**Winner has been chosen! Congrats Heather Bardin!**
Welcome everyone!
As most of you know I have been involved with a company called Noonday Collection since April of 2012. I say "involved" because although I am selling beautiful handmade items it is so so so much more than that! It is sharing stories of our artisans and their triumphs over poverty through the work of their hands. It is telling women ways that they can be directly involved in changing the future of disadvantaged people around the world! YOU CAN DO SOMETHING!
This has been life changing for me this past year. I am reading Half the Sky and I watched the documentary recently. After seeing and reading about the harsh realities of women around the world I realized we can all DO SOMETHING.
Yes, even us little ol' American housewives with little kids in tow. All of us. We can make informed purchases that provide sustainable incomes, we can support non profits that work day in a day out to make a better life for the disadvantaged. We can do something and be a voice for change. HOW? How can you do that? How can we do that when we are raising small children, going to the grocery store, taking kids here and there, making dinner, etc.
First, we can be informed. That's huge. If you don't KNOW about female genital mutilation, sexual trafficking, modern slavery, rape, infant rape, AIDS, abuse you really aren't helping. How can you help, how can you do something about something you know nothing about?! It hurts to hear about these things, it will make you cry, it will break your heart, it will hurt. It needs to break your heart. "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept." Nehemiah 1:4 Read, watch, and listen.
Start by reading Half the Sky, start by watching the documentary. Join this facebook page too. Find someone who has lived through these things and seen them first hand.
I met a woman Malang, she is from South Sudan and she LIVED this stuff. She was smuggled out of the Sudan to Egypt in a duffle bag! Speaking to her changed my life. I'll blog about her in the future, she has an amazing story.
Once you hear these things you must act.
I know its really hard to travel overseas...my husband travels overseas for work all the time and I've yet to be able to go anywhere with him. Its hard, its expensive. One day I will go, one day. But, until then I will read, watch, and listen.
SHOP!
Yes, shop...and donate. Supporting the enterprise of people in poverty is HUGE. Malang told me first hand how she watched her mother knit and crochet to keep her family afloat because her father lost his job when he refused to convert to Islam. Without people to buy her mother's goods her parents couldn't feed their 7 sons and daughters.
You don't have to shop Noonday Collection. Although that would be great! You can shop...
AND GIVE!
There are tons of fabulous organizations doing fabulous work. Find one and help them.
If you would like to share stories in your home and be a part of this movement of DOING SOMETHING please contact me (my contact is at the bottom of my Noonday page). It would be a great privilege to bring a little bit of the 3rd world to your world so you can share with your friends how they can DO SOMETHING! Check out what it means to have a Trunk Show in your home. By the way...I am in Richmond, VA but, there are ambassadors all over the US...let me know and I can hook you up with one of them!
For my giveaway I will be awarding this super nice hard cover journal to a random commenter! To enter:
1. go "like" my facebook page
2. share my page or this blog post on FB
3. and comment on this post with a way that YOU can DO SOMETHING, or a way you have been doing something!
By the way the journal was made by these lovely ladies in Jaipur, India.
Winner will be chosen on January 13th by random number generator from the comments on this post. Enter away!!!
Next on the Noonday Blog Train will be Wynne Elder, check out her INSANELY AWESOME blog at www.elderadventures.blogspot.com
Love this! Thank you for all if the links and sharing your heart!
ReplyDeleteThe more I read the more I love noonday! I have been aware of the needs we spend most days oblivious to, for years. Some free trade support & spending, but my awareness has increased since being involved with Stella's Voice and young girls rescued from the sex trade in Moldova, a friend working with girls & boys still IN the trade in India, and friends involved in mission work all over Africa's continent... so many blessings we have that we are ignorant of the true needs.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your involvement! Bless you
CONGRATS HEATHER! YOU WIN! contact me asap so I can ship you your journal!
DeleteLOVE Noonday--My husband got me jewelry from Noonday for Christmas. Love that you're doing this! I make it a point to pick out fair trade gifts for holidays and birthdays...Radiant Cosmetics, Noonday, Signs of Love, Raven and Lily, etc. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, liked you on facebook :)
ReplyDeleteLove this post! Thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteLove this!
ReplyDeleteyou are so sweet! thanks for the shout out! excited about my giveaway tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteSo far I have been really impressed by the noonday products, and it's exciting to see how the ambassadors are so excited about it too!
ReplyDeleteI've decided to host a Noonday trunk show at my home in Maryland and have hopes on becomming an ambassador. I'm in love with this company's mission!
ReplyDeleteliked your FB page!
ReplyDeleteI sponsor the most wonderful third grader at a children's village run by the Rafiki Foundation. I spent a few months in Uganda at the village, and it made me so much more aware of the things I spend my money and time involved in.
ReplyDeleteSo excited to see Noonday connecting incredible artisans with the resources they need to get their products all over the world and provide for their families in the name of Jesus!
Hallie
Thank you for your blog post! I'm a huge fan of Noonday and its mission, and I'm thankful to be able to support my sister&bro-in-laws'
ReplyDeleteadoption by purchasing noonday from her for gifts, etc. I'm also a fan of Teysha and Toms shoes and am encouraged by the wave of responsible companies that are blossoming online and through social media. Compassion International and World Vision sponsorship is also close to my heart-- I love being able to directly help "the least of these". Thank you!