My visit to the fashionABLE factory in Ethiopia two years ago changed my life, and I continue to be inspired by Barrett Ward's infectious enthusiasm and determination to help women elevate their lives. Barrett is truly amazing and it was fantastic to see him in Washington last week at the #AYASummit. Meanwhile, it's fashionABLE's 4th birthday this week so I thought it would be fun to share 5 of my favorite picks from their collection. Go shop! Everything is on sale this week and your dollars will make a difference!
I recently shared about ONE's new Girls & Women site; I'm honored to be part of such an incredible advisory board and I'll share more about this work in the fall. Meanwhile, I hope you'll read this piece I wrote on finding and celebrating voice through art. Writing the post helped me put words to my own stifled journey and why I feel it's crucial to give kids the chance to find their voice and passion.
So, I've never been as excited about staring down a jug of dirty water as I was this morning! To help spread the word about the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program -- an effort that has turned billions (yes, billions) of liters of dirty water into safe drinking water for kids around the world -- I shot the below demo video about their water purification technique, which is something I could actually do at home with said jug of dirty water! Check it out and learn more about how YOU can help (in, like, 2 seconds!):
Friends, I'm completely bleary eyed after a whirlwind couple of days in Washington, D.C., followed by what very well may be the worst night of sleep in the history of my universe (Vi is sick and woke up every hour...aagggh). However, my (somewhat cloudy) mind is still spinning over the events of the last couple of days and I wanted to take a moment to share something with you.
Friends, you are amazing. Simply amazing. Asha and I are so grateful to everyone who participated in our #HelpWomenAtRisk fundraiser for Ethiopian women. Every book purchased, every blog post and social media update, every moment of attention helped us honor a journey that began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, shortly after we turned in the manuscript for Minimalist Parenting.
Do you know about fashionABLE? Not only are their products amazing, but this company works to give vulnerable women in Ethiopia opportunities for employment so they can lift themselves out of lives of prostitution and are not dependent on charity. I had the honor of visiting fashionABLE in Ethiopia last fall and these women are why Asha and I are donating 100% of book royalties this month to Women At Risk (order the book via http://bit.ly/helpwomenatrisk to help the cause!).
One of the most beautiful things about the online space is how incredibly nimble people can be to make awesome things happen. In October when I traveled to Ethiopia as part of the ONE Moms delegation, our team created such an online stir about fashionABLE that they were able to create three new jobs. This past winter, fellow Ethiopia companion and dear friend Gabrielle Blair, of Design Mom and Alt Summit, worked with ONE and fashionABLE to challenge the Alt community to design an exclusive ONE/fashionABLE Mother's Day scarf. And today the beautiful Genet scarf is available for purchase (with free shipping today and tomorrow).
When ONE asked me to share a recipe in honor of Sweet Potato Day -- an effort to raise awareness about world hunger -- I immediately thought of a recipe I enjoyed one Thanksgiving in Maryland. Jon and I were away from our families and our dear friend Joe invited us to his mom Chris's house. It meant so much to me to be welcomed in for the holidays, and the food -- including Chris's sweet potato casserole with bourbon and marshmallows -- was insanely good.
Friends, I'm so excited to share some fun Minimalist Parenting news today. Thanks to the generosity of Isis Parenting, there is going to be a totally awesome (and fabulously do-gooding) Minimalist Parenting launch party here in Boston! Please join us on Thursday, March 28 at 6:30pm at Prudential Center to enjoy an evening out, meet other awesome parents, celebrate the launch of the book (I'll give a short presentation and will be available for high fives, questions, and to sign books), and support an amazing charity all at the same time!
Not long after I returned from Ethiopia, Bridget of @BostonSkin asked me about fair trade shea butter suppliers based in Africa. I didn't have immediate recommendations top of mind and canvassed my fellow ONE Moms for ideas; they of course came up with great leads! I've been meaning to share these recommendations for a while (er, several months now!), particularly given that if your skin is anything like mine, it is suffering along through the winter in a dry, chapped state. Here's to happy skin and supporting global businesses!
Today's Dear Boston Mamas query comes from new reader Amy via e-mail:
Hi Christine, I recently discovered your site and love it! It's super helpful for a working mother of a 6-year-old and 3-year-old. I find it refreshing, very well-written and with a great dose of humor. One question: I was inspired to clean out the junk. In doing so I've been able to give a lot to consignment (I love Growing Up and Revolve in Belmont) however, I have a lot of gently used toys, women's clothing and household items that I would like to go to charities who give these items away to the needy for free. Can you suggest and organizations? Perhaps Cradles to Crayons for the children's items? Any ideas for the adult items?
Through my work at The Mission List and via my travel to Ethiopia with ONE Moms, I've been thinking a lot about the hunger crisis this year, and taking small actions to contribute towards eradicating global hunger. Today I wanted to share about the World Food Program's Fill a Cup, Feed a Dream school meals program. The World Food Program views hunger as a problem that can be solved; they use a red cup to feed kids healthy, nutritious school meals and also as a symbol of hope. Amazingly, it only takes 25 cents to fill a red cup with porridge, rice, or beans and give kids a monthly ration to take home. Crazy, right?
Given the no-brainer nature of my family's morning routine (wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, etc.), it's heartbreaking to know that millions of kids across the U.S. are forced to go without breakfast. Especially when it's so absurdly easy to make breakfast happen. Well, actually, I should rephrase that. Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry program does the heavy lifting by working with schools to create breakfast programs for kids in need, but for the rest of us, we can make breakfast happen with the click of a mouse. And even a donation of $1 makes a big difference in curbing hunger.
Boys count too. Of course they do. But this fall, I've learned so much about the disproportionate challenges that girls face, most notably through what I witnessed on the ground in Ethiopia and digitally through Half the Sky and now Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old girl who was shot in the head because of her commitment to advocating for the right for girls -- for all children -- to go to school. This is something that's incredibly difficult for me to stomach; dropping Laurel and Violet off at school is just a basic part of our routine.
It's hard to believe that this time last month I was in Ethiopia with ONE Moms -- the trip still lives so vividly with me (I just dreamed last night that I was headed back to Africa). Many of you asked how you could help -- I hope to circle back soon with a list of ways to help the specific sites we visited while on the ground in Ethiopia. Meanwhile, today, I'm asking you to consider making a difference by taking two actions in twenty seconds. So simple. So easy. So important.
Our final site visit in Ethiopia represented the awesome and the ironic. Muya (which means talent) is a woman-owned, fair trade business that has "made it" in many ways. In contrast to the primitive yet productive trappings of fashionABLE, Muya is situated in Addis Ababa on a rather restorative feeling compound -- a series of modern buildings (vs. wood and tin roofed huts) nestled between plenty of foliage. They make a gorgeous array of home and fashion products and produce scarves for Lemlem (which distributes to clients such as J. Crew). Yet despite their successes, they still struggle to gain footing with sellers; largely, it seems, due to outsider stereotypes of Ethiopia.
Ever since reading Roger Thurow's The Last Hunger Season I've been thinking a lot about global food issues and about how simple agricultural educational practices (e.g., how to space out seeds, fertilize, water) are huge game changers when it comes to sustainability and helping farmers in third world countries not only feed their families, but access other necessities such as education. Our visits to USAID's ENGINE hub and a nutrition demonstration showed the progress being made in this direction.