A month ago, I signed up to become a sponsor of a woman in Rwanda through Women for Women, a really inspiring non-profit started by Zainab Salbi, an Iraqi woman who escaped war at the age of 19 to come to the U.S. Her organization, which helps women in several war-torn countries, has received the highest rating for a charitable organization by charity review groups and receives donations from people like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. And we know how committed Ms. Jolie is to her refugees. After researching the organization and finding out that nearly 85% of my donation goes directly into the hands of the woman I sponsor, I signed up. For $27 a month, a sum that's even doable for me, this woman I am sponsoring will literally be able to improve her life drastically and help support her for a month. Crazy, isn't it, when that's what we would spend on a round of drinks? Shit, this is a lesson in perspective that won't soon be forgotten. It's the cheapest therapy I've every gotten.

Why? Because today I got my sponsorship packet. Attached to it was a black and white picture of "Godelive M-" (I'm omitting her last name to protect her privacy). She was widowed during the genocide that wiped out almost a million people in her country during the heartbreaking ethnic cleansing slaughter (<—click that link to see an incredible Frontline documentary) of innocent people that the world's governments deliberately turned their back on. I want these people to know that while bureaucracy and politics didn't give a shit about their devastation, people did. And people like me still do.

Godelive, my "sister" (how hokey!) was probably raped regularly during the genocide, and may have had to watch her husband be hacked to death with a machete, as most of these cases went. What I know about her from the enrollment interview that Women for Women did with her is that she is 42, has three kids, has never been to school, cannot read or write, lives in a shack with no electricity or running water, has poor health, and lost more than one family member to the genocide. How's that for perspective? What the *F*am I complaining about? Do any of us (including the most "broke" of us) look at our refrigerators, our computers, our beds, our hot showers, our cars, the food on our table EVERY DAY, and realize that we really are the most blessed people on the planet, as well as the most powerful? Want to feel like Bill Gates every day? Do this program. I'm not lying. Best therapy EVER for me, and at the bargain price of $27 a month. "Little old me" isn't so "little old" when I can actually change someone's life and help support them for a whole month for the equivalent of an hour's pay (for some of you, the equivalent of ten minute's pay!). Remember how they used to talk about how much money Shaquille O'Neal would earn per minute? I kind of feel like Shaq to this Rwandan woman. It's all in your perspective.

Anyway, my "commemoration" of International Peace Day on September 21 is to spread the word to as many women as possible about the Women for Women sponsorship program. Not only will it help another woman on the planet who has seen some awful effects of war, but it could bring YOU some peace in your life. Sort of a double whammy. It will give you an overwhelming sense that you actually can control some of the strife in the world, and that "little old you" can do profound and beautiful things. And who doesn't need a little reminder of that?

 

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