable gas stove. Water has to be delivered in barrels by truck. Under electricity it states: "non regulated usage". Not sure what that means. Sounds like maybe they tap into a power line running nearby, not the safest way to get your electricity! Here is an earlier picture. Looks like she was sponsored in 2005 (the date of this earlier picture) and lost her sponsor recently. I just found out recently that once a child becomes sponsored CI will keep providing them with sponsorship benefits even if they lose their sponsor. That's good to know. I can't wait to get my first letter from her. I've already sent her a letter welcoming her to the family. I also sent her a special needs gift so that she can get something she really needs. So there she is, our seventh child. I'll keep you posted on her progress as I receive more info.

News From Haiti, La Gonave Update

Below is a reprint of an email I received the other day from Nancy Casey. She lives here in Moscow and goes to La Gonave, Haiti every year taking seeds and garden tools as well as donations she has raised through the year. Following the email is the text of a document that was attached to the email which I could not upload with it's pictures and attached video. If you'd like me to email it to you just leave a comment and let me know. By the way, the Janice Boughton who went along on this trip is my doctor.

Hello everyone...I write this from the Haitian countryside where it is
raining. It rained yesterday, too. The rain brings relief from the
chocking dust and raises an optimism in the whole peasant community. At
last it's time to plant. Maybe there will be enough food.

I'm connected to peasant groups concerned with agriculture, the
environment, women and children's rights and human development. Everyone
is reeling from the earthquake and stoically going forward. I've been
learning more about their work and dreams and helping them articulate
their ideas about the help they need in proposal form.. I look forward
to sharing more information with you when I return home to Moscow, Idaho
at the end of the month. Attached is a newsletter with a report on a
visit to these same communities by three women from Moscow, Idaho.

When I am not "working" I've been sitting on porches and courtyards with
my extended network of Haitian family and friends. I've been laughing
and dancing a lot. I have walked miles and miles up and down mountains. I am fit and happy.

If you would like to send a tax-deductible donation to help the groups I'm
working with, see
www.CourageWoman.org/donate.htm
for the full info. Or send a check to VP Foundation PO Box 9757 Moscow,
ID 83843

If you want to be on a committee in Moscow, ID actively supporting this
work, contact MareeMcHugh: maree@samaree.net.

If you don't want to receive these updates, or if you are receiving two
copies, please let me know.

Thank you for all your support.


Nancy Casey
nancy@turbonet.com



NEWS FROM HAITI, LA GONAVE UPDATE

News from LaGonave
By Nancy Casey

What a pleasure it was for me to bring three visitors from my home-town of Moscow, Idaho to LaGonave to share the experience that I have been having here for 8 years. I feel so much less alone in what I have learned on this little island floating in the bay just off Port-au-Prince. Larger than the destitution, larger than the heart-ripping earth-quake stories, larger than the mind's struggle to reconcile "have" with "have-not" is the realization that these people take such joy from your simple presence. You fill your suitcase with the things you think they will most need, only find when you get here that the youness of you is the real gift you have to give. You don't even know how to give this, yet they receive it and it leaves you reeling.

Ryan Law

What to say about Haiti? Well what I want to say is that we all have perceptions, myself included. We tend to rely on peoples fears and judgment without thinking beyond that. There is so much more that is right about Haiti than wrong. They are people of a very generous and diligent nature. I found family in Bwanwa, the community where we stayed. I found parts of myself that have been buried. I would say "Thanks to the wonderful people of LaGonave for teaching me about humanity"

Janice Boughton

A country like Haiti has been poor for so long that receiving charity has become normal for many people. The only English greeting many children know is "give me a dollar" and many of them will say it without even knowing what it means. Nevertheless, the people whom I came into contact with on my trip were among the most hard working, creative and industrious I have ever been around. It is these characteristics that allow them to live fairly successfully on an island like LaGonave which has been raped of many of its natural resources decades ago and left for dead. This island now blooms with numerous kitchen gardens,farms, churches, schools and vibrant woman's rights groups. Rather than in the spirit of “helping,” we made our visit in the spirit of supporting them in the good work they already do. There are things that are wrong with Haiti, but there are more things that are right.

Louise-Marie Dandurand

When Louise-Marie Dandurand came back from her first walk with two agricultural agents her eyes flashed brighter blue than the sky as she said, "This is just amazing!" She toured family and community vegetable plots, gullies terraced for soil conservation, tree nurseries, and met some of the people responsible for encouraging others to do this work without adequate tools or nutrition. Upon returning home, Louise-Marie writes: I'm no longer shrink-wrapped to the couch. I have some thoughts to write up, in relation to gardens, soil conservation, and water water usage. I'd like to address some of the (plant) diseases I saw, as well as explore some ideas on seeds and plant breeding. I wish I could find more information about the endemic plants of Haiti. I also saw a lot of homes damaged by earthquake as I was walking around.

Nancy Casey

Now that the visitors are gone, I am back to "work". My calendar is packed for the next three weeks with visits to gardens and earthworks, sitting in on meetings of community groups and women's groups trying to make things better for themselves, looking at earthquake-damaged houses we helped rebuild after the quake, and helping the farmers' and women's groups turn their visions into clear proposals that I can find funding for. The needs are astounding. I wonder if I give the wrong impression when I write of my astonishment about how much Haitians do with so little. $4000 helped to repair/rebuild a half-dozen houses in two isolated communities, leaving about 200 more houses to go in those towns, and another hundred or so towns with no help.
The $90,000+ budget for Courageous Women is mostly for food to help destitute children and feed women who walk an hour or more to attend a meeting. Janice Boughton helped the group bring more focus on women’s health needs—good public health education, women who can’t afford to have breast cancer or TB treated despite the low cost, sexually transmitted diseases, preventing the incipient AIDS epidemic.
The "Farming is Life" group hopes for $6,000 to buy 20 sets of tools, each of which will be shared by 25 families. Another $3,000 will raise the salaries of the two young men leading this work to a living wage. They wish they could feed people who come to trainings, build and repair cisterns, save the islands indigenous flora and the knowledge of healing associated with it. They were so inspired by Louise-Marie Dandurand’s extensive knowledge and the possibilities she raised for finding university research contacts. Today, before going on an hour-long bone-jarring motorcycle ride to Plèzans, a community where we helped re-build 2 houses, I spent a couple hours working through an accounting and reporting process with the farming group that is simple enough not to detract from their work, but accurate enough to make their handling of money transparent. I don't want to discount the value of your donations in the least. Every dollar you send goes really far. Still, I hope with the information I'm bringing back from this trip--written by the Haitians themselves--we will be able to supplement your donations with grants from foundations that support this kind of work. I fear that the generosity of our personal pockets will not be sufficient for the needs.

VP Foundation: Encouraging balance in people's lives and communities
PO Box 9757
Moscow, Idaho 83843
Tel: (208)882-9698
Email: nancy@turbonet.com

How to Get Involved
I'm thrilled that Louise-Marie, Janice, and Ryan have shared the experience of the Haiti that I know. I would lead another trip this winter if somebody wants to come. Let me know. nancy@turbonet.com
We are still hoping to bring Abner Sauveur and Elijen Deravil to Moscow (Idaho) this summer to watch our gardening season unfold, learn English, and connect with collaborators. Abner has a 5-year visitor’s visa and can easily travel to the US. At present the US Consulate in Port-au-Prince is not accepting visa applications for Haitians, Elijen is ready to apply as soon as the door is open.

DONATION INFORMATION
You can support this work by making a tax deductible donation online at::
www.CourageWoman.org/donate.htm
Or you can send a donation by mail to:
VP Foundation Box 9757 Moscow, ID.
You can tag your donation for: food, farming, environment, women and children, health care, housing, exchange visit, or "as needed".
Thank you so much. Mesi davans.

Meet Soila Lucinda and another great book

Soila Lucinda joined our family in August of last year. She is our oldest sponsored child (well, nearly an adult now!) and turned 17 last December. She lives in rural Guatemala, near the capital of Guatemala City. She lives with her parents, 3 sisters and 2 brothers. Her father is the sole breadwinner for the family and brings in about $154 a month working as a carpenter. Her home is constructed of concrete blocks with a concrete floor and corrugated metal roof. It consists of a kitchen and 4 bedrooms. Cooking is done on an open fire. The family is fortunate to have running water in the home and wooden beds to sleep on. She reports that people in her community work the land and harvest lots of corn.
Soila likes to play basketball (even though she's only 4' 10"!) and soccer in her spare time. Her favorite school subjects are Math, Accounting and Art. She has a talent for drawing and painting. She speaks Spanish and a little Cakchiquel (an indigenous language) and is learning English. She wants to be a teacher "in order to go on and help child(ren) like you are doing to me now". I have contacted Children International to ask if she needs help with school to achieve that goal.
When I first sponsored her I sent a Special Needs Gift of $100 to welcome her to the family. Here she is with her gifts. She is a lovely young woman with a good heart and I am happy to be able to help her.

I've just recently read a great book called Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn a husband and wife team of journalists. I really can't say enough about this inspiring book. Here is a website about the book, the authors, their work and the organizations they profile in the book. Each chapter outlines a problem in a developing country and a person or organization that has chosen to tackle that particular problem, often because they themselves have suffered from it. Often these groups have been started by local women who saw a need and decided to try to remedy the problem themselves, for their own sake and that of their families and neighbors. In other words many of these organizations are grass roots, home grown, local, bottom up instead of top down programs started by people who know what is really needed and what will work. As opposed to well meaning but misinformed top down foreign projects that sometimes miss the mark, or aren't culturally savvy enough in the countries they are trying to help, to know that they are breaking local taboos or stepping on toes. Here is an article by the authors that will give a good idea about the book. It is a long article but gripping reading. Try your local library for the book.

Update on Ephraim's Schooling and another kind of sponsorship program

I called Children International (CI) on March 9th to ask about Ephraim's education. I had recently learned that most children in Zambia cannot afford to go to school beyond grade 7 after which school is no longer free. I just received a letter from CI today confirming that Ephraim was no longer in school due to lack of funds. He should be in Grade 8. The letter stated that it would cost $125 a year for him to continue his education. I have just sent off a check to CI for this year's school fees. I have recently read that almost all the children that the CI centers in Zambia can accommodate have been sponsored and that they are working to open a new center there. Also in today's mail came the news that CI will soon begin work on a center in Uganda near the capital, Kampala. This will be a new country for CI, the first since Zambia joined the family 5 years ago.

Now let me tell you about another kind of sponsorship program. It's called Women for Women International. It was founded by Zainab Salbi who grew up in Iraq under Sadam Hussein. This program operates in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan. You may notice that all of these countries have one thing in common: They are countries that have recently been or are currently at war, whether from within or without. Their slogan is "Helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives."

You can choose the country in which you wish to sponsor a woman or designate "wherever the need is greatest. In 4 to 6 weeks you will be matched with a woman and will receive an info kit about your new "sister". As a sponsor, you pledge to contribute $27 per month (plus a one time administrative fee of $30 to set up your account) to support one individual woman in a year long program of vocational and technical skills training, rights awareness and leadership education. Your support will provide the tools and resources your sister needs to rebuild her life after war. Your monthly contributions will also help your sister to obtain basic necessities for her family, like food, clean water, and medicine; to pay school-related expenses for her children; to use the funds as seed capital to start an income-generating project. Perhaps more importantly, your letters will provide an emotional lifeline to a woman who may have otherwise lost everything.

So if you want to help those in need but aren't sure you want to take on the average 13 year commitment of sponsoring a child here's another, shorter term way to help someone whose life has been shattered by war get back on the road to self sufficiency. To learn more about Women for Women International click here.

Meet Katiusca, our diminutive Dominican Republican

This is Katiusca, our youngest sponsored child. She has been part of our family since August 2005. She turns 10 tomorrow. She lives with her father, mother, one older brother and one younger sister in Santiago. Her father works in a factory and her mother works as a cook at the University. The family income is about $137 a month. They have a concrete block house with a concrete floor and a corrugated metal roof. The house has a kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a dining room. Cooking is done on a gas stove, and they have running water in the house. This family of 5 shares 2 beds. Her favorite color is pink and her favorite school subjects are math, grammar and art. She likes to play indoor games with her friends and family in her free time. She counts painting, dancing and singing among her talents. She reports that she
behaves well at home and helps here mom with chores like sweeping and washing dishes. She is having some trouble with science in school but says she will try harder. Katiusca is not sure what she wants to be when she grows up, but she is thinking about it. Last Christmas she got to go visit her Grandmother at the beach and got to eat cake and ice cream. She has really grown quite a bit since we first sponsored her, don't you think? I have recently sent a Special Needs Gift for Katiusca and will report back on her when I receive news of what the family used it for.

Katiusca came to us when our first sponsored girl in the Dominican Republic, Yulisa Antonia, (pictured below) left the program because she got married at the age of 14. Naturally we were upset but unfortunately marrying quite young is not unusual in poorer countries. We only had her 4 months before she was gone. CI suggested Katiusca and we were happy to accept her into our family.

Children International has been working in the Dominican Republic for 31 years. There are almost 28,000 children sponsored in 2 agencies there. Income inequality there is among the highest in the world.

I want to add some more information about the book The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer which I mentioned here a few posts ago. Here is a link to an article published in the NY Times on March 10, 2009 about the book . The article is entitled: If you think you're good, you should think again.

And here is a link to an article by Peter Singer in the NY Times Magazine of December 17, 2006. That article is called: What should a billionaire give - and what should you? Both very good, thought provoking articles. I will warn you that the second one is rather long but well worth the read.

And finally I will leave you with a quote from George Eliot "What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"

Do your children a favor

I'd like to make a suggestion to my friends and relations who still have children living at home. Sponsor a child in a developing country. This is an excellent way for your children to learn about other parts of the world and other cultures. It's also a good way to introduce your children to the idea that not every child on the planet has an i-pod, a personal computer and their own color TV. It's a way to let them know how fortunate they are and how important it is to help others less fortunate. If you sponsor a child about the same age as your child, they can be pen pals. They can exchange photos and art work. It'll be a rich and rewarding experience for both of them and there are few families in America who can't afford this. It's only $22 a month. Click here to visit Children International and get started today.

Budgets, like diets, don't work

Now you know that money is something you trade some of your life energy for and you know your real hourly wage. What do you do with this info? You find out where it's all going. How? By keeping track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life. This is an extremely effective tool that will transform your relationship with money and put you on the road to greater financial freedom. Here's what you do: Keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life. Why do I repeat this? Because it is vitally important. Every cent? Yes! Why do you need to go to such an extreme? Because you want to know how money actually comes and goes in you life as opposed to how you think it comes and goes. Many folks have a cavalier attitude to their "little" daily expenditures. They may think long and hard about a $50. purchase yet all the while be unconsciously frittering away more than that in insignificant little purchases each week or month.

Likewise don't think you can just round off the the nearest dollar, or 5 or 10. Pretty soon you're calling anything under $100 too small to bother tracking. (Like they say in congress, a million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talking real money!) If you cheat, just a little, you'll soon find you have no idea where that last paycheck went. And why would you want to cheat yourself? So track every cent faithfully, accurately, with integrity. After all this is your precious life energy we're talking about. What else have you got?

Use a computer spreadsheet, a paper notebook, a computer money program or what ever works for you. Just do it. Save your receipts, write down any purchase that doesn't have a receipt right away so you don't forget. Use your check book register, credit card statements. And don't worry, this isn't about budgeting.

So you've faithfully kept track of every cent for a whole month, now what? Establish categories for your spending that fit your specific life. No budget book has the categories your real life calls for. So examine your spending and make the categories that fit you. When you sit down with your spouse, significant other, family members etc to examine your spending repeat this handy phrase: No shame, no blame. Consider your first few months of tracking all money to be a time to establish your categories. Just observe your spending habits and patterns dispassionately, as if you were examining someone else's spending. Don't judge, point fingers or fight. Lots of discernment, no judgment.

A funny thing will happen just from tracking every cent. Unconsciously you will begin spending less. Just the mere act of writing down your spending will act as a natural curb. Why? Because you don't want to admit (to yourself or your family) just how many candy bars you eat in a week. So you buy a couple less. You find yourself thinking "If I buy this coke, then I have to write it down, what a hassle. I'll just skip the coke!" (You may find that you lose a pound or 2!) It's like having an audience to every purchase, someone sitting on your shoulder saying "Do you really need that?" People who do this step faithfully find that they effortlessly cut spending by 20% or more just by being made conscious of where their money is going.

Your categories will no doubt include food. Do you need subcategories for that? Probably. My food categories include: groceries (just your standard every day cook it at home stuff), Entertaining (special things for guests that I don't normally buy) and Junk (you know what that is, I try to get rid of this category but it persists.) Do not lump non food items into your food category just because they come from the grocery store. Put cleaning products, paper products, pet food etc into other categories. You might have other food subcategories. Is anyone on a diet that needs special food, do you want to track that separately? Do you regularly have to bake cupcakes for the kids soccer team? Should that be a separate category for you? It's up to you how you decide to categorize. You can refine your categories as you continue down the road to financial integrity. Nothing is set in stone. I don't track restaurant meals under food but in a whole separate category for Dining. That could be subdivided into work related dining vs family dining. Maybe you have to take clients out to eat. How will you track that?

Clothing might be broken down into every day vs work vs special occasion. Will you track shoes and/or accessories separately? Or will you break it down by person. Special sports clothing? Will cosmetics be a subcategory of clothing or go in a grooming category? I think you get the idea. It's important to distinguish between job related expenses and other expenses.

Remember you're also recording every cent that comes into your life. You'll want to establish categories for that as well. You'll want to distinguish between wages/salary/tips vs interest/dividends. This is the great divide between what the IRS considers earned vs unearned income. You may have rental property that brings in money, maybe you have a small business you run on the side selling Avon, delivering newspapers etc. They might all have their own categories. I have several categories for interest, depending on who it's from and what the money is invested in. This makes it easier at tax time to tell what is taxable by the feds vs the state.

This differs from budgeting in that it tracks what actually happens in your real life vs trying to tie you to some pre-imagined number you set arbitrarily at the beginning of the month regarding what you'll spend in each category. This is about learning your spending habits instead of trying to dictate them. This is tailored to your life. Real life is complicated, emergencies arise. Budgets seldom recognize this.

What will you do with all these numbers? More about that in a future post. For now just get started tracking those pennies. Just do it.

I take no credit for the ideas contained in this post. They all come from the book Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicky Robin. I am condensing and paraphrasing some of the main ideas of this book. If this message speaks to you at all, you really should get the book for best results. There's a lot of detail I can't fit in here. Your local library or used book store may have it.

Perry Mason, 2 good books and a good, if depressing, movie

Did you know that Raymond Burr from the old Perry Mason and Ironside TV shows was a champion of child sponsorship? He gave enormous sums of money (including his salaries from the Perry Mason movies) to charity. He sponsored 27 foster children through the Christian Children's Fund. He would sponsor children with the greatest medical needs because he had the money to help them. He never had biological children but in this way he was father to many. I remember an Ironside episode I saw when I was a kid. His sponsored daughter from China was coming to visit him and she needed his help cause some Chinese gangsters had followed her over and were threatening her somehow. Here he is in later life at his vineyard with long time companion Robert Benevides and dear friend Barbara Hale who played the delectable Della Street in the Perry Mason series and later in the movies. I loved the Perry Mason show, didn't you? Do you know of any other celebrities who have sponsored children? If so please leave a comment and let me know.

I have recently read a good book called The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Australian author Peter Singer. He asks: If your were walking down the street and saw a child drowning in a shallow pond, would you save them? You'll mess up your pants, ruin your new shoes and be late for work. What would you do? Most people state unequivocally that they would save the child, the collateral damage is immaterial when a life is at stake. So why do we let a child on the other side of the globe die for want of couple dollars worth of food or medicine? You can read the first chapter of the book here. He makes a powerful argument. I know that most of you reading this don't need to hear this message, you're already on board. But I thought reading it might give my fellow sponsors ammunition when other people scoff at you for your philanthropy; for sponsoring, caring and being so involved with your sponsored children as some of you have reported.

Another great book I read recently was Sold by Patricia McCormick written for the young adult/teen market. It's about a young girl from Nepal who gets sold into slavery in a brothel in India. It's interesting how this book came my way. It was sent by accident to my husband in place of something he had ordered. The seller got his labels mixed up and I got to read the book (it only took an evening) before Greg had to send it back. I had just finished another book on the plight of women in developing countries that dealt with this among other issues. You can get more info and see an interview with the author here. There are also links to anti trafficking organization on her site. (Go to the white menu box just beneath her name near the top left of the site to find lists of books and links to organizations.)

Both of these books are probably available at your library. So you can save your money to send to the organizations. Or if you can't get them any other way buy them but be sure to share widely among your friends and family. Then maybe see if your library would like to add them to their collection.

Finally we watched a DVD last night that we borrowed from the library. It's called Holly and it's about child sex trafficking in South East Asia. I will warn you now that there is no happy ending to this film. Info about the film is here, though I couldn't seem to get the trailer to run. You can read a synopsis there, see the cast and read about the film maker's projects. In bonus materials on the disk there is an interview with the film maker who said while walking down the street in Phnom Penh in broad day light he was suddenly surrounded by 5 and 6 year old girls aggressively soliciting him. The younger the child, the more valuable because they're less likely to have AIDS. You can link to their anti trafficking campaign here.

I find it interesting that these sources of anti trafficking material have all come into my life in the last few months. I won't say I was unaware of the problem before that, but I had no idea so many were enslaved in this way. There are now more slaves on earth than at any time during the Atlantic slave trade of the 18th and 19th Centuries. How depressing. The good news is that there are many individuals, authors and organizations, both local and global, mobilizing to raise awareness of the problem and fight it. And making some progress too.

And now a fun post after all that number crunching yesterday: Meet Karen Stephany!

Karen Stephany is our newest sponsored child. We chose her in September of last year. One of the things I love about Children International is that you get to chose your own children. Some other sponsorship programs I explored back when we were comparing don't let you do that. They present you with a child's photo and info and ask you to give a thumbs up or thumbs down. I think being able to choose your own child makes for a stronger bond. Some other sponsors I've met say they look for the child in their target country and/or age group who has the lowest income level. Many sponsors say that the child's photo just grabbed them because they were cute ( a very subjective judgment) or funny or forlorn or reminded them of someone. That's got to make you more attached. Some sponsors go out of their way to find children with mental or physical disabilities. So I don't think letting sponsors choose their own children leaves anyone out in the cold.

Karen's picture certainly grabbed me. How could it not? Look at those eyes, those dimples! Between the time I first saw Karen on the website and the time I sponsored her a new picture had appeared. She turned 14 this January. Her favorite school subject is Math. She loves to sing, dance and draw. She also likes to play futbol. (soccer to you and me) She speaks Spanish and helps her mom with the housework. Her father abandoned the family so her mother is left to take care of Karen and her 3 siblings alone. The family income is $168 a month. They have a concrete block home with a concrete floor and corrugated metal roof. It consists of kitchen, living room and 2 bedrooms. All five of them have to share 3 beds. The family has a kerosene stove for cooking, there is running water in the house and electricity is available but not affordable. I was very excited about this child because I knew this would have to be our last one for a while. You may have noticed that my oldest 3 girls, who are also my most recently sponsored children, (Karen, Soila and Jamaica) were all chosen when they were already into their teens. I figure that they have either been waiting a long time or else they had lost their sponsors. How heartbreaking for the sponsor and child both. And how frightening for the child.
I sent Karen a welcome SNG of $100 and here is what she chose:In case you can't read the print or make out the photos, she received a large assortment of various food items, 2 pairs of sandals, 1 pair of jeans (in the latest style), 3 blouses and 1 pkg of underwear. Karen thanked me profusely stating that the family needed these things very much. She sent "warm hugs, kisses and love". I have found that, among my sponsored children at least, those from Hispanic cultures seem to be much less formal and very warm and demonstrative. (well, as demonstrative as you can be in a letter!)

I sent her a letter welcoming her to our family and telling her a little about us and our town . I told her I felt privileged to sponsor her, get to know her and to help her in this small way. She wrote back to me to say that we are welcome to her family, too and that she is proud to be part of our family and to have us as part of hers. She says that the climate in her home town, San Pedro Sula, Honduras is very warm year round and that she lives about 75 miles from the ocean. She liked the photos of us I sent and the postcards of Moscow. She says our town is beautiful. She's right of course!

So that's Karen, our newest. I can't wait to see who she grows up to be!

Your real hourly wage and becoming conscious of your life energy

So if money equals life energy you have a vested interest in knowing just how much of it is actually passing through your hands. Most people compute their hourly wage like this: "I work 40 hours a week, I earn $600/net a week so I trade one hour of my life energy for $15." Unfortunately it's not that simple. Have you ever thought about how much your job costs you? Yes you read that right. Your job costs you money and time to maintain. Think of all the ways you use your life energy, off the clock, that are directly related to your job. Think of all the monetary expenses that are a direct result of your job.

Examples include: Time and money spent commuting to and from work including gas, wear and tear on your car, parking fees, tolls or train, bus or carpool expenses. Time and money spent maintaining and dressing up in what ever your required work uniform might be, whether that's scrubs, hard hat and steel toed boots or tailored suits and matching shoes/purse. And the laundry, dry cleaning and ironing they require. What about time and money spent on personal grooming, cosmetics, after shave, hair style etc. Then there's the time and money spent on meals: Morning coffee and bagel, lunch break off the clock, mid afternoon espresso to keep you going, power lunches, and expensive convenience foods or restaurant meals you buy because you're too tired after a day at work to cook. Daily decompression takes its toll in money and time, too. If it takes you a while in a recliner with favorite drug of choice (alcohol, something to smoke or other recreational substances, legal or not) in hand to recover from the day you had at work, that is job related time and expense too. Escape entertainment, vacations and expensive playthings, because you've worked hard and deserve it, all consume time and money. What about job related illnesses? Union dues, child care, mandatory office parties that take place after hours, things you hire people to do for you that you could do for yourself if you didn't have that job, all add up in time and money laid out to keep that job. What other expenditures of time and money apply to your situation that aren't mentioned here?

Once you add all these extra hours to your 40 hour work week and subtract all these extra costs from your weekly salary you will come up with quite a different number for your hourly wage. You really need to sit down with pencil and paper or spread sheet and figure this out. Why? Because this is your precious life energy you are trading for these dollars. You can't make informed decisions about how to use money if you don't know how much of it you are trading each hour of your life for. This puts your paid employment into true perspective. But be prepared for a shock, you may not like that number. But that number doesn't reflect your worth as a human being. Do not mistake your job or what it earns you for your real self.

And this number is an incredibly powerful tool. Once you have it you can now understand how much of your life energy you are committing when you decide to purchase any given item. This number makes your money real for you in a way it probably hasn't been in the past. So let's say that your employment related time and expense make your equation look something like this: 40 hours + 10 hours commuting + 2 hours dressing up and primping + 5 hours off the clock lunch time + 5 hours of decompression + an average of 5 hours a week on entertainment, vacation and job related illness. That makes your work week 67 hours. Your $600/net a week salary shrinks by: $50 for commuting, $15 for costuming, $25 for meals, $15 for decompression, $55 (averaged out over the year) for entertainment, vacation and job related illness. Now you have $440 left. So $440 divided by 67 hours makes: $6.57 an hour. Your mileage may vary.

Now, are your going to be more conscious the next time you consider buying something?

I take no credit for the concepts discussed here. They are all contained in the book Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicky Robin.

Dollars really stretch in India, but just what are dollars?

Subhendu is our child whom we have sponsored the longest. He came to us in January of 2004 when CI left Nepal. Our very 1st sponsored child was Rajesh
in Nepal whom we sponsored in April of 2003. In January of 2004 we got a letter from CI stating that due to political tensions in Nepal, CI was ceasing operations in that country. I was of course very upset by this but there was nothing I could do about it. CI has to be concerned for the safety of it's staff and volunteers. My one consolation is that when I first started sponsoring him, I had sent Rajesh a special needs gift (SNG) of $100 which provided his family with a mother goat and kid. I hope that they still have those goats and that the herd has increased and brought better nutrition and more wealth to the family. Rajesh is one of three children we have sponsored and lost prior to the normal age (19) at which children graduate from the program. More about them in future posts.

So CI suggested Subhendu for our consideration and we were glad to accept him as our new sponsored child. He was 7 when he came to us and is turning 14 this May. He lives with both parents and one older brother. He is doing well in school and has passed every year's exam to enter the next grade. The family has a one room brick house with mud floor and concrete roof. They have wooden beds and a wood burning stove for cooking. Electricity is available but expensive and prone to outages. Water is carried from a community pump. His favorite school subject is languages and he likes to draw, play badminton and run in his free time. The family earns an average of $53 a month.

In January I sent an SNG of $100 for Subhendu and I recently got the letter and photos of what it purchased for him. He is standing in front of a steel cabinet with some display compartments and some locking ones for valuables. These are very popular in India. Next to him is an emergency lantern and he's holding part of a new badminton set and wearing new jeans and a new shirt. All of these things were purchased with my $100 SNG. A very good investment of my money I think.

Speaking of which, just what the heck is money, that slippery stuff? Have you ever really thought about it? Some folks say that money is a means of exchange, a store of value. But if you were stranded in the Amazon among indigenous folks who have never seen the stuff, do you think you'd be able to exchange some of your funny colored pieces of paper for the things you'd need to survive? Some people think money is security, but if you were walking down a dark alley in the worst neighborhood of a large city would that suitcase of money handcuffed to your wrist make you feel more secure or more nervous? Smarter people than I have devoted time and thought to this question. One of them was Joe Dominguez, co-author of one of the most important books I have ever read, called Your Money or Your Life. Joe says the one consistently true statement he ever found that could be made about money was this:

Money is something we choose to trade our life energy for.

Our life energy is all we really have and we trade it in numerous ways for money. For any money that comes into your life you have traded some of your life energy. Working is the obvious way we do this. But what about an inheritance? You probably spent time with lawyers, notaries, and financial folks to take possession. You may even have had to spend time in court. What about unemployment? Please, all the forms you have to fill out, all the time spent in line. Lottery winners spend time choosing numbers and scratching off the cards. Slot machine players spend hours in smoky casinos pulling on the one armed bandit. But what about the quarter you found on the street today? You had to take the time and energy to bend over and pick it up.

So if money equals life energy, what are you trading your life energy for? And what are you spending your precious life energy on? More about that next time.

Another favorite charity and "What is money?"

I almost hesitate to call KIVA a charity. It's really a micro loan program. You can invest as little as $25 to help an entrepreneur start a new business or improve an existing business. The charity part comes in when KIVA asks you to give an additional small percentage of your loan amount to help them run the program. The beauty of this program is that you can use the same money over and over again to help different people. It works like this: I make a $25 loan to, say, a single mom in the Philippines to upgrade her used clothing business. The loan term is 6 months. Each month a portion of that money is paid back to me. At the end of 6 months I have my entire $25 back and can loan it to a couple in, maybe, Azerbaijan to buy chickens to start an egg business. Or if I need the money I can withdraw it from the program. For more info go here: http://www.kiva.org/about/how and be sure to check out the cool new video A Fistful of Dollars which follows a loan around the world.

So far I have made 9 loans at $25 each with a total loan outlay of only $131. How can I make 9 $25 loans for $131? Because every time I get payments in that bring my total repayments close to $25 I chip in the few extra dollars needed to bring the total to $25 and make a new loan. (I have also donated $25 to KIVA) Two of my loans are 100% paid back, 2 are in excess of 50% paid back and the rest are less than 25% paid back. I have loaned to folks in Central and South America, Africa, Central Asia and East Asia. I haven't lost a dime yet. Each borrower profile tells what micro loan organization/partner they are borrowing through and gives info about their payback rates. They even rate your risk of loosing money due to currency fluctuations. I'm not worried about losing a couple of bucks to currency fluctuation. So what have you got to lose?

Why am I talking about all this stuff? To show off how great I am? No, I don't think I'm great. I read recently that people are more likely to give to charitable causes if they know that others are giving. Thus this blog. If I inspire you to give to any cause I talk about here or any cause you feel is worthy, please leave a comment and tell me about it. I'd love to hear your take on all of this. I also consider charity to be enlightened self interest. The greater the gap between rich and poor, the more unrest in the world. There's an old saying "We all do better when we all do better." The little I do can't make much of a dent in world poverty but it can show people in other countries a kinder face of America. If we all do what we can it will make a dent.

I'll leave you this time with a question: What is money? Think about that and leave a comment, if you wish, telling me your definition of money. Next time I'll tell you mine.

Special Needs Gifts and just where does thrift come into all this

Special Needs Gifts (SNG) are just that. They are gifts you send anytime of the year to give your child something extra. You can stipulate that it go towards a certain need or let the child, their family and/or the Program decide what is most needed at the time. SNGs of less that $25 go into the fund that purchases gifts for all the children. SNGs of $25 to $99 go directly to your child and you will receive a letter telling you what the gift provided for your child. SNGs of $100 or more go directly to your child and you will receive a letter and photos showing what the child received.

Here is an example of a $100 SNG I sent to Jamaica shortly after sponsoring her to welcome her to the family. Jamaica chose quite an array of new clothes, sandals and accessories as well as a lot of groceries; special things that the family can rarely afford to eat. That's one of the great things about this program: American dollars really stretch far in these countries. That helps to keep the monthly cost of sponsorship affordable while supplying things the children really need.

That's where the thrift part comes in. If my financial house was not in order I would not be able to sponsor these children. Thanks to books like Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicky Robin and The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn, which I discovered and took to heart years ago, I retired when I was 41. Greg retired a couple of years earlier at age 43. I have since devoted my life to various volunteer projects including living with my Mom for 3 years towards the end of her life to delay her departure to an assisted living facility. Had I been tied to a job, needing to earn a living, I would never have been able to do that. I currently work 2 half days a week as a bookkeeper only because my boss allows me to set my own schedule and lets me set my own agenda at work provided required things get done on time.

My husband and I keep track of every cent. To some that might sound restrictive but we've been doing it so long it's second nature and requires little time. That attention to detail plus bullet proof investments in Treasury and Government Agency bonds has left us worry free for the last 12 years. I'm not writing all this to brag but to make the point that once you get a hold on your finances you can pursue the things you think are truly worthwhile.

It costs $22 a months to sponsor a child. That works out to about 73 cents a day. What can you buy for 73 cents a day? A stamp? A vending machine soda or candy bar? (if that) Or health care, clothing, education and hope for a child in dire poverty. What's going to give you the best return for your investment?

Ephraim's schooling and more about sponsorship in general

We began sponsoring Ephraim in April of 2005, when he was 9 years old, shortly after Children International first began operating in Zambia. He will turn 14 this April. He lives in Lusaka, Zambia with his mother and older sister. They have a concrete block house with a concrete floor and corrugated metal roof. They sleep on mats on the floor and have a coal stove for cooking. They have no electricity and water must be carried from community faucets. There is a latrine separate from the house. Ephraim loves to play soccer. His favorite school subjects are Social Studies, Math, English and Reading. He speaks Nyanja and Bemba.

Zambia is by far the poorest county in which Children International operates. Many children there are orphans due to the AIDS epidemic in much of Africa. Ephraim is fortunate to have one parent still alive. His mother is a street vendor and brings in about $23 a month.

I recently learned that in Zambia the Education system works like this:
Primary Grades 1-7 (ages 7 - 13) have free education
Basic School Grades 8-9 (ages 14 -15) Costs $24 per year
High School Grades 10-12 (ages 16 - 18) Costs $40 - $75 a year
Boarding School Grades 8 - 12 (ages 14 - 18) Costs $160 - $240 a year

I don't know if Lusaka has any school higher than Primary. If there is no school in their area children can live with relatives near a school to attend as day students or attend boarding school. Most people are so poor that they cannot send their children to Basic School. Many do not even finish Primary School as they are needed to help their parents with the work of earning a living. Boarding School gives the best quality education available in Zambia. I know that Ephraim is soon reaching the end of his free Primary School. I have sent a Special Needs gift to help him stay in school. I will be contacting CI to see what we can do for him and what more he needs to continue his education.

More about sponsorship.
When you sponsor a child through Children International you agree to provide $22 a month to help support that child. Children International provides the following to each sponsored child:

• Health care and medicine
• Dental care
• Malnutrition screenings and nutritional support
• Sturdy clothing and shoes
• School supplies and improved access to education

You can learn more here: http://www2.children.org

In addition to your monthly amount you will be sent reminders of birthdays and other holidays when you may choose to give additional amounts for gifts. All children receive Birthday, Christmas, Easter and Special Hug Day Gifts regardless of whether their sponsors were able to send additional donations for them. Easter is always new shoes, Christmas in usually clothing and maybe a small toy for younger kids. Special Hug Day is a day for receiving things the household needs such as dishes, pot and pans, blankets, sheets etc. Birthday gifts can be what ever the child needs, sometimes clothing that the child gets to choose for themselves. You may also send a Special Needs donation for your child or children any time you wish. More about Special Needs Gifts next time.

We're experiencing technical difficulty, please stand by

I have no idea how to put this page together so please bear with me while I try to get it right in the next few days and weeks. My main purpose in this page is to promote my favorite charities and causes and to discuss books and ideas I have found to be of value in my life.

The title "Lift One More" is in reference to a Children International concept of current sponsors talking to and encouraging others to become sponsors. Thus they will "lift one more" child out of poverty. Children International is a Child Sponsorship organization headquartered in Kansas City, MO. They have projects in 10 foreign countries: Chile, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, the Philippines and Zambia. When we first decided to sponsor children back in 2003 we looked at several different organizations on their own websites and also on the Charity Navigator website. We were looking for a highly rated organization that had a good record of using its money well. One that had been around for a while and knew what it was doing. It was particularly important to me that the organization we chose not be proselytizing any religion. When you have the soup pot and all they have is hunger it seems an unfair time to say "Want to learn a neat new religion with your dinner?" Thus the choice was clear: Children International. Here's their website if you'd like to go check it out: http://www2.children.org

We currently sponsor 6 children and I will be adding more info about them and the program in days to come as well as info about other charities and organizations we have found worthy of our support. Great, so here I am proselytizing. Ah, but I have no unfair advantage over you, you are free to leave at any time. I would love to hear from you about your favorite charities. Perhaps some will become my favorites , too.