Stolen Childhoods

There is a documentary about child slavery/labor that I recently purchased entitled "Stolen Childhoods." It is not an easy DVD to watch because the entire program is filled with instances of child labor across the globe. Why I write about it tonight is because there are still over 200 million children locked in this slave trade and it disturbs my mind. There are children as young as six years old packaging light bulbs, little children sorting match sticks, girls and boys from as young as six making rugs in dark, unhealthy rooms across India and Nepal so that our multi-designed or oriental rugs are cheap enough for us to purchase. The headstones we use for our loved ones who pass on are being produced by young girls and boys in quarries where they work over 10 hours a day carrying the pieces of stone to a place where they are crushed and re-formed into a beautiful stone for us. There are just too many examples to write about tonight but I couldn't go to sleep without first saying they need your help. How we can help is by supporting fair trade products which are not made by children. We can support agencies that particularly are working against child labor such as the International Labor Organization, UNICEF, Catholic Charities and so many others. Just type child labor into the google search and start reading. There's an endless list of organizations you can support. They all need your help. Don't just turn away and forget them. They are the work force of today and they are unknown to you and me, but we use and wear all their products.

Fair Trade Ends Poverty

Hello again and thanks for returning. Today I will divert from "Sobornost - A Strong Word" and share with you why I had such a terrific day. The New York Times newspaper published a newspaper article with photographs today (7-20-06) about our fair trade store. People were pouring into the store, calling for direction and hours of business, and asking questions about our work. Fair trade is still relatively new to Americans, but we're catching up to England very quickly! Maybe you don't know about fair trade and so I'd like to explain a little about our store. Fair trade is a way of doing business that guarantees that the producers and growers receive a fair wage for their product, it insures that there is no child, sweat or slave labor, it uses sustainable practices which protect humans and environment, and offers loans and long-term working relationships to keep them in business. The reason fair trade began is simply because some nations were left out of globalization which benefitted some, but not all countries. Poor and developing countries only slipped further into poverty, while richer nations increased their profits. The comment by the international community of "20% of the world's population uses 80% of the world's resources, while the remaining 80% of the world's population languishes on 20% of the resources." Fair trade helps level the playing field. In my opinion, no one will become rich being a fair trade company, but no one will suffer and die either. People actually do die from the consequences of globalization, but very few of us see it. Children locked away in small rug factories or who work on farms picking coffee beans with pesticides may not live a long and healthy life. There is an incredible documentary that I tell people about all the time. It is called "Stolen Childhoods" and gives a heavy account of what is happening to our world's children. The New York Times, whether they are aware of it or not, has done a great act of mercy for these children and so many others locked in exploitation. We are immensely grateful for what they did for us. Our store is completely run by volunteers and the non-profit organization gives 100% of its income to keep this store growing and helping orphans from AIDS in Kenya and Zambia go to school and be fed. If you're interested in what we're doing, just write to me and I'll answer whatever I can - if I don't know the answer, just contact or for excellent information. Thanks for visiting today!

Sobornost - A Strong Word II

If you have just arrived, I was continuing from the blog "Sobornost - A Strong Word." There's so much to tell about Sobornost that I have to write in mini-segments! As I had said, "Sobornost" is a strong word held in high regard by many people especially Russians. It means different things to different people, but from what Catherine Doherty wrote, it is a community of love, a collegiality and great joy because those in the group are of one mind, one heart and one spirit. Of course, to Orthodox or Catholic Christians it goes on to be a word which describes the Trinity, if that were actually possible. The Rublev icon on the prior blog shows three people sitting at table with a chalice/goblet at the center. It is a beautiful work of art and is in the tradition of Russian iconography representing the story in the Old Testament where Abraham and Sarah are visited by three messengers and they tell Sarah, who is barren, that she will bear a son the following year. These three messengers are a representation of the Trinity as well.

Now I will continue from where I left off regarding the sub-Sahara orphans that our Sobornost community decided to sponsor. In our first year we sent over one of our volunteers who had experience with the Peace Corps. She wasn't sure what she would be able to begin for our Sobornost project of helping orphans in Africa, but she was ready to learn. We had an agreement that when she arrived in Zambia, met the people, and asked some questions about their needs, that she would just "know" what to do. That is what happened. On her first trip she brought us nine orphans who were living with other families. These children had lost their parents from AIDS and were unable to go to school for lack of money for school fees. It is the African way to take in the orphans either by extended family members, or neighbors, however, it does put a great burden on the family caring for their own family as well as orphans. It became a project for us to help those families by giving them help for food, housing and paying the school fees of the children in their homes. As time went on we began to see that more and more children needed food and school fees paid, so we began to take on additional children in Kenya and Zambia. At this point we have about 350 children and they go to school, are fed and have what they need to live.

Sobornost - A Strong Word

Welcome back! Sobornost is a strong word. It is a word held very reverently by Russians and Orthodox Christians. My experience of Sobornost came when I went to Madonna House Apostolate in Canada in 1979 where a Russian woman, Catherine deHueck Doherty was living and teaching about it. Actually Catherine founded the lay community. She was a powerful presence there and I found her to be a light in the world who was leading many people back to God. What was so striking about her was her insistence on loving God AND neighbor. She, herself, was a person who went into the silence with God into what she called "poustinia" or desert. There she communed with God and faced whatever was ailing in her spirit or the world. She'd come out of the poustinia with a "Word" to be lived by that community. This was life-changing for me. Years passed and I always felt her presence in my life leading me to live like she did. When I married my husband and started raising our children, my memories of her would gently remind me that there was still more to come in my life. Certainly, a family is a fulfilling life and I never once could say I wanted it any other way, but there was this God hounding me who called me to the "more" of life, just as Catherine had experienced. It led me to Sobornost - a living, breathing experience of being in community with people who felt the same call - listening to the Triune God - wanting to become as unified as possible here on earth. I think it is happening and in a way I could have never predicted. In short, a prayer community, which we call "Sobornost Prayer Community" meets twice a month for three hours at a time. In this time we share a soup and bread dinner keeping the tradition of solidarity with the poor, followed by one hour of silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament with a few readings from Scripture or spiritual reading, and a time after prayer for our community to be together in a relaxed way with coffee and tea - all of which is fair trade coffee and tea and keeps the balance of justice with our farmers all over the world. We have met like this for eight years now and from this time in silence and listening came the call to go out into the marketplace and begin helping the poor. Which poor, I wondered? We had learned the statement "20% of the world's population lives with 80% of the world's resources, while the rest of the world's 80% population lives with the remaining 20% of the resources." This global village which was now inter-dependent for trade and economic growth - had brought much good to many of the eight richest countries, but forgot about the remaining poor countries and the impact it would have on them. Consequently, the most vulnerable children were in sub-Sahara Africa and we decided to go there first. When you return, I will share with you what happened next. Thanks for visiting and keep listening!!

What Can A Person Do?

It isn't easy trying to live the American lifestyle. There are too many pressures on us, too much technology to keep tabs on, bills to keep paying and so on. I get caught up in the middle class blues. But underneath all of these pressures, there lingers a question which keeps posing itself to me: what can one person do? At times the question was louder in my mind, but most of the time it quietly stood in the background of my mind, watching, waiting for a response. And so I began trying to find a way to help others who were struggling with less than a US $1.00 a day. Was I financially able to do that? Not really. It was a big jump in my mind that I could help financially. So how could I help? Being a prayerful-type of person, I began praying with a few people every month. It was a simple format: a soup and bread dinner, followed by an hour of prayer/silence/reading and ending with coffee/tea and good conversation. These meetings went on once a month for a couple of years and then went to two times a month. It was a three-hour commitment which was comfortable for my life as a wife/mother/worker. Time went on and then I heard the question again. I thought it had been put away. I thought prayer was enough to quench it. Praying, I thought, would help people all over the world in some miraculous way. Wrong!! It wasn't all that I could do. So I suggested to some of my fellow prayer partners that there was something we could do. They listened, ever so skeptically. I told them we could start a non-profit organization, open up a store for fair trade products (the first of its kind here) and begin sending a person to Africa to gather orphans from AIDS. It was a big jump for them! They just couldn't imagine it. I saw it in my mind - but like in a fog - not clear. I told them that God would provide for the financial needs, and that people would help. Time went on and I began to hear the question louder and louder - just like a helicopter traveling overhead which becomes louder as it approaches. Finally, I launched it. I set out to see it begin. We went from a store which hardly was visited to a store which is now more heavily visited all year long. I used to tell the others: "It's not about sales, it's about souls." It never mattered to me that a sale happened or not. Eventually, through much perserverance and faith, it would take off and sales would just flow naturally out of our faith. This became true. Then the person who went to Africa has gone from 11 children in Zambia to 350 children in Kenya and Zambia. These children are eating each day, going to school, learning, receiving clothing and blankets, etc. A small pre-school was built in Kenya and this coming year a secondary school will be built. Where did the funds come from to pay for the rent for the store and the mission to Africa? It was first seeded with the little bit we could put together, and then it grew into donations from small, everyday caring people to now larger groups wanting to help us. It really is amazing to see how things work. But the question I kept hearing, does it present itself any more? The answer to that is: the question is answered by the day to day commitment of sharing what we have with those who have not and when the sharing stops, the question arises again - ever so quietly, but persistently!

The Poor - Our Barometer

There are things about my daily life that show me that the poor do not come first. It is a sad reality. As I go about my day I start with having my breakfast, getting dressed, cleaning my home, going out to do errands, etc., but there is also a forgetfulness that happens when I do these mundane things. In a way, I look at it as "the less I think or do for the poor, the more I do for me." Yes, of course, I can be poor as well in that I need attention, food, rest, help, etc. but beyond that I am a person who loves the comforts of life, special foods, enjoyable friendships, and lots of entertainment. Actually, it is hard to pull myself away from these things, but it is necessary if I am to grow into full maturity as a person. Our lives must be balanced, and we all need things to live our lives in a healthy way, but when the poor are so far in the back of my mind, or they are not even in my mind, then I need to revisit my heart and ask myself the question: "Do I really care about the poor?" The more I do for me, the less I do for them. It's funny that this statement works in one way as a negative, but when you reverse it, it doesn't remain in the negative. Watch ... "The more I do for me, the less I do for the poor." (it's either them or me - someone loses out). "The more I do for the poor, the less I do for myself." (neither of us lose out because the more I give, the more that I receive!)

Sobornost For The World Foundation, Inc.

Sobornost For The World Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization which was created in 2003 to help the orphans from AIDS in Africa. Additionally, it was set up to begin fair trade on Long Island which is an alternative way of allowing developing world countries and those left out of globalization to bring their products to market. In Sobornost we have a person who visits Kenya and Zambia each year to coordinate our programs to care for orphans, keep them in school and look after their general health. So far we have several Zambian children in high school sponsored by Sobornost, two in college, and approximately 70 children who receive food in a "take-away" program. In Kenya, there are over 100 children who receive food twice a day in a supplemental program in one location, and in another location there are over 150 children who are in nursery school, receive blankets, food and medicine. The nursery school was built by Sobornost. The fair trade store in Hampton Bays, New York, is called World Village Fair Trade Market and is the first one of its kind. This is a place in the marketplace which allows people to come buy and browse the beautiful products of the poor, as well as learn and discuss issues affecting the developing world. Sobornost is a faith-based organization, which has its roots in Catholicism. It is mainly a lay organization but a Missionary of Africa priest has joined and he brings to the mission much of his 20 years experience in Zambia, knowledge of the unfair trading agreements world-wide and a desire to bring fair trade forward. If you find issues such as child labor, sweatshops, human rights abuse, unfair trade, fair trade, environmental sustainability, etc. interesting, please join us in any way you like: blogging, shopping fair trade, writing your governmental officials to change laws that affect the poor, or visiting links such as: www.oxfamamerica.org, www.fairtradefederation.org, and our web site at: www.fairtrademarket.org. Thanks for visiting today!