sol y sombra

A gift from Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:23:00 +0000

My dear friend Riana came back from her trip to Japan last week and brought me this great gift! She visited the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2012 and came back with loads of wonderful goodies (needle-craft related and otherwise) which we never see on this side of the world.

This is part of a piece of printed cotton. It has a border of beautiful Japanese ladies dressed in their traditional clothes and hairdo's. Isn't it gorgeous?

The fabric has a fine texture which makes it even more wonderful. I need to find something to make with it where I don't have to cut it - it is too pretty!

She also brought us some sweets from Tokyo.

Neither her nor us knows what it is as we can't read Japanese, but that won't stop us from eating it.

What a wonderful gift. Thanks again, Riana!

Project ABC: I is for India

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:11:00 +0000

So, I am a slow starter... It is already end of January and I am only now getting back on track with my Project ABC. For my India project I used some of the sisha-mirrors I bought years ago at the Haberdashery Souk. I have used some of them before but I still have a whole box full of them in the cupboard.

This is not a complete item, it is just a doodle. My self-imposed limit of 3 hours do not allow me to actually finish anything. (Did I mention I'm slow?) The blue circle filled with the green french knots is where one of the shisas fell out. I did not make the overlap big enough. But so you learn...

I still have enough sishas for a few more projects... or doodles...

Bastikya

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:17:00 +0000

Bastikya is one of my favourite parts of the city. Unfortunately it is on the opposite side of town from where I live and not somewhere I can just pop into whenever I feel like it. I have to have a reason to go there and plan a trip to that side of town. Usually I go there to show visitors around, but yesterday I went there on my own, and what a good morning that was!

The Majlis Gallery is one of the friendliest spaces in the Bastikya and it's always a pleasure to visit. Last year I attended an exhibition by Stephen Meakin and was really bowled over by the intricacy of his work and his attention to detail. He conducted a workshop back then which I really wanted to attend but couldn't, so when heard he's coming back to town for more workshops in March I had to book immediately.

After my visit to the gallery I popped over to the Dubai Litfest's beautiful new space just around the corner from the gallery to book my tickets for the upcoming Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. What a friendly space and people. It was a pleasure to visit them.

I concluded my outing with a coffee at the Basta Art Cafe. To sit in a traditional courtyard, under an indigenous tree, enjoying an Arabic coffee on a weekday morning is just about the best me-time there is.

With my culture-tank filled up, I am ready for the week.

Have a great one!

A quick recap of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:05:00 +0000

Before I get into 2012, let's have a quick look back over the past year to see what have been accomplished:

Tried black-work for the first time:

black work portrait

Started knitting again - first time since childhood:

knitted portrait

mystery knitted project - unfinished

Did only one crochet project (unfinished as yet):

babette

Made two tutorials:

templates

embroidery pattern

Made two quilts:

stash-buster 1

stash-buster 2

Traveled to three countries:

Kenya

South Africa

Oman

Started a few long term project (still going...):

Project ABC

Arabian inspired designs

And a few other odd things:

I revamped the blog and designed a logo

I visited a few souks

I have many plans for 2012, which include lots of stitching, monetizing and travel.

Now, lets get to work!

Dubai in Pictures: UAE's 40th anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:57:00 +0000

On the 2nd of December 2011 the United Arab Emirates celebrated it's 40th anniversary. This is the 8th year in a row we were here to celebrate with them, but this time it was different. We knew by now that Emirati people love to party on National Day and we suspected that the 40th year would be a big one, but it was way bigger than we anticipated! What a party!

The preparations started weeks before. The theme for the celebration was SPIRIT OF THE UNION - the official branding can be seen in the picture above. The seven founding sheikhs, leaders of the seven Emirates which came together on 2 December 1971 to form the United Arab Emirates were pictured in front of a UAE flag. The seven emirates are: Abi Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujeirah. Sheikh Zayad bin Sultan al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi were the driving force behind the unification and is still regarded as the Father of the Nation.

Shop window were made up in the national colours. Every possible product were displayed in these colours and the windows themselves were decorated.

Flags were everywhere. Houses, cars, lampposts, trees - nothing escaped a flag.

Memorabilia, decorations, souvenirs and everything else you can think of were for sale in the national colours. The children wore national colours to school, painted their faces, made up their class rooms and shared in the joy of the nation.

And the cars were something to behold! No costs were spared to 'pimp' your ride! The car pimping shops couldn't keep up!

The owner of this Smart car was so proud of his ride! When I asked him if I could photograph his car, he gave me a guided tour of all his pimps. It even has string lights in the national colours which lights up his car like a Christmas tree!

Even the Rolls Royce did not escape!

This is one of the courtesy vehicles from the Burj Al

Arab Hotel

The houses were covered in flags - some big enough to cover the whole house!

The flag below is a huge flag which hangs above Union House in Dubai, the place where the unification documents were signed 40 years ago.

In this time when the world looks on at the unrest in the Arab world, where it is obvious that many of the rulers in this part of the world are not doing what is best for their people and where people suffer at the hands of their rulers, it is a joy to see how the people of the United Arab Emirates love and adore their leaders. Sheikh Zayed is loved like a father by everybody in this country. The rulers of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum and his son, the crown prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum are loved and respected. Because they love and respect their people.

It was an honor to be part of these celebrations.

December happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:47:00 +0000

My work room is in it's Guest Room transformation at the moment, which means I have a great social life but very little work gets done around here! We had friends from Pretoria visiting us last week and we are expecting more friends from Nairobi to arrive this weekend.

By the time Christmas Day arrives they will all have left and we will spent Christmas very quietly at home as a family. No big family gatherings this year...

We even opted not to have a tree this year. We are not the traditional tree type of people and I try to do something different every year. Most of the time it does actually resemble a tree, but this time we are trying a fresh approach. What do you think?

I had my birthday this past weekend, squeezed in between the two groups of friends, and I had a wonderful day with my family at the Aprons and Hammers Restaurant last Friday. The weather is absolutely perfect this time of year so we really enjoyed our Al fresco seafood lunch.

Ever since I wrote this article about Mielie, I wanted to own a Mielie handbag. Unfortunately I live far away from the lovely Mielie people down in Cape Town, so I just kept on admiring their work from afar. Until last week. I attended a gathering of the South African Women's Association here in Dubai and there was a lady selling Mielie products! This bag had my name on it - I could not let it pass me by. So I bought myself a Mielie birthday gift. Isn't it gorgeous?

What does December look like where you are?

Why I love living in Dubai

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:45:00 +0000

Tonight we've been invited by our South African neighbours to a neighbourhood braai. We were six families living next to, or across the street from each other.

We don't always hang out together, and we are not all close friends, but we greet in the street, the children play together and we look out for each other.

We were two South African families, one German-Danish family, one Lebanese family,

Two Indian families and one South African/Scottish-Russian family.

Our children are all more or less the same age and had a blast running and playing together, all communicating in English.

We had Hommus, Tabouleh, cucumbers and fresh bread for starters.

We ate lamb, boerewors and chicken with potato salad and broccoli salad for mains,

and we had Black Forest Cake and vanilla ice cream for desert.

We had lots of red wine, we talked about music, movies, raising children, travelling, Christmas traditions and sport. We laughed a lot.

We never discussed politics or religion. We never talked about how we are different because there are too many ways in which we are the same.

We had a wonderful evening. At home.

How we use our staircase wall space

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:09:00 +0000

Last year during the summer holidays, I repainted parts of the house. The staircase ended up looking like this:

It is a rental house so we are not allowed to make any big changes and the Man Of The House does not want to spend money on some one else's property. It took a lot of convincing for me to repaint two rooms and a staircase...

We added four pin boards to the staircase wall. It is covered with an African print fabric in four different shades. The pin boards allow us to change the displays on the staircase without damaging the walls, and it prevents (some of) the finger marks which used to mark the walls. (My children and their friends are incapable of climbing stairs without running their dirty little hands along the entire length of the staircase wall.)

The board at the bottom of the stairs holds all the current evidence of our lives. Photos, pictures, projects, etc. It is visible from the front door and living room and is for things we want on public display.

The second one is the Family Board. Here we have pictures of cousins, grandparents and other family members from far away. In this way we can see them every morning and every evening to make sure we don't forget them.

The third board is the family office. Calenders, school notes, party invitations, important numbers, etc comes here. Now every morning on the way to breakfast we can make sure we know what the schedule is for the day. (In theory. We still forget things...)

The last board near the landing is the fun board. Interesting clippings, photos, sport awards, tickets for upcoming events and other inspirational things go here.

On the landing we have a white board on floor height. This is for the little ones to draw pictures and write letters to imaginary friends. There is a bucket full of whiteboard markets in all colours on the floor next to it.

Above that is a world map. For planning travels, seeing where all the other kids from International School comes from and for locating the places we see on the Travel Channel.

Also to remind us we are small and the world is big.

And wonderful.

Dubai in Pictures 21

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:17:00 +0000

Facebook is one of those great inventions which makes me wonder how we ever lived without it. And I don't mean playing Farmville (I can't stand FB games). I mean finding people you haven't seen for years.

I had coffee this morning with someone I went to primary school with. We last saw each other 32 years ago. We found each other on Facebook yesterday, realized we both live in Dubai, and we met at the Dubai Mall this morning for a catch-up. It was really special.

While we sat there enjoying the perfect weather after the hectic summer, we saw this team of window washers halfway up the Burj Khalifa.

Imagine it was your job to hang on the outside of the tallest building in the world everyday...

I would much rather sit at the bottom with a cappuccino and enjoy the views. Like this reflection in the building across the lake from the Burj.

Arabic Cross Stitch Design

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:59:00 +0000

I am in the process of designing a few Arab inspired cross stitch patterns.

Here's the first one:

How the colours were added:

Any constructive feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Project ABC: H is for Hand

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:52:00 +0000

This is my daughters hand at 2 months old. I took a photo way back then with the idea of turning it into an embroidery, but never got around to it. Fortunately this project now gave me time and permission to do it.

Here's that same hand three years later...

and here's the original (blurry) picture:

I used the same method as described in this tutorial to make the pattern

I think it turned out really sweet .... x

Project ABC: G is for Gift

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:37:00 +0000

I have mentioned before (here, here and here) that one of the few drawbacks of being an expat is that we have to say goodbye too often. People come and go. Friends become family - we laugh and cry together, celebrate together, take care of each others children and love each other like family. And then they leave for the next part of their journey through life. And you know sometime in the future it will be your turn to move on... But while we were together we made each other's life better, and we will stay in contact via the internet and the odd holiday - just like normal family.

This time we made a memory album of our friends' 8 years in Dubai. All the friends shared photos, stories, recipes and jokes. I used Riot Photo Books's software to create an 80-page hardcover coffee table book to give to them as a farewell gift.

It was such an honor to make the book. To be trusted with other peoples memories is a responsibility I did not take lightly. I think the book turned out great and will give our friends many hours of reminiscence in the years to come.

The book is called 'Brandhout'. It is an Afrikaans word meaning 'Fire wood'. Our friend Christo always says that the things we do today, the experiences we have when we are young, becomes fire wood for when we are old. When we do not have the physical strength anymore to go places, we can think back to our younger years to keep the mental fires burning. Hopefully this book will keep the fire going for a while...

Christo, Kine and Josh, we will miss you...

Update:

All wrapped up in brown paper, with one UAE-flag ribbon and one SA-flag ribbon, ready to be given....

Tutorial: Turning a photo into an embroidery pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:13:00 +0000

Here is how I turned a photo into a pattern:

Pick a photo of your choice.

School photos work very well as the lighting is good and the face is usually without shadows

Use any photo editing software of your choice. There are lots of free software available online. I use Picnik. Use the posterize function to get this effect. Play around with the colours until you are happy. I settled on 10 colours.

Save the posterized picture and go to the Pencil Sketch function. Without any further editing I got this result. Play around until you are happy with the amount of lines and the clarity of the picture.

You can use the picture as is, or further simplify it by hand. I printed the previous picture and traced it against the window (you can use a light table if you are more sophisticated than me!). Here you can make it as simple or as complicated as you wish.

I scanned this version into my computer and printed it on to a wash-away stabilizer.

And Voila! A perfect embroidery pattern.

A friendly request:

This is a picture of my son. I used it to demonstrate the process.

Please feel free to link to this tutorial, but please do not re-post this whole post with pictures to your blog. If you need one picture to illustrate the post, use one of the sketches.

Thank you.

Project ABC: F is for Face

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:40:00 +0000

I have done several projects before where I used my youngest son's face for the design.

(Have a look here, here and here)

This time it was the turn of my eldest son to lend his picture to a project.

I've always wanted to try freehand machine embroidery but always put it off because I thought I didn't have the right machine for it.

Today I just gave it a go. This is the result.

I used a variegated thread on a fine polka dot fabric.

It is not perfect but it is a start....

Dubai in Pictures 20

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:56:00 +0000

Winter in the UAE is tourist season.

I went to the beach this morning for the first time in a few months

and I saw all the rubbish bins along the beach front had a make-over.

They are all dressed up in pretty flowery dresses.

Roses, Irises, Hyacinths. All flowers which doesn't naturally occur in the desert.

Now, dear Tourist, please use them.

Project ABC: E is for Elephant

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:19:00 +0000

The Princess loves elephants. It started when we went elephant riding in Thailand, and she got to hug and kiss an elephant. It was reinforced when we went elephant riding in Nepal and she got to feed an elephant.

For this exercise the Princess and I took all her elephants outside into the garden for a play date.

The red and stripey Ugandan Elephants were swinging from the tree branches

while the Thai Silk Elephant was looking down from the bougainvillea,

and Grandma's hand knitted Mother and Baby elephants where hiding in the pot plants.

Only to come back for a hug from the Princess.

The Pink Rubber Elephant were hiding in the grasses,

only to be discovered by the Green Plastic Elephant!

The wooden Sri Lankan Elephants were hard at work in the woodpile, pushing logs as they were trained to do.

While the black Sri Lankan Elephant, was to grand to do any work and just struck a pose on the pedestal.

And best of all, the pink Princess Elephant was dancing around the garden, keeping everyone entertained.

Project ABC: D is for Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:55:00 +0000

Although I love doing needlework, I don't really make clothes, so this "D is for Dress" challenge prompted me to make, well, a dress.

This dress has been in my cupboard for ages. I bought it years ago at the Owino Market in Kampala when we still lived in Uganda. It is one of those dresses where you like the dress, you just don't like yourself in the dress, so it just stayed in my cupboard without being worn.

Now, after a few hours of cutting and sewing it looks like this:

Perfect for the princess:

Craftland's Breast Cancer Support Sewathon

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 12:01:00 +0000

I took part in the Breast Cancer Awareness Sew-a-Thon, organized by Craft Land this weekend.

As part of Breast Cancer awareness month this October, Craft Land, the local sewing-quilting-embroidery-yarn-shop-and-community, organized a 24-hour sew-a-thon where volunteers made support cushions and bags for women undergoing mastectomies and breast cancer surgery.

It will form part of a care-pack, put together by Well Woman Clinic which will be handed out to the women after surgery.

Women from all different backgrounds and nationalities took part, and it was a great honor to be surrounded by these wonderful women.

Thank you to Riana, Jennifer and the rest of the staff at Craft Land who organized this event.

Project ABC: C is for Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:24:00 +0000

I was contemplating doing something non-food related, like building or painting with chocolate, but in the end food prevailed.

Chocolate is for eating, after all!

And I had to do something within the time frame for a change...

And I had to make the family happy for a change...

So I made chocolate mousse a la Jamie Oliver

Now everybody is happy!

Project ABC: B is for Bicycle

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:19:00 +0000

When I first wrote my list of words, the image which came to mind when I decided on Bicycle as my B-word, was something completely different from what I have now done. I was thinking along the lines of using actual bicycle parts like a wheel rim or a gear sprocket to make something. But seeing that I didn't have any bicycle parts lying around, and to go out looking for it would just take too much time, I changed my mind, as we women tend to do.

My brand new bicycle arrived this week, so I decided to personalize it a bit. At first I planned something much more colourful, but when the bike arrived it was so beautifully white that I couldn't bring myself to detract from it's white awesomeness.

I decided on filet-crochet as a medium, firstly because I haven't tried it yet and secondly because it goes relatively fast.

The words on the crochet piece says 'Ansie Dansie'.

It is a nick name I acquired many years ago while on a camping holiday in Namibia with a group of friends. I don't see these friends very often as we live far apart these days, but it always bring back good memories when I talk to them and they call me that.

I hope this bicycle will bring back that same feeling of youthfulness and energy which I associate with the name and the memory.

Dubai in Pictures 19

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:51:00 +0000

How do you know the Dubai desert summer is almost over?

Clouds.

Yes, summer has no clouds. Not one. Not for months. The sky is a pale, depressing beige colour. No blue. When the season starts to change, small single clouds appear in the morning and then disappear again in the afternoon. Until one morning the sky looks like this. Blue and with clouds. Rain is still at least two months off, but we can dream...

Dubai in Pictures 18

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:34:00 +0000

This is a common sight in suburban Dubai. An independent Garden Service Provider travelling from house to house (or villa as it is known here), maintaining the gardens.

They carry everything they need on their bicycles, or pull it along side them while they ride. You can see the rake, secateurs and other tools sticking out behind him. The smaller items and sometimes even plants are carried in a basket or a bag on the front of the bike. The lawnmower is usually shared between a couple of gardeners.

Dubai in Pictures 17

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 03:10:00 +0000

My children have swim squad practice twice a week, before school in the mornings. We left the house just after 6 o' clock this morning, still half asleep and with a cup of coffee in hand.

On my way back to the house after drop-off I used my phone to take this picture of the sun rising behind the Jebel Ali Satellite Station.

Actually seeing the sun rising in the morning changes one's day from mediocre to 'Wow, it's great to be alive!'.

When was the last time you saw the sun rising?

Project ABC: A is for Arab

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:45:00 +0000

The first item done! It took more than 3 hours though...

Here are a few pics of the project in progress:

As I mentioned earlier, the geometrical patterns used in traditional Arab decorations really appeal to me. I tried to combine these designs with the traditional Arab dress, which I also really appeal to me.

I didn't plan it that way but the process of layering the fabrics, decorating it, and then slowly peeling away the layers to reveal the traditional fabric underneath, reminded me of the Arabian way of dress. Putting on layers to protect the culture, but at the same time using the layers to reveal the culture.

As I hoped, the process of making this has started a thought process which will lead to other interesting things...

Girl Effect Blogging Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Ansie) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:10:00 +0000

It is like a thin thread woven into a piece of fabric – the way a certain issue keeps on reappearing in one’s life. You never consciously look for it, but the next thing you know, there it is again...

This thing keeps on appearing in my life, always on the edge, never really intruding into my daily comings-and-goings, and oh so easy to ignore, to put it off as ‘not really my problem’ and ‘I’m too busy to get involved’.

It has crossed my path again yesterday, and all it asked from me is to write about it. Surely I can do that. It is what I do, after all. So this is my small contribution:

Today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world. Approximately one-quarter of these girls are not in school.

Adolescent girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world. It has been shown: she will reinvest her income and knowledge back into her family and her community. As an educated mother, an active citizen, an ambitious entrepreneur or prepared employee, a girl will break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

That is the Girl Effect.

Yet, despite her proven potential, she is more likely to be uneducated, a child bride, and exposed to HIV/AIDS. Less than two cents of every international development dollar is directed at her.

A few years ago it came into my heart to visit Afghanistan. I had just read the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and I told my husband that if I ever get the chance to visit Afghanistan, I am going to grab it with both hands. Not long afterwards a friend told me about an outreach programme inviting people to visit Afghanistan to witness their projects first hand. And off I went. I visited Kabul, travelled by road to Mazar I Sharif and further north to the border with Tajikistan. I saw schools being built, children being educated and women being trained in entrepreneurship. It was an eye opener.

Since then everything about Central Asia caught my interest. I read Greg Mortenson’s books Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools. Through his organization Central Asia Institute (CAI), he has built many schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is passionate about providing education for all children but especially girls. Here is an extract from his last book explaining how educating girls can transform a society:

Income growth:

Girls’ education leads to increased income for the girls themselves and for nations as a whole. Increasing the share of women with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per-capita income growth by 0.3 percent. That’s significant, since per-capita income gains in developing countries seldom exceed 3 percent per year. Educating girls also boosts farming productivity. Educated farmers are more efficient and their farms are more productive, which leads to increase crop yields and declines in malnutrition.

Maternal and Children’s Health:

Educated women have smaller, healthier and better-educated families. The better educated the women in society, the lower the fertility rate. A 2000 study in Brazil found that literate women had an average of 2.5 children while illiterate women had and average of six children. The better educated the women, the lower the infant mortality rate. “The mother’s education is often the single most important influence on children’s survival...Educated mothers learn how to keep their children healthy and how to use health services, improve nutrition and sanitation, and take advantage of their own increased earning capability. Girls who stay in school also marry later, when they are better able to bear and care for children.” By increasing health-care knowledge and reducing the number of pregnancies, female education significantly reduces the risk of maternal mortality. Educated women are more likely to insist on education for their own children, especially their daughters. Their children study as much as two hours more each day than children of illiterate mothers and stay in school longer.

Women Empowerment:

Educated girls and women are more likely to stand up for themselves and resist violence. “In poor areas where women are isolated within their communities, have little education and cannot earn much, girls are often regarded as an economic burden and women and girls sometimes suffer deliberate neglect or outright harm.” Educated women channel more of their resources to the health and education of their children than men do. Educated women are more likely to participate in political discussions, meetings and decision making. Studies show that education promotes more representative, effective government. As women are educated and approach parity with men, research shows that “governments and other institutions function better and with less corruption.” Girls who become literate tend to teach their mothers how to read and write, much more than do males.

Closer to home, in 2007, the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched a fundraising campaign called Dubai Cares. It is based on the belief that education is the most effective tool to break the cycle of poverty. Dubai Cares is an organization dedicated to improving children’s access to quality primary education in developing countries. Dubai Cares works in countries with chronic deficiencies in primary education where it implements development programs that target the underlying causes preventing children from accessing quality primary education. Dubai Cares’ vision is a world in which all children can go to school.

Both these initiatives (CAI and Dubai Cares) were launched by men. Men with a vision for a better world. A world where women count and are respected as equal members of society. It is ironic that both these initiatives were born in the part of the world where girls and women in general, are perceived as second rate citizens. And where men are perceived as (and in many cases are) the oppressors.

I’ve known about the Girl Effect movement for a while now. I ‘liked’ them on Facebook and get their updates on my wall every now and again. I am inspired by these girls who fight the odds to improve their own lives and then go back to help those around them. And then I forget about it again and I carry on with my own busy life...

Yesterday I came across the blog of Tara Sophia Mohr called Wise Living. I don’t know how I got there – I’ve never read heard of her or read her blog before... She started a 2011 Girl Effect BloggingCampaign. And there it was – an invitation to get involved. And here I am – getting involved. Please join me. If you blog, join the blogging campaign. If you have a Facebook profile, post about the Girl Effect on your wall. Look at their website, they have great ideas for everybody to get involved, spread the word and help a girl. Or two.