Fight to Keep Creativity Alive: Unleashing Creativity, Spurring Generosity

Women of Vision is partnering with L.A. Chandlar for the release of her new book and campaign, Fight to Keep Creativity Alive. Join us in this innovative movement and 50% of your purchase from April 18 through July 15 will support World Vision’s Strong Women, Strong World initiative!

Do you remember a time, perhaps as a child, when you loved to draw, write, build things, or in some other way indulge your imagination? We were designed to create, and yet all too often, the hassles of life get in the way. L.A. Chandlar believes that we need creativity to truly live and not just survive. In Fight to Keep Creativity Alive, she challenges us to reclaim our inborn creativity and provides concrete steps to incorporate creativity into our everyday lives.

L.A. Chandlar

Yet, Fight to Keep Creativity Alive is more than a book. It is also the power of creative partnership. Believing generosity and collaboration are key components of creativity, L.A. Chandlar is teaming up with a variety of organizations that promote human flourishing. Women of Vision is delighted to be the first.

From April 18 through July 15, 2013, 50% of proceeds from the Fight to Keep Creativity Alive eBook, as well as portions from all apparel and print sales, will benefit Strong Women, Strong World. World Vision’s Strong Women, Strong World initiative supports sustainable projects in many of the most difficult countries to be a woman or girl today, bringing hope to women and girls and advancing gender equity. Let us continue the fight for creativity in our own lives. And together, we can help impoverished women and girls around the world achieve their full potential.

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Download the eBook: http://www.ftkca.com/?p=1396

Read about L.A. Chandlar’s first experience with Women of Vision.

Read an excerpt from the book or visit the Fight to Keep Creativity Alive website to learn more: www.ftkca.com or www.FightToKeepCreativityAlive.com

Click here to donate to Strong Women, Strong World.

Local Service Opportunity This Weekend!

The NYC Women of Vision Chapter is committed to educating and advocating on behalf of women and children around the world.  Let’s serve women right here in our own community. Join us as we cook and serve dinner to women whose lives are being transformed at the Bowery Mission Women’s Center.

When: Sunday, April 7 at 3:30 pm

Where: Upper East Side, please email nycwov@gmail.com

for the exact address

RSVP by April 5 to nycwov@gmail.com

Looking forward to this shared blessing!

Cosmos, Chocolate and Child Sponsorships!

Are you a sophisticated, global-minded, metropolitan woman?
Well, then this evening is for you!

Enjoy a glass of the "NYC" cocktail and indulge in chocolate with like-minded women.
Come learn about a secret ingredient in chocolate, and find out how to make a difference in the life of a child!

When: Thursday, March 28th, 2013 from 6:30-9:00PM
Where: 340 West 57th Street, Apt 14 B
RSVP: nycwov@gmail.com

A Walk to Beautiful Film Screening Recap

Film Screening Recap

By Elizabeth Parry

On February 28th, I had the opportunity to attend my first Women of Vision event, the viewing of award winning A Walk to Beautiful at the Disney screening room. What an eye opening experience to learn about obstetric fistula, a traumatic childbirth injury women in Ethiopia can face from an early age.  These women are ostracized by their communities and often left by their husbands.  The film was then followed by a Q & A session with the producer and we learned more about how to help through the Healing Hands of Joy organization.  What an awesome experience to learn first hand about this and get involved in the solution! 

View photos from the event!

Our goals for showing the film are two-fold.
1. We want everyone to come away with a new understanding of what obstetric fistula is and how if affects the lives of thousands of women in the developing world.
2. We want every person in the theater to feel compelled to act to change the awful reality of a woman living an isolated life because of a curable condition.

What can you do? Host a One-for-One Screening
1. Host an in-home screening of "A Walk to Beautiful." This is easy and fun! Gather 6-10 of your friends for a "dinner and movie" night.
2. Commit to raise $350 (for example, each person pays $50) that same evening. For every $350 raised at an in-home screening, hundreds of women in Ethiopia are educated about fistula with the film screening in a local community.
Please click here to find out how you can get a copy of the film to show in your own home.

A Walk to Beautiful Film Screening

The award winning feature-length documentary A Walk to Beautiful tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. They make the choice to take the long and arduous journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in search of a cure and a new life.

Come join us as we journey to Ethiopia together through the magic of film. Our goal is that by the end of the evening, everyone in the room will not only know what is obstetric fistula, but that you will be compelled to take action. 

When: Thursday, February 28th, 8:00-10:00PM 

Where: Disney Screening Room, 500 Park Avenue at 59th St. 

Cost: Ticket price is $15 which includes cocktails, soda, and light fare 
Buy your ticket here.

Hosted by Women of Vision and Healing Hands of Joy

Emceed by Megan Alexander of Inside Edition 

Q & A to follow the screening with the film's producers Allison Shigo and Amy Bucher  

Child Marriage Event RECAP

Eight. Two eight year-old girls stand beside men who appear to be their fathers. In reality, the two "fathers" are the husbands to the two eight-year old girls. Shocking photograph. Shocked that it happened twice. Shocked that it exists as a continuing practice around the world. Eight is the age of learning to read, learning to calculate, and playing outside. It is not the age of a wife with wifely responsibilities. The number of child brides is staggering. This is a massive crime perpetrated against these children. It is a crime that is often unreported and openly celebrated, often to the horror of the child bride. Although this crime is prevalent among poverty-stricken, rural communities in the developing world, it is not relegated to that world alone. Even in the United States, each state provides laws to permit children under the age of consent to marry. They may not be as young as eight, but they are no doubt too young to be marry. Many of these girls are mothers before they are fully developed. Pregnancy and complications during childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls between 15-19. These girls should not be dying at this age. They should be studying for their next test and thinking about what they want to do when they graduate from school.

I was so overwhelmed with heartbreak, the only question that my mind could create is "what can I do?" It is such a horrific number in a huge world. Thankfully, I was informed to contact my senators and representative to request that they support the immediate reintroduction and passage of the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. This by no means will end childhood marriage, but it is a step toward ending it. Attention to the plight, education about how to prevent it, law enforcement, and prayer will eradicate this colossal disgrace.  

For more info and resources about this event: http://nycwov.blogspot.com/2012/12/too-young-to-wed-promoting-girls-rights.html

January 11 is Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day!

I was very hopeful last month that my next blog post would be to celebrate the passage of Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).  Sadly, I’m here to share the upsetting news that our 112^th Congress failed us and TVPRA did not pass.  This means that we have to start over again (somewhat).  We have to make sure that we clearly send a message to our lawmakers that we will NOT allow them to play politics.  We need to tell them that we want this congress to take an ACTIVE role in fighting modern day slavery!

So how do we do that?  We simply tell them by calling their office.  Yes… the old fashion way of CALLING on the phone.  More than an email or a post on their Facebook wall, they will take notice when they receive phone calls.  If they receive 10 phone calls on the same topic on the same day, then they will pay attention.  We need to ask them to reintroduce TVPRA and to vote on it.  The good news is that 48 of the 56 senators who signed on to be co-sponsors are returning as the 113^th Congress.  We hope that those who were co-sponsors last year will once again show support when they receive our phone calls.  Because January 11^th is Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day, we will join along with other NGOs and humanitarian organizations to make phone calls to mark this day.  However, if you can’t make a phone call on January 11^th but can on another day, please do so!  Your voice will count even if it’s a day or two or a week later!

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What you can AND need to do:

1)       Make 3 phone calls on Friday, January 11^th.  Let’s cause a phone jam at our senators’ and representative’s offices so that they have no choice but to take notice and pass TVPRA!

  http://www.worldvision.org/news/congress-call-in-day-end-child-trafficking

You can read a short article that sums up TVPRA, watch a “How to” video so you know just how easy it is to call up your congressman/congresswoman, then click on the  ORANGE  link “Call your members of Congress” link.

Or just go to this link directly:    https://secure2.convio.net/wv/site/Advocacy?alertId=367&pg=makeACall&s_scr=callin-day-landing

2)      Share with your friends and family to also make 3 calls.  You can email, post on FB, tweet, call, etc.!  But share this with everyone you know!

3)      PRAY!  I am reminded of the verses in Ephesians 6:12 and 6: 18.  Ultimately, we have to lift everything up to God in prayer because what we’re fighting is much bigger than ourselves.  We can’t rely on our own strength to move people’s hearts or to stop evil.  That’s God’s job! 

¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

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Some additional information:

Our Voices were heard and did matter.  You can see the timeline of what Women of Vision and friends did and the response from Senators as signed on to be co-sponsors of the bill.

http://womenofvision.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/wov-and-tvpra-timeline-2012-complete.pdf

These 2 posts pretty much sums it up on what happened with TVPRA.

http://strongwomenstrongworld.org/2013/01/03/as-congress-ends-new-opportunities-to-fight-trafficking-begin/

http://womenofvision.org/2013/01/03/share-your-vision-for-a-slave-free-world-with-congress-on-january-11th/

This is a recent article posted on The Atlantic’s (monthly magazine) website describing the reality of slavery in the 21^st century.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/slaverys-global-comeback/266354/