Disaster in Bujumbura

My heart is heavy this morning as I have found out that the main market in the capital of Burundi has burnt to the ground. This is where Alisha and I had the privilege of visiting a few women who had been given loans and seeing how they were working. "Today, 27^th January, as the whole central market of Bujumbura has gone up in smoke, it is a national disaster. We are mourning with thousands of others. Many have lost hope. Some have committed suicide by jumping into the flames as their livelihoods burnt before them. Others died trying to rescue what they could. Many are hospitalized. Tens of thousands of mouths will not be able to eat as they have lost everything."

Simon Guillebaud

I want to be in the place where Open Hand can see something of this magnitude and have the 'extra money' to send to our friends in Burundi for the widows and others who will obviously need help. It's hard for me to grasp how little our Burundian friends have and now this. It is unspeakably sad.

If you want to help, please do. Here are the options:

Click here if in the UK and the rest of the world:

https://my.give.net/BurundiChristmas2012

Click here if in the USA:

http://www.razoo.com/story/Greatlakesoutreach

Click here if in Canada:

http://www.youthunlimitededmonton.com/index.php/en/donations/make-a-donation

Lining Up Our Ducks

Man, have Alisha and I been busy, busy this last week. We've yet to launch our facebook page and really promote our website but there are still women who are eager to host Sole Sister parties for us to help raise money for Crocs ™4 Kids! Alisha has been the brains behind our gorgeous website, our business cards, email functions - you name it - she's has been/done it.

Me... well I'm the detail oriented one so I got stuck with the monotony of filling out Form 1023 for the IRS to become a 501 (3) (c). I know they say 'form' but what they really mean is packet because by the time I'm done with everything they want, our packet will be EASILY 30 pages. *sigh* I'm trying to tackle parts at a time or I will get overwhelmed and someone may find me in the corner of my office rocking back and forth in the fetal position. Ok. I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea.

And here's something else you may not know - the government charges quite a hefty price to become a non profit. To help people. Non profits are already starting out with little to no money, and then they want to charge a huge fee for us to become an official non profit. Go figure. Penalized for wanting to help others. And then all the documentation you need to prove yourself and your mission. They certainly don't make it easy and I can see how those who have the money would pay for someone else to do all the paperwork involved in becoming a 501 (3) (c).

We spent all day yesterday working on our website, face book page, pay pal functions, Sole Sister party ideas etc.... exhausting but so fun! I can't wait to launch our Fashion Shoe Show in the Spring - we at Open Hand are embracing the "go big or go home" philosophy!  So we're getting our ducks in a row and taking them out one by one. Can't wait until we can FINALLY bring in money to stop human trafficking through micro loans, Crocs™4 Kids, and chicken farms! So many lives and villages we want to impact!

No Clue What I'm Doing

I'm not an old woman but I feel as if sometime in the last year, technology has passed me by. As Alisha and I have been working to launch open-hand.org I have had to defer to her in many of the website building, face book updating, and twittering tweets because I am so.far.behind. And it's only been a year since I've taken a 'technology break' but as we all know that can be a life time, heck Apple has come out with more gadgets in the last year alone.

So here I am trying my hand (insert short laugh) at blogging. I've been told I am far more witty and humorous on paper, but I digress.

I don't want to write about what's already written on our website open-hand.org but I do think it's important to state that Alisha and I went to Burundi, Africa for the first time back in December 2012, and our hearts were forever impacted.
Do you see how gorgeous this place is? It's like being in Hawaii and then turning around and seeing utter thirdworldness (because that IS a word) all at the same time. Such beauty and such sadness all at once. So yes, the topography is gorgeous, but it's the people who captured our attention. Only the hardest of hearts can experience a truly third world county and leave the same.

This lake looks beautiful until you get up close and see that it really isn't blue at all, but brown from all the washing of clothes, the bathing etc.. that happens in this lake. 

So yes, I have no clue what I'm doing but I do know this - I plan on making a difference with my life. Alisha and I were not made to sit on the sidelines. We want to be in the trenches, changing the world, one woman at a time, one family at a time, and one village at a time.

And that is what Open Hand is all about - a lifestyle of generosity.  So in the words of some huge brand named commercial I can't recall right now "Let's Do This Thing". Oh and one more thing, I have no desire to be a small pebble in the ocean of humanity, I want to be like a meteor crashing into the ocean and causing ripple after ripple of aftershocks that impact lives for many generations. (see, that's not asking too much right?).