Celebrating Women From Around the Globe

Join members of the Denver community at a special luncheon and fashion show on April 20 to celebrate women and raise funds to support our neighbors across the globe (Burkina Faso, Haiti, Ghana, Thailand, Nepal, India, Guatemala and more), many of whom live on less than a dollar a day.

The International Celebration of Women Luncheon ( www.wn.org/luncheon), hosted by World Neighbors ( http://www.wn.org/), is a unique fashion show featuring daily attire from developing countries, modeled by men, women and children from the Denver area. Fair trade handmade jewelry, pottery, scarves and other accessories will be available for purchase at the event's exclusive marketplace.

World Neighbors assists women in developing countries become the advocate for change by providing them with the tools to make lasting impacts in their communities. Since 1951, more than 25 million people in 45 countries have transformed their lives with the support of World Neighbors. They strive to eliminate hunger, poverty, and disease in the poorest, most isolated rural villages in Asia, Africa and Latin America by inspiring and training citizens from these countries to create their own life-changing solutions that have a lasting impact in their community.

"For sustainable development to take hold, to really work, we need to recognize the important contributions that women make - contributions that enrich all our lives, and we must ensure they are at the center of any and all development work," said Chris Price, VP of Field Support for World Neighbors. "Our International Celebration of Women luncheon highlights these contributions."

The International Celebration of Women Luncheon will take place at the Sherman Street Event Center on April 20 th. The main event begins at 11:30 am. There will also be a fair trade market of accessories beginning at 10:40 am. Tickets are $75.00 and can be purchased online at www.wn.org/luncheon or by phone at (405) 418-0406.

A First Hand Look at World Neighbors from Lone Tree, Colorado

Bill Brackett served as World Neighbors executive director from August 1987 to 1996. He and his wife are now retired in Lone Tree, Colorado. Bill has traveled the world with World Neighbors and he shares the following experiences in his own words.

“For more than 50 years men and women across our planet have witnessed the World Neighbors connection and commitment to change, which are corner stones to a better world.” ~Bill Brackett

When I came to World Neighbors, my wife, Ann and I committed that we would visit a program together each year with Ann paying her own way. It was the best decision we had made in a long time. Now that we are 78 years old, these are fond memories and a common commitment to continue working for change in our world.

Our first trip together was to Peru in 1988 where we visited with farmers and their families high in the Andes. After landing in a five-seat single propeller plane in the upper reaches of the Amazon, local tribesmen with large bows and arrows escorted us to their village where they were learning Spanish in order to buy land (only Spanish-speaking people could buy land in Peru at that time). The next morning we took a bath in the muddy river just at the edge of the village. Only afterwards we realized that there were people behind the trees along the bank watching our every move. Lesson learned!

Later that year we visited Nepal where we exchanged knowledge with the representatives of the World Neighbors global staff and making plans for the future. Ann and I then went to India where we met men and women who had developed small gardens that enabled them to live healthy lives and create small income producing animal projects.

In succeeding years we visited the Philippines in Southeast Asia as well as Kenya in East Africa, plus Mali and Burkina Faso in the West.

My involvement with World Neighbors has made me a better person. I have become a better listener, no longer need to take credit for group change, and look at the earth as one community with many complex parts. I don't picture myself as helping anyone but simply walking alongside others who are about changing their world. I learned to be a better facilitator and have since worked with other nonprofits to change their own worlds.

Chris Price, World Neighbors vice president field support, recently returned from visiting World Neighbors programs in Haiti. And what he found was a mixture of devastation...and hope. Thousands of families and people who have had to leave their homes in Port-au-Prince to begin new lives in the rural countryside of Haiti...where World Neighbors has been working since 1966.

Medical supplies are scarce. Housing is cramped, often with several families living together with insufficient latrines, clean water and health care. But thanks to World Neighbors and the thousands of dollars that have been raised, our programs and those affected by the January 12 earthquake are receiving support in agriculture, health, basic medical care and phsycological care.

To learn more about World Neighbors work in Haiti or to support our Haiti Relief Fund, please visit www.wn.org/haiti.

Kick Off Party Unveils Exciting April Event

Our event committee -- Whitney Allen, Andrea Price and Christy Belz -- with Noel Cunningham of Strings restaurant who generously donated the space, drinks and food for our kick off party.

We have officially started our "launch" towards our big event in April! Thank you to those who were able to attend last week's Kick-Off Cocktail at Stings - it was truly fun and inspirational for everyone there.

We are ready for "next steps" and your help is critical in spreading the word to as many potential friends and "neighbors" as you can.

1) As a way to help you fill your tables, we will be forwarding you a Save-The-Date email in the next few days. We ask you to add a personal note to the email and forward to as many people as possible - those who may be interested in attending, supporting, or sponsoring our event on April 20th. The email will have all the information you need about World Neighbors, the event, how to register, etc.

2) Just after this email goes out, we will need the quantity of hardcopy invitations you estimate you will send out to your list of friends and colleagues in March. We will need this number by Feb 5th. You can email me your estimates anytime before then.

3) Please mark your calendars for March 16th. We will host another party so we can get together, get inspired, and get our invitations addressed. If you prefer to give us your list, we are happy to have labels printed for you and we can get them sent out. Please let us know what you prefer to do. We are providing the addressing "party" as a way to let each of us manage our own lists of contacts.

If you have any questions about any of these requests, please do not hesitate to call one of us for more clarification. We will support you however we can!

Thank you so much for your enthusiasm for the work of World Neighbors.

Women Are Central to Haiti's Recovery

At the January kick off, we were all touched by the story that Chris Price shared about Roseanne, a remarkable woman in Haiti who took enormous personal risk to help her community gain access to desperately needed medical supplies.

We all now know the horrific devastation that Haiti suffered from the January 12 earthquake. As Roseanne and the millions of other Haitians come to grips with the aftermath and rebuild their nation, they know it will be a long struggle.

World Neighbors has worked in Haiti uninterrupted since 1966. Much of its work focuses on gwoupmons, village development committees that address the people's urgent needs. Women are often at the center of these groups and among the most dynamic gwoupmon leaders.

These groups will be an important to the ongoing recovery. You can learn more here about World Neighbors response to the Haiti earthquake

Meet Our Guest Speaker, Dr. Susan Chambers

Dr. Susan Chambers, a former World Neighbors trustee and founding member of WOW! (Work of Women) will be the guest speaker at the April 20, 2010, International Celebration of Women Luncheon in Denver. In this interview she shares how she has been touched by women she has met in Ecuador, Mali, Nepal and other countries she has visited with World Neighbors.

In August of 2009, she traveled to see World Neighbors programs in Kenya and Tanzania. You can learn more about her Journey by following her blog here.