February 2012
9 posts
Tallying the Costs of Child Abuse...Beyond Dollars
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a dire but largely dispassionate report on the economic impact that child maltreatment has on the United States.
What struck me most about it was not the staggering amount of money that child abuse costs the nation. We know, after all, that despite its often latent nature, the abuse and neglect of children by the...
6 tags
Oreo Cookies and Hunger
The news spread like wildfire among the parents who had gathered to watch their kid’s soccer game. The parent responsible for snacks that day had brought Oreo cookies. It wasn’t that we were complaining that the snack wasn’t healthy enough or feeling superior because we would only bring homemade snacks. It was because we were jealous - we wanted some!
Where were we living...
“For every difficult problem, there is an easy solution…and it is almost always...”
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Giving Birth in Somalia
People look surprised when I tell them I lived in Somalia for three years. Of course it had a government then. In comparison to the last 20 years, the 1980s were a relatively good time for the country – only it didn’t seem that way at the time.
People look shocked when I tell them I was pregnant then. Somali hospitals were pretty bad and no expat women gave birth there. Most flew back to their...
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Shoes
Shoes – a fetish for many women but not for me. Living in Asia for many years, my 8.5 size foot could never find a comfortable home. Asian women have small feet. Once in Bangladesh, when store after store had nothing my size, I resorted to just sticking my foot in the door and calling out, “You have anything this big?” The storekeeper would shake his head no, sorry he was missing a sale. But I...
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Thai Trip Ahead
Next week, I’m going to Thailand. I travel overseas to ChildFund’s programs about five to six times a year. This trip has two purposes. I’ll be meeting with some senior staff for several days. Then I’ll visit villages to see our programs for children. I always have mixed feelings about these trips.
On the up side, I love visiting programs and seeing our work firsthand. I usually come back with...
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The Secret About Bed Nets
I slept under a bed net every night for over a decade. And, actually, they were a pain in the neck to sleep under.
Obviously, I’m tired when I go to bed. I would be lying if I said I always wash my face before I go to bed – sometimes that is just too much effort. Sleeping under a bed net took even more effort. At that time, you had to carefully tuck it under your mattress to ensure no mosquitoes...
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The Beginning
I haven’t always been the CEO of ChildFund International. My journey really began more than 30 years ago. I guess then I should start at the beginning…
I was fat - very fat. I preferred the term “heavy,” but really I preferred not to think about it, much less talk about it. My worse moment was being offered a chair to sit while standing in line at a bank in Nairobi, Kenya. The kind guard...
