On the mezzanine of ABC Carpet and Home circa 2013, with Thich Nhat Hanh’s original calligraphies surrounding us on the walls, I encounter a woman named Eileen Flannigan on her yoga mat inches away. She’s just returned from Kenya, where she’s founded an organization to serve girls, and I’m instantly intrigued by her story.
The girls will one day become mentors to younger girls, she shares with me. The name of the organization at its inception is Girls on Fire Leaders. Then and there I decide to be her first monthly donor with proceeds from my yoga teaching in that room.
Over the years meeting the girls, one of them steals my heart. Her name is Makeda; we call her Makesh. When we began, she was nine years of age, and several possibilities for her life were present. She might’ve been married off at a young age, against her will. She could’ve suffered genital mutilation, as was custom. Instead, she was empowered to learn, speak up, evolve, grow her mind and expand her heart. She was supported in her studies, and now mentors younger girls in her community.
Founder Eileen focuses the older girls’ trainings on becoming mentors to the younger ones, essentially making herself obsolete in this crucial act of empowerment. In honor of Giving Tuesday, in today’s video offering you’ll meet Makesh, speaking about her direct experience of this deeply nurturing program. She and I are in regular contact as I mentor her and support some of her monthly costs—all an honor for me. Watching her choose herself is one of the gifts of this lifetime. She’s the daughter I never had.
Consider this strong encouragement to watch and listen to her deep wisdom.
As the organization evolves, we are distilling our work and focusing on our new Alumni Leadership Accelerator; in collaboration with Swarthmore College, ten college graduates from this program will be teaching thirty girls each, impacting over three hundred girls in the communities in Kenya—measurable and notable beyond our wildest dreams.
To sustain the Leadership Accelerator, our total yearly cost is $7200. Our aim today is simple: To inspire ten humans to donate $60 monthly, or twenty humans to donate $30 monthly. Any amount will help—even $5 monthly adds up in support of the girls. Proceeds from paid subscribers on this column are directed here; I’d be honored to have you join me.
Here is Makesh, in her early days of mentoring, a few years in.
It’s Giving Tuesday; here are the four other causes I support with proceeds from this column. Below are buttons to support them; but if you choose to become a paid subsciber here, your subscription is directed to these causes as well. Up to you.
And thank you.
On The Inside, supporting women in the carceral system and post-carceral system with training, art, love, care, creativity of all kinds. Currently I humbly support financially, and in my time, offering our first yoga teacher training this year in conjunction with Yoga Pearl in Boulder, to a few women who’ve recently been released. This training is one of the most fulfilling ways in which I spend my time.
Free Food Kitchen, delivering and serving food to several communities across Cape Town, South Africa, where women leaders are enabled and supported to plan, strategize and organize themselves around the creation of feeding hubs for families and pets. Currently they’re also engaging in creating Free Food Gardens, to supply the food for the kitchens. Read the story of who they serve; it’s important for us to know how the impact of this egregious inequity, still persisting to this day.
Women for Women, supporting women survivors of war and conflict, providing them with social and economic skills to transform their own lives. Women pass their knowledge to those around them, creating a more just world in which every woman’s voice, role, and contribution is valued. Founded by one of my heroes, Zainab Salbi, along with her co-founder Amjad Atallah, this was the first organization I chose to support monthly in my twenties, before I had the means.
Every Mother Counts, working to make maternal health safe, respectful, and equitable for everyone, everywhere. Did you know that more than 700 women die each day from pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum complications; approximately one woman every two minutes. Founder Christy Turlington Burns is a longtime friend, a true bodhisattva, fully committed to advancing solutions for the pervasive lack of maternal care before, during and after childbirth.
Thank you for being here with me, and for considering one of these causes or supporting this column.
With a paid subscription, you’ll be able to view and comment on all posts, attend monthly Live Gatherings, and access the archives. If you have financial need, I offer a handful of scholarship subscriptions each month; message me.
