Advocacy Archives - The Culture Mom

14Oct

Me to We Trips: Travel With Purpose

I love when my passions collide, which are in a nutshell travel and advocacy. I have written about traveling with purpose over and over and over and over and over again. Travel has had a profound change on my life and when I have the chance to interweave charity work into the experience, it has proven to be even more impactful. Living in Israel, for example, I worked with various populations including Holocaust survivors, children, new immigrants from Ethiopia. These are a few of the most memorable experiences of my life. I saw that as a visitor from Read More

12Sep

Let’s Stop HIV Together

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I'm a child of the 1980s, so HIV is not an unfamiliar term for me. It was more widely known as AIDS, but everyone knew about the virus. I heard story after story of people dying from the disease. Stories of all people, men and women, young and old, black and white. I probably didn't hear enough, partly because the U.S. President at the time tried to brush the enormity of the situation away. However, what I did hear stayed with me. Later as a young woman living on my own in New York City, I headed to a clinic in Harlem to get tested, just as I was Read More

25Apr

More on #SuccessIsCalling

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Disclosure: I partnered with TracFone and Dress for Success to promote their Success is Calling program and was compensated to write several posts about it, but as always, all opinions are my own. This is truly a program that I am proud to be associated with and one that I hope empowers you as much as it did to me upon reading this post. Two weeks ago I told you about my "Afternoon of Empowerment," an amazing day I spent getting inspired by real women telling real stories of empowerment. Each one had used a program called Success is Calling™. Created Read More

24Jul

#ShareTheJourney & Celebrate the Special Olympics World Games w/ Toyota

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As the mother of a special needs child, I have a strong awareness about how children are treated and perceived by society. When someone knocks him down, they knock me down, and I question why people don't see him for who he is - which is basically a rock star. I've been hurt by other mothers who have excluded him from their children's lives because he is different - not just once, countless times. Now that he's older, some of this rejection is beginning to come from other children, and now it hurts both of us, not just me. I look forward to the day where Read More

04Jun

Matt Damon is This Month’s Curator of @ONEGirlsWomen!

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As a proud supporter of everything ONE supports and pushes, it made me smile to see actor & Water.org founder Matt Damon is this month’s curator of @ONEGirlsWomen! He's my hero of the day. This is why he stands for women & girls: My daughters do not know what it is to spend hours collecting water. My girls may suffer the occasional stomach upset, maybe even miss a day of school because of it, but they will never lay dehydrated and dying with only the water available, the very same water that made them sick in the first place. Before I went Read More

08Mar

In Honor of International Women’s Day: Poverty is Sexist

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Now this is a campaign I'm thrilled to get behind...every step of the way. It has to do with girls, equality, equity and fighting extreme poverty to make the world a better place. The name of the campaign: POVERTY IS SEXIST. According to new analysis published by The ONE Campaign today, International Women’s Day, girls and women are hit hardest by extreme poverty across every area of life, but they also hold the key to change. ONE’s report, “Poverty is Sexist: Why girls and women must be at the heart of the fight to end extreme poverty” shows how Read More

04Mar

Becoming a Shot@Life Champion

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If you've read my blog before, you know of my passionate and fervent interest to help others. Using it and other streams over the years, I've raised large amounts of money for St. Jude Hospital and the Haitian Amputee Mothers Alliance. I've raised awareness for Every Mother Counts, Mothers 2 Mothers, Save the Children, Dress for Success and ONE. I write over at The Broad Side and BlogHer when given the opportunity and really try to raise the bar on issues I care about, most pertaining to women and children. Yet I am not known for this work. I'm the Read More

04Mar

10 Ways to Make a Difference on International Women’s Day (with Tips from GVI)

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How are you observing International Women's Day? I get to go hear Cherie Blair speak. She's the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a leading lawyer and committed campaigner for women¡¯s rights and the founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, which supports women entrepreneurs in developing countries. You can count on the fact that I'll be live tweeting and blogging about what she has to say right here on The Culture Mom. Having just come from the Shot at Life conference, I am more inspired than ever to make a difference in the Read More

15Feb

Fund The Skinny and Get People Talking About Eating Disorders

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A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece on Jessie Kahnweiler. Her video series called Meet My Rapist spoke to me on many levels. It was a blunt response to her own rape that occurred as a college student while in Vietnam by playing herself being followed by her rapist. She took an extremely bad moment in her life and used it to teach people through storytelling and it was really powerful. Since then, Kahnweiler has gone on to do more great things that wake people up, including me, every single time. Using the power of comedy and video, she produces Read More

21Jan

Advocating for Children’s Health is a Global Effort #MDGmomentum

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I can’t believe that I had my first daughter 11-1/2 years ago. It feels like yesterday, and for some reason, the images are more vivid than when I had my second child a few years later. It was an induced pregnancy, so we went in to the hospital rather leisurely on a week night. I laid on a table and was given medication to send my soon-to-be child a signal that it was time to come into the world. After nine months of carrying her around in my belly and readying the house and my life to include a new child, my husband and I were more than ready to Read More