CARE Conference 2011

3-15-11 Washington Trip

(Click on the photo to see the album)

I got back from Washington last week to a happy family and warm weather.

Now that Spring Break is over, I have time to blog about our trip.

My good friend, Kay Gaisford, coordinated the trip with the CARE staff. They helped us financially by providing a hotel room and 2 free tickets. We managed to get five of us to the conference (Kay, Sue, Lilly, Holly, and Me). These wonderful women are part of a lunch/book group that I attend.

Along with 1200 other attendees, I celebrated International Women's Day at the CARE conference in Washington DC. It started with a celebration of Int'l Women's Day on March 8th. We had a lovely party with performers including India Arie and Michael Franti. I danced and sang along as we celebrated the lives of women across the world.

The next day we had speakers and panels explaining the needs of people in developing nations and what CARE has done to help them. Over the last 5 years, CARE has been involved in 70 countries, staffed by mostly local people. Since I read Half the Sky, I've been more in tune with the issues surrounding maternal mortality, child marriage, and microloans. These issues and many more were covered by experts from around the world.

One of the experts was our friend Sylvia Cabus whom I met at the Exponent retreat last fall. She's a Gender Analyst for the Food Security department of the USAID. We met her for dinner the night before the conference and learned about what the government and private organizations are doing to help families in impoverished nations. In fact, later in the conference I heard one Congressman say, "Poverty is a political condition. We have the means to feed the entire world. What we lack is the political will." I was stunned.

The fabulous lunch keynote was Melinda Gates. She was articulate and passionate about salient issues like immunizations, contraceptives, and health care in developing nations. I was also impressed by the Bush twins who sat on panels and introduced their mother for the evening keynote. Their passion for motivating us to reach out to help others was really uplifting.

But what moved me most was the presentation of the "I Am Powerful" award to Peninah Musyimi. She was presented this award by two women who own WNBA teams. They shared her story of impoverished life in Africa and how Peninah worked to get good grades in school so she could attend college. She was disappointed to learn that the only way she could get a scholarship was to play basketball. So she taught herself how to play basketball in one month! So she got the scholarship, went to college, then on to law school. After she established a career, she went back to her home town in Africa (I'm blanking on the country) and started a non profit called Safe Spaces to provide a place for youth to hang out and take classes to promote their interests and education.

Although the entire conference made me teary, this award was really powerful for me. I was so impressed with this woman's life and sacrifice. In her acceptance speech, she thanked many people in her life and then said, "I thank myself for working so hard." I cried for her and for so many women like her across the world. I wish they could all hear her story and gain strength to fight their everyday battles.

We gave Peninah a standing ovation when she accepted her signed basketball award.

Thursday on Capitol Hill started with a visit to Jeff Flake's office. We had only a few moments with him and he remembered us from a visit to his local office last fall regarding a child marriage bill in his committee. After we discussed our issues he responded, "I have never voted for any international development bill."

His comment quickly deflated our enthusiasm.

Luckily, our other appointments went better. For the most part, the staffers were supportive of our message, especially the Democrats. On the other hand, McCain's staffer didn't know that Cindy McCain was on the board of CARE for years. I hope that he'll support CARE's initiatives in the future.

I know that our voices on Capitol Hill are meaningful. But even more meaningful is our helping each other to support issues that really make the world a better place.

One staffer said it right, "We need you to tell your friends how devastating these cuts can be." The other legislators need to know that slashing the budget will hurt the most vulnerable people. Spread the word."

So that's what I'm doing, spreading the word. I'll keep you updated via Facebook and Twitter about what you can do to support CARE and it's work in developing nations.

In the meantime, right now you can buy chocolate. Here's the deal- From now until the end of this year Full Circle Exchange will match your purchase dollar for dollar (that's 100% of your purchase!) in donations to CARE. The chocolate is amazing (and I hear the coffee is, too!).

I'm so glad I went to the CARE conference this year and I hope to go back in the future.