when you're economically empowered

Rescuing girls from sex slavery
By Ebonne Ruffins, CNN
April 30, 2010 5:30 p.m. EDT

Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) -- Geeta was 9 when she began wearing makeup, staying up until 2 a.m. and having sex with as many as 60 men a day.

"I used to be really sad and frustrated with what was happening in my life," she said. . . .

It was not until Geeta was 14 that a police officer rescued her and brought her to a safe house compound run by Anuradha Koirala. The 61-year-old woman and her group, Maiti Nepal, have been fighting for more than 16 years to rescue and rehabilitate thousands of Nepal's sex trafficking victims. . . .

By the early 1990s, an increasing demand for help and persistent cases of violence against women compelled Koirala to do more. Maiti Nepal was her brainchild for giving voice, legal defense and rehabilitation to victims of sex trafficking.

Roughly translated, Maiti means "Mother's Home." The group has facilities throughout Nepal and India, but most of the rehabilitation work takes place at its main campus in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Koirala said girls from the brothels arrive empty-handed, sick, in many cases pregnant or with small children, and "psychologically broken."

"When the girl first comes to Maiti Nepal, we never, never ask them a question. We just let them [be] for as long as they need. We let them play, dance, walk, talk to a friend," Koirala said. "They are afraid at first, but eventually they will talk to us on their own." . . .

The group's ultimate goal is to help girls become economically independent and reintegrated into society.

"We try to give them whatever work they want to do, whatever training they want to do, because when you're economically empowered, people forget everything. People even forget [she is] HIV-positive or was trafficked," Koirala said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/29/
cnnheroes.koirala.nepal/

Hammer

When the only tool you have is a hammer,
every problem looks like a nail.

~ Unknown

The Most Important Job in the World

Quote:
Tony Campolo adapted by James Moore, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

Dr. Tony Campolo is a well-known and highly-respected, inspirational speaker. Over the last several years, Tony Campolo has spent much of his time traveling around the world on speaking tours.
Meanwhile, his wife, Peggy, has chosen to stay home and give herself and all that she has to the "Bringing Up" of their two children, Bart and Lisa. On those rare occasions when Peggy does travel with Tony, she finds herself engaged in conversations with some of the most accomplished, impressive, influential, sophisticated people in the world.
After one such trip, Peggy told Tony that sometimes as she visits with these powerful people… she finds herself feeling intimidated and sometimes even questioning her own self-worth. Tony said to her: "Well, honey, why don't you come up with something you could say when you meet people that will let them know that you strongly value what you do and you feel that it is dramatically, urgent and crucial and important.
Well, not long after that, Tony and Peggy Campolo were at a party… when a woman said to Peggy in a rather condescending tone, "Well, my dear, what do you do?" Tony Campolo heard his wife say:
"I am nurturing two Homo Sapiens into the dominant values of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in order that they might become instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia God envisioned from the beginning of time."
And the other woman said:
"O, my, I'm just a lawyer."
I like that story because it reminds us that there are a lot of important jobs in the world today but not one of them is more important than the job of being a mother.

I just helped him cry

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

~ Author Unknown

It is always better to act than to grieve

"It is always better to act than to grieve."

~ Beowulf

Enough Already!

quotes from Peter Walsh's Enough Already!

A lot of clutter is a lack of acceptance that a moment has passed.

The cycle problem:
If you put a load of clothes in the wash, and halfway through you turn the machine off and leave it for a few days, you will come back to a mound of smelly laundry. You have to finish the cycle. When you have a bowl of cereal, does the box go back in the cupboard? When you bring in the mail, do you immediately open and sort it? At night, do your clothes go in the hamper or on the floor? We have a choice: to be mindful and complete the cycle, or to end up with a stinky load of washing in the metaphorical machine. Inside we're all 8-year-olds expecting someone to pick up after us. Those days are gone.

The Ground Rules

1. Everything you own should have value, either because it's functional or beautiful or you just love it. Remember the question of what you'd grab if your house were on fire; that's your baseline for determining an object's worth.

2. Every item needs a place where it "lives." Setting things down on the coffee table or kitchen counter creates piles and confusion. My clients mock me when I say, "Where do your keys live? They live in a bowl or on a hook by the front door"—but you never lose anything when you put it where it lives.

3. Focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is supposed to help you get more things done quickly, but when you try to do 19 things at once, everything ends up incomplete. You're trying to simplify your life, so simplify your approach to getting organized.

Catalogs: You can log on to Catalogchoice.org, a free service that will stop these unwanted mailings from being sent to you.

Formals: DonateMyDress.org provides formal wear to girls who can't afford prom or special occasion dresses.

The Inherited Items and Mementos:
Your home is not a museum. ... You're not living her life, and you're not a bad person for giving inherited items away. ... Donate it, document what it's worth, and take it off your taxes. Or give it to another family member who would really like it. Or sell it on eBay. ... Rule of thumb: If it serves no purpose, let it go.

The Car:
What should be in the car: registration, insurance certificate, owner's manual, maps and/or GPS, extra pair of sunglasses in case of glare, small folding umbrella, headset for your cell phone (preferably you're not talking while driving, but if you are, please be hands-free), envelope with supermarket and drive-through restaurant coupons and any gift certificates you've received (it's pointless for them to be in the drawer at home).
What should be in the trunk: tool kit, flashlight, working spare tire. In winter, add ice scraper, bag of kitty litter (for traction in snow), a small blanket.

Email: If you're constantly responding to e-mail, you're being pulled away from the things that you need or want to do. Try checking it hourly.

The (Shudder) Basement or Garage:

Where do you start? First, get rid of unsalvageables.

Once you've gotten rid of the garbage, start grouping similar items.

When everything has been sorted, prune: Is this important enough to save? Is it useful? Discard what isn't.

Next, containerize what's left. ... I'm all about clear plastic storage. ... Get rolling shelves that can be moved to one side of the room and perhaps even covered with drapes.

At the end of this project, you'll have accomplished three goals: There will be less stuff, what's left will be in order, and everything will be in containers that work with your space. Being organized isn't about getting rid of everything you own or trying to become a different person; it's about living the way you want to live, but better. There are enough things in the world that you can't control—but you can bring some order into your home and your life.

Graduation Memories, PTS

I recall Diogenes Allen at our 1988 baccalaureate service. Many parents and relatives were there when he unpacked a passage from Mark’s gospel. Said Dr. Allen, “I looked at several commentaries regarding this passage and found this comment, ‘several unrelated sayings from Q.’ Well, perhaps Mark knows how to relate the sayings of Jesus better than any exegete.”
The bravado of that statement, of course, was lost on many family members who looked at one another, wondering, “What in the world is Q?”
Scott Kinder-Pyle (M.Div., 1988)
Spokane, Washington

Tom Gillespie, at my commencement in 1986, said “...and remember that the Bible is not a map, it’s a compass.” I’ve always remembered that, and I’ve quoted it frequently over the years. It’s one of the most concise and useful bits of theology I’ve ever heard.
David Preisendanz (M.Div., 1986)
Willow Grove, Pennsylvania

http://www3.ptsem.edu/inSpireContent.aspx?id=3409&

Humiliation

Nelson Mandela:

Sometimes a leader has to criticize those with whom he works—it cannot be avoided. I like a leader who can, while pointing out a mistake, bring up the good things the other person has done. If you do that, then the person sees that you have a complete picture of him. There is nobody more dangerous than one who has been humiliated, even when you humiliate him rightly. ...

If you are humble, you are no threat to anybody. Some behave in a way that dominates others. That's a mistake. If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important—and you do that by being genuine and humble. You know that other people have qualities that may be better than your own. Let them express them. ...

We must teach people that when they've been wronged, they must talk to their enemies and resolve their differences for the sake of peace.

www.oprah.com/world/Oprah-Interviews-Nelson-Mandela/

Elliott Smith's idea of Heaven

Asked once by New Musical Express what his idea of heaven was, Elliott Smith replied,
"George Jones would be singing all the time. It would be like New York in reverse. People would be nice to each other for no reason at all. And it would smell good."

New York in Reverse
Elliott Smith's idea of heaven was modest, like everything else about the songwriter.
By Alex Abramovich
Posted Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 4:08 PM PT
http://slate.msn.com/id/2090203/

Three Desires of Husbands

"We husbands have three desires in life: food, sex, and … we can't think of the third thing."

~ Phil Callaway,
author of I Used to Have Answers, Now I Have Kids (Harvest House)

You are never too old

http://www.bluefishtv.com/Store/
Downloadable_Video_Illustrations/1739/Never_Too_Late

quote:

Noah was five-hundred when he began building the ark.
Abram was middle-aged when God called him out of Ur to begin a new nation.
Sarah was ninety-nine when she gave birth to Isaac.
Moses was eighty when God told him to rescue the nation Israel from Pharaoh.
Caleb was forty years old when he spied on the Canaanites.
Daniel was eighty-six when he was thrown into the lion's den.
Jesus was thirty when he began his ministry.

It's never too late to follow God's call.

"I really needed to swim out to the wave"

quotes from Raquel Welch, April 2010:

Today, Raquel says she has a great relationship with her kids, but it took work. "I just started out realizing that I really needed to swim out to the wave. I needed to take a lot more initiative and just keep letting them know that I wanted to be there in their lives with them, that I had something I could offer to them," she says. "Little by little, the disappointment or the lack of confidence they had in me melted away."
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Sex-Symbol-Raquel-Welch-on-Aging/6

Marilyn [Monroe] oozed "availability," which was how we young girls felt hormonally, though we had to put a lid on it. What troubled me back then was the fact that as hypnotic as Marilyn was to watch, she gave the impression of someone who could be easily taken advantage of and who couldn't fight back . . . like my mother. For that reason, I didn't want to be like her at all. She was an accident waiting to happen. Later, I saw that there were some men who could be protective. That was reassuring, but then they might end up taking ownership of you. Being a girl was like walking a tightrope.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Excerpt-Raquel-Welchs-Raquel-Beyond-the-Cleavage/10

Jaime Escalante Math Program

Jaime Escalante Math Program
This article was first published in the Journal of Negro Education in 1990.

www.thefutureschannel.com/jaime_escalante/
jaime_escalante_math_program.php

"Yes, the barriers disadvantaged or minority students face are substantial, but it is the very possibility of their remaining trapped by them for an entire lifetime which requires that such students be urged to succeed in their academic studies. It may be their only way out. If students have not been taught that they are the “victims” of their environment and that they must, therefore, adjust to it, then teachers can gain their full willingness – and strength – to overcome whatever obstacles they face.
...
"Admittedly, there are those extremely rare children with such severe problems that they are unable to become successful students; but given admiration, discipline and encouragement, even “impossible” children will sometimes surprise everyone and “miraculously” begin to perform at higher levels.
...
"A teacher is a teacher when he or she identifies a student’s strengths and activates the student’s potential to learn.
...
"The key, for the teacher as well as for the student, is hard work. Hard work makes the future. When hard work is combined with love, humor and a recognition of the ganas – the desire to learn, the ability to sacrifice, the wish to get ahead – that burns in our young people, the stereotypes and the barriers begin to crumble."

A Wise Man

"A fool thinks himself to be wise,
but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

~ William Shakespeare