Sister Giant ….
The Sister Giant Conference is finished for 2010. For further info about Marianne Williamson check out her website, Facebook and Twitter sites. Sign-up for the email list and keep informed about any upcoming events and conferences.
TAKE ACTION TO END DEEP POVERTY
Join Marianne in Washington, DC at the RESULTS International Conference on June 20-22. The conference is a great opportunity to 1) learn about the issues, 2) gain new advocacy skills from workshops and through partnering with current activists, 3) directly lobby your members of Congress on microcredit, global education, and global health. If this idea of advocacy and lobbying is new to you, this conference will change your life. Find the registration form and information here: www.results.org
For more information on preparing for the conference, contact Lisa Marchal (lmarchal@results.org, (317) 529-5182), or Ken Patterson (kpatterson@results.org, (828) 398-4562).
Microcredit RESULTS:
Over 100 million of the world's poorest people are building businesses with microloans, achieving a bold goal set in 1997 by the Microcredit Summit Campaign (a project of RESULTS Educational Fund).
Ending Hunger- RESULTS:
Millions of Americans received a boost in food stamps benefits and emergency food aid because RESULTS and allies achieved a $10.4 billion increase in nutrition funding over 10 years in the latest Farm Bill.
Global Health - RESULTS:
RESULTS leads the way in increasing awareness and funding for TB control and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Our critical work increased TB funding from $1 million to $160 million in seven years, while 2008 legislation authorized $4 billion over the next 5 years.
Children's Health Care - RESULTS:
Over 4 million more uninsured children from low- and moderate-income families can now get health coverage through the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Child Survival
At the urging of RESULTS groups across the country, the U.S. began funding global immunization programs in the early 1980s. Over 30 million children's lives have been saved as a result.
Early Childhood Development- RESULTS:
After a four-year fight, Head Start was reauthorized in 2008, assuring that millions of America's neediest children have access to affordable, quality, early childhood development services.
What People Say About RESULTS
"I considered myself apolitical when I got involved in RESULTS, but I had a great longing to make a difference. RESULTS was a safe place to learn about how our government and world really work. Now I savor the taste of involvement; of advocating for those who need a hand up, not a hand out; of incremental, yet positive change."
— RESULTS volunteer Teresa Rugg
"I get the question all the time, 'What can we do make what we care about happen politically?' I always cite RESULTS as the example. Nobody does it better than you."
— Representative Adam Smith
"No other organization has been as critical a partner in seeing to it that microcredit is used as a tool to eradicate poverty and empower women."
— Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
To get involved, contact:
RESULTS headquarters: 750 First Street, NE, Suite 1040 Washington, DC 20002 (202) 783-7100. www.results.org
TO SERVE SPIRIT, SERVE PEOPLE....END HUNGER AND POVERTY NOW
Dear Friends,
Devotion to God cannot be separated from service to other human beings. Most all of us yearn for a way to make a constructive difference in the lives of others, and finding a way to do that is part of any serious spiritual path.
Every single day, 20,000 people on this planet die of hunger -- and 17,000 of them are children. That means that every five seconds, a child dies of starvation.
As staggering and tragic as that is, it should not be a reason for any of to be come cynical, angry or complacent. Rather, it is a reason for us to become active.
There are two things I'd like to bring to your attention, both of which provide direct and positive ways that you can make a difference.
I have for years been a fan of Sam Daley-Harris, founder of one of America's most effective anti-hunger and anti-poverty lobbies: RESULTS (www.results.org). With my Sister Giant seminar held at the end of February, I took on a deeper commitment to help bring their work to my audience.
1) There is a monthly RESULTS conference call with extraordinary information regarding humanitarian and legislative initiatives to help the hungry. The next conference call is scheduled for March 13, 2010, at 12:30 pm ET. Call (888) 409-6709 a few minutes before 12:30 pm.
2) I will be joining the RESULTS delegation to the Regional Microcredit Summit next month, from April 6 to April 10. I hope you will seriously consider coming along. As outrageous as it might sound to you to drop whatever you're doing that week and head over to Nairobi, I hope you'll consider the possibility that it might be the coolest thing you'll ever do.
We will join Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Queen Sofia of Spain, HRH Princess Máxima of The Netherlands, Sir Fazle Abed, Chair of BRAC and some 2,000 delegates from more than 50 countries at the Africa-Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit to be held April 6-10, 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. It will be the largest microfinance gathering ever held in Africa.
There is a choice of field visits to the following microcredit institutions: Jamii Bora, Equity Bank, Faulu, KADET, ECLOF, K-Rep, and KWFT April 6, 10 and 11 for a fee of $25 per day for transportation and lunch, so we encourage you to arrive the evening of April 5th.
Meetings will be arranged for the RESULTS/Sister Giant group with visionary leaders in the fight to end poverty, people like Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank; Sir Fazle Abed, founder of BRAC, who was recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth; and Ingrid Munro, founder of Jamii Bora.
The agenda is inspiring and exchanges with microcredit dignitaries and the clients themselves will make an unforgettable impression.
The Summit website www.regionalmicrocreditsummit2010.org has helpful info (e.g. places to stay, Kenyan visa link though visa on arrival is suggested, travel, Nairobi, currency converter, and good general and preparatory info) Estimated costs:
Air fare from US: $1,500 - $2,000. Registration fee: $250 group rate (5 or more) or $350 individual (includes lunch for 3 days and closing dinner) Hotel for 6 nights (including taxes and breakfast): $360 - $1,500 Other: $25 to get your visa when you arrive at the Nairobi airport, $25 per field visit, dinner for 6 nights, miscellaneous, e.g. taxi to/from airport
Contact Vicki Gottlieb to join the RESULTS/Sister Giant group:vicki.gottlieb@gmail.com or 505-379-2846
That's it for now. I'm delighted we're beginning this conversation.
All my best,
Sister Giant Letter from Marianne Williamson
Dear Friends,
We often learn to understand ourselves more deeply by understanding where we come from and how we fit into our larger family dynamic. Yet that not only applies to our family of origin; it applies as well to our sex, our nationality and so forth.
As Western women, we're influenced in ways both large and small by historical forces of which we're sometimes only scarcely aware. During my SISTER GIANT seminar at the end of this month, I will be guiding participants through a journey of discovery both within and without....where we come from as women, where we are now, and where we can go from here.
A common anthropological characteristic of every advanced mammalian species that survives and thrives is the fierce behavior of the adult female when she senses a threat to her cubs. Our relative complacency while 17,000 children on our planet starve to death every day -- one every five seconds -- indicates a lack of positive intention, on the part of our species, literally to survive. The power we hold as American women is unmatched anywhere in the world, and our failure to use that power as effectively as we might on behalf of those who need us the most is a situation now ripe for change.
The goal of SISTER GIANT is to empower you to feel that you can be, should you choose, a major player in the loving transformation of the world. Tools both internal and external will be provided to help every woman leap into the fullness of her most creative and powerful self.
Take a stand with me at SISTER GIANT, and I will do all I can to help you stand just a little bit taller. This seminar can do more than change your life; it can change someone else's as well.
Please join me. And bring your girlfriends....!
Sister Giant Video
The End of Hunger - Declarations!
End of Hunger Declarations from Geoff Erwin on Vimeo.
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