Why I Vaccinate
This post was sponsored by IVaccinate.org. Last month, I agreed to partner with IVaccinate.org. to talk about why I choose to vaccinate my children. Little did I know that just a few weeks later, our world would be living under a declared pandemic, with millions of people at risk as we await a vaccine. This is not a post about being pro-vaccine, or anti-vaccine. This is a post about recognizing the inherent privilege in getting to choose such a stance. I think it’s easy for those of us . . .
This is empowerment: day 1 with Krochet Kids Peru
I am spending this week in Lima, Peru with my friends Sarah, Heather, and Rebecca. We are visiting with my friends The Goodfellows, who run the Peru arm of Krochet Kids, an organization that provides training, employment, childcare, and mentorship for impoverished women. I’ve written about Krochet Kids before. I love their model of empowerment and I’m thrilled to be here again with some other bloggers in the hopes that we can expand the reach of Krochet Kids’ mission. Yesterday was Sunday and . . .
The inconvenient truth about your Halloween chocolate and forced child labor
The picture below is a photo of a young child gathering pods to harvest cocoa beans. There are hundreds of thousands of children in West Africa who do this work. Young children. Children who should be attending school and having a childhood. And they are working for most of the mainstream chocolate providers in the USA. A report from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture about cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast estimated there were 284,000 children working on cocoa farms in . . .
That’s what SHE said: #lovehope Ethiopia edition with Jen Hatmaker, Korie Robertson, and Jillian Lauren.
I’m in Ethiopia this week with Help One Now, hearing stories of how their work is preventing the tragedy of poverty orphans. I thought that for this week’s picks, I would share some of the writing of the other women on this trip. I hope you will take the time to click through and read their essays. It’s powerful and heartbreaking, and yet there is redemption. Love Hope | Jillian Lauren Our adoption gave us more than the family we were longing for; it also allowed us to experience our . . .
Murrieta is a Mess: Border Crisis and Confusion (a guest post by Joey Aszterbaum)
Two weeks ago a crowd of angry protesters faced off with border patrol agents in Murrieta, California, where the city's mayor and residents blocked buses carrying immigrant children who were going to be processed there. Some saw anti-immigration protestors as patriots bravely standing up against a failed federal government. But when I went to the town hall meeting at Murrieta Mesa High School the next day I didn't see bravery at all. What I saw was fear and confusion. [photo credit: Jolynne . . .
On Hobby Lobby, employee injustice, and the inconvenient cost of caring
This week the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby’s right to deny coverage of birth control methods they deem to be “abortifacients,” and it seems like the whole internet exploded in outrage. My facebook and twitter feed were lit up with rants about women’s rights and boycotts and religious tyranny. And I get it. I wasn’t really thrilled with the decision myself. I think access to birth control is a pretty vital component in reducing abortions, and I personally don’t believe that Plan B . . .
Are blogger trips an example of poverty tourism?
Over the past few years, more and more charitable organizations have enlisted the help of bloggers to market the work that they do. For some organizations, this has looked like product reviews or storytelling. Other charities have planned trips in which high-profile bloggers are invited to see first-hand what the organization does, and then in turn, to share that story with their audience. Organizations like Compassion, Food for the Hungry, and World Vision have done such trips for years, but . . .
Why girls in Nigeria should matter to you. #bringbackourgirls
In a part of Nigeria where 72% of the population never attends elementary school, they were were in high school. In a country where a war is being waged to oppress women from getting an education, they had left their homes and families to pursue one, living in a boarding home because for many, there was not a good school in their local village. They had aspirations. They had goals. They wanted to be teachers, doctors, lawyers. In the small farming town of Chibok, hundreds of girls were doing . . .
An easy way to bring clean water to people in need
Every once in a while my blog provides our family with a really cool experience, and today was one of my favorites. P&G sent us a sample of their water purification packets, which are a part of their Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. Our goal: make some water really dirty, and use the packet to turn it into clean water. The kids were SO excited. In fact, it attracted half of the neighborhood, and I loved hearing the kids explain their impassioned understanding of the world’s water . . .
“Where you are born shouldn’t dictate whether you live or die”
Last week, I had the change to travel to Washington, DC for part of the ONE Summit. ONE is an advocacy organization founded by Bono, dedicated to addressing poverty in Africa. I attended as a ONE Moms ambassador, which seeks to rally moms around these causes. I’ve long been a fan of the ONE campaign so I was thrilled to become a part of the ONE Moms team. (And it didn’t hurt that I was joining some of my favorite ladies.) Our first day there, we spent learning about the initiatives that ONE is . . .
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