LO's Executive Director Presents at DFW's Onancock Chapter

A visit in April from Lotus Outreach Executive Director Erika Keaveney breaks attendance and fundraising records

by Carolyn Mayers, chapter leader for Dining for Women Onancock, Virginia

We were thrilled to host Erika (and her sister-in-law Scarlett – more in a minute on that) at our April 28 meeting! Erika and I go WAY back. We first “met” when the Dining for Women Program Selection Committee was looking for a program to support that addresses the issues of human trafficking in SE Asia. I searched and luckily found Lotus Outreach, was completely captivated, and immediately contacted Erika back in November of 2009. After much hard work and patience, Lotus was April’s featured program, with chapters nationwide learning about and supporting their incredible work of providing critical aftercare to victims of human trafficking, rape and domestic violence residing at a safe shelter near the Thai-Cambodian border.

Founders of the Onancock chapter, Shannon, Carolyn, and Kitty

Fortunately for us, Erika’s sister-in-law, the aforementioned Scarlett, lives within driving distance of our chapter, and she was born at the end of April, the month and time of our meeting, giving Erika the perfect extra reason needed to fly out and present to our chapter here on the rural Eastern Shore or Virginia. What a meeting!! With a record 36 women in attendance, Erika blew us away with her wonderful Power Point presentation, which began with a clear, succinct history of Cambodia so we could better understand the extraordinarily difficult conditions under which many people, especially women, live in that country. Then we really got to experience the work of Lotus Outreach, the passion and dedication of the women we are so proud to support through our donations this month. Throughout the entire talk, it sometimes seemed as though Erika was fighting back tears, so deep is her passion about her work. She wasn’t the only one, it seems, because our generous members donated more than we have ever raised for a DFW program - $1,637! WOW!!

SO many women came up to me as the meeting was breaking up, after Erika had already left, to tell me what an inspiring young woman she is, and how nice and kind and smart and dedicated, and how moved they were by her visit with us. Erika came to us with the opinion that she has a lot to learn about public speaking. All the professional training in the world is no substitute for heartfelt passion expressed with sincerity. Don’t change a thing!

Erika and the Onancock chapter watch LO's short film

LO Society Canada visits Banteay Meanchey (part 2)

by Brian Pollard, board member of Lotus Outreach Society Canada

In the afternoon, by travelling on a dusty, potholed road for 8km (it felt like 80, by far the worst road I have ever been on), we visited a grade 9 student, Sochea, at her home. Her parents are landless peasants (like so many others in this area) and live in a bamboo and palm leaf one room house with a curtain of sorts dividing it into two “rooms”.  Six children and two nephews sleep on one side and the parents sleep on the other. There is a kitchen of sorts attached to the house, but no plumbing, electricity, or toilet except for a field outside. The parents work as farm laborers. If there is work, they get $3 per day in Cambodia or $4 a day by crossing into Thailand. "If" is the operative word here.

Children of a family receiving rice support

The family gets a 50kg rice subsidy from LO for which they are grateful. (Note:for me personally, the trip in this region was most embarrassing. I was by far the fattest person - everyone else was lean, or downright skinny.) The father was most proud of the fact that all the children were attending school. Whether they go beyond primary school is another matter, but they will be able to read and write a bit.

We stayed overnight in Poipet and the next day went to Sisophon. After checking into our hotel (all costs of the trip were borne by Alison and I), we went to a a safe house for abused women where we met an LO-funded psychologist, Sokny. With Raksmey being an excellent translator, we learned about all the efforts Sokny puts in to help the highly traumatized clients that come to the center. Individual counseling focuses on building trust, discussing problems, and identifying strengths to develop positive thinking and self-esteem.  Group counseling, first small then large, makes them aware that they are not alone.

Clients also do beadwork, embroidery, and dressmaking to take their minds off their problems and give them a sense of accomplishment. Finally, they are reintegrated into the community when they are emotionally and physically fit, have finished one skills training module, and have made a business plan. They are given $25 as a life start grant, and some may get up to $200 to start a business. In the year after they leave the center, there receive three follow-up visits.

I was very impressed with the work that was being done for these women and with the shelter manager, who at one time ran the place alone - handling irate husbands and men thinking that the center was a brothel, as well as receiving numerous death threats.

Brian and Alison meet Ochea and her family

LO Society Canada visits Banteay Meanchey (part 1)

By Brian Pollard, board member of Lotus Outreach Society Canada

It has been awhile since I have been in contact with you, but first of all, I wanted to thank you for your support for our projects, either financially or in spirit. You have been a big help, and I have now seen first-hand the value of your donations.

GATE girls strike a happy pose

This past winter, my wife Alison and I went on a trip to Southeast Asia and on our journeys we were able to visit a couple of the sites in Banteay Meanchey. We arrived in Poipet, Cambodia on January 25th without incident (there were border clashes between the Thai and Cambodian armies and protesters, etc) and were met by Raksmey, Lotus Outreach’s project coordinator in Cambodia, who had bussed up from Phnom Penh to meet us. She took us to meet the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center manager, Supong Sopheap, who briefed us on the background of CWCC and the work it does in this province. I was certainly impressed with his professionalism and the sophistication of what CWCC is able to do with limited resources.

With a CWCC vehicle and driver, Raksmey took us to a hostel where 19 grade 12 girls sponsored by LO live. The house consists of two rooms, a toilet, and an outdoor covered kitchen. There is one large bed (which only one girl sleeps on, the others sleep on mats on the floor) which is mostly used as a study table. There is no other furniture to speak of, other than a couple of small tables for books. Water for cooking, cleaning, and bathing is pulled out of a nearby pond.

Brian and Alison learn their Khmer ABCs

Sitting on the floor, we chatted with the girls and took photos. Their shyness was broken when I got them to teach me the Khmer alphabet. They cracked up at my ineffectual efforts to sound out the nasal consonants (I think they just couldn't hear me right). Later, Raksmey told us they were impressed we came all that way, and they were going to redouble their efforts in school to do well. I was very impressed with how hard they study and how difficult their lives have been. One girl cycles back home on the weekends to see her family – a 120 km round trip - and two told us of having been rescued from Thailand by SMART staff (more  this later).

GATE Banteay Meanchey girls with their Lotus Pedals bikes

Support Lotus Outreach without lifting a finger

Happy philanthropic shopping!

You love Lotus Outreach, but you just don’t have the time or money to donate. You’ve obviously never heard of the Nonprofit Shopping Mall.

Leading the charge in what they call ShopAnthropy, NPSM has created one single step that will translate into money for Lotus Outreach each time you shop online at a participating retailer. Install the EZ Shopper app. That’s it. No logging in, no passwords, no credit card information - and not a penny out of your pocket.

The way ShopAnthropy works is this: More than 700 affiliated retailers (such as Amazon.com, Target, Orbitz, Gap, Groupon and iTunes) pay a fee to NPSM for each purchase made through the NPSM site; 60 percent will be donated to the charity you designate the first time you shop. Downloading the EZ Shopper app eliminates the NPSM website – shop directly from your online retailer and the app tracks all purchases and delivers the donation to Lotus Outreach.

This is one-stop charitable giving! We spoke with NPSM Founder Corine Couwenberg and its Social Media Director Marion Renk-Rosenthal to find out more about the venture.

Who's brainchild is NPSM, and how did it get started?

MARION: Corine had the brilliant idea to turn everyday shopping into everyday giving. As a mom and a professional, she shopped online a lot to save time. She had come across some non-profit shop sites and online fundraising tools, but you always had to remember to go to the organization’s website or log in somewhere. Corine thought that there should be a more convenient way.

CORINE: What I noticed, not just at SOSC (Special Olympics Southern California , where she was formerly Development Director for the Orange County Region), but in speaking with other development people from a variety of organizations, was that while a great emphasis was put on donor cultivation, special events and branding, not much was being done to monetize the organization’s existing supporters. That’s how the concept of turning everyday shopping into everyday giving was born. It was to fill a need — don’t go to the well asking for more money, just let existing supporters shop online for their everyday goods and services and earmark a percentage of their shopping dollars as a give back.

When was NPSM launched, and how has it done since?

MARION: Corine started the development in 2006 and NPSM has been growing in stages ever since. The more organizations hear about it, the more want to sign up and the more supporters become ShopAnthropists. Today, NPSM and ShopAnthropy are growing exponentially.

CORINE: While we started development in 2006, the site and the concept of ShopAnthropy didn’t really find its niche until 2009 when we developed the EZ Shopper App.

What are you looking for in the nonprofits you feature?

MARION: Corine’s dream is to turn every online shopping transaction into a gifting action. We hope to work with as many different causes as possible; this said, because of our retailers’ accounting setups and our own accounting capabilities, ShopAnthropy only works for organizations that concentrate the administration of their fundraising efforts on a regional or nationwide level. Organizations that compute their fundraising accounts city by city, town by town, cannot participate because our system does not break it down that far.

We also love non-profits who help us share the news via their newsletters, website and social media campaigns. We need to work together to get the word out. But not to worry, if your organization is short on staff or PR volunteers, we support all of our organizations through our own news releases, blog and social media activities.

CORINE: In addition to wanting to partner with groups that are nimble, tech savvy and passionate about their work, it’s important for us to feel an affinity for the groups we work with.

How did you get involved with NPSM and what does it mean to you?

MARION: I have known Corine for about ten years. We had friends in common who introduced us because we were both quite involved in local non-profit work and volunteering. We organized some joint community events and our collaboration took off from there.

I have been a journalist, writer and producer for over 20 years – covering everything from floods to drug wars to red carpet arrivals for mostly German news organizations - and I had started to work with a lot of online media in recent years. Knowing that reporting on the starlet-of-the-moment’s addictions and legal issues did not interest me at all, Corine asked me last summer whether I would come aboard to handle the writing tasks for NPSM. I love my new responsibilities because I can use my creativity and skills for something really positive. I can feel good again after a long work day!

ShopAnthropy is a no-brainer. We shop online anyway and we can turn that shopping into a gift for a cause we care about. No cost, no hassles. What’s easier than that?!

CORINE:As the founder ofnonprofitshoppingmall.com, I wear a lot of hats. The day-to-day stuff is not unlike running any business venture and I put in a lot of 10 – 12 hour days keeping the site current, running numbers and doing paperwork.

Overall though, I’m a big picture person and have high hopes for the future of consumer philanthropy. At the end of the day I would love to see a world which fully embraces a culture of consumer philanthropy and I believe that by downloading our EZ Shopper App, in this case for Lotus Outreach, we’re taking control of our costumers’ online shopping behavior and taking steps to imbed the notion of consumer philanthropy by becoming ShopAnthropists.

This endeavor has truly been a labor of love for me. I feel blessed to be able to work with organizations that I love and feel connected to. I feel fortunate to have met some amazing people that have become good friends through this experience and generally happy that others believe in and support this project by becoming partners.

Photo credit

GATE steps up where hard work is not enough

Please welcome our newest blogger, Lotus Outreach Australia's Charlie Cristi:

I’m Charlie, I’m new to this blog and hope to become a regular contributor. I’m from Australia, on the LOA board, and in the last year I moved to Cambodia on an Australian Government volunteer program to work with LOCAM and the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center on the GATE program (Girls Access To Education). My role at the moment involves interviewing all the scholarship girls and their families. I am discovering what barriers they face when trying to attend school, and what their ambitions are once they graduate. It is exciting work as LOA and LOCAM are using the information to establish an emergency fund, so that the families are enabled to support their daughters’ education. Every child and her family has an amazing story to tell, and I hope to be able to share a few with you.

Still dreaming, with the help of LOA

Today I met an inspirational woman. She is the mother of one of our scholarship girls, and she is one of the most caring people I have come across. Her husband died about ten years ago when he was struck by lightning on the way to work. This is a common cause of death in Cambodia, with this year's death toll hitting 50 over the weekend, before the monsoon season has even started. One minute this family had a father, a husband, and the next they had lost not only a loved one, but also the family’s main provider.

This woman loves her children. When her husband was alive she often suffered from panic attacks when she was thinking about her children and about the life she was providing them. She fainted regularly and struggled to breathe. When her husband died, rather than sinking further into these feelings of helplessness she made a conscious decision to stop them right then and make sure that she would give her children the life they wanted.

She leaves at 3am every day to buy vegetables from the wholesale markets and takes them into a market in Phnom Penh, a few kilometers from her home. She stays there until she has sold all the vegetables. To buy the vegetables she needed to get a loan, so every day she puts money aside to pay off the loan.

Her two older sons are studying at uni, doing engineering and music, and while mum knows there is not a lot of money in music, she wants her son to do what will make him happy.

Often she lays awake at night crying because she knows she can't afford the same luxury for her daughter when she finishes school next year. Her daughter wants to study fashion design and dress making, a lucrative occupation in Cambodia. Already she is spending her spare time helping her aunt in a tailoring shop, and learning as much as she can.

This woman's strength and love for her family needs to be shared and I am happy to be able to put her story into this blog. I look forward to sharing more stories as I meet more amazing girls and their families.