Saturday, January 13, 2007

Generosity

Ghor Mission Jan 2007 - Girls at orphange Originally uploaded by frida world.

You are fabulous! Enough of you have told me that you want help these children that I am going to find a way to make it happen. There are two possibilities, one is for me to set up a way to accept donations. I think I can do that through PayPal, hopefully that will be easy for me to track and keep it all transparent. I will find out how to do that today.

Update: I think I figured it out - the button is up and the link seems to work. I've never received payments through PayPal before, but I assume they will be tracked in my account and it should be clear that they were made for the fund for orphans. The other possibility is to send things here. Annieelf has started organising that - so my job is to figure out a secure way to get things here. It could be tricky but I'll give it my best shot. The main thing that would be worth sending is good quality woollens. Everything else is probably easier to buy here. I won't be going back up to Cheghcharan until early March, but I am going to Badghis at the end of this month and the situation there is pretty similar to Ghor (not quite so dire but still many, many people without enough money to provide the basics for their children). Okay - now you've given me my weekend work I had better get on with it! Thanks for your generosity. PS: If you donate money I will spend it on school supplies for the orphanage as well as warm boots and clothes. That's what the children wanted and what the Director of the orphanage also suggested - a black board, some chalk, notebooks, pens and pencils. I'd like to get some crayons as well for art work.

9 comments:

[a} said...

You are living my dream! That is the job I aspire for!!

I'm from Pakistan, and know an Afghani family there who work for my aunt, these amazing people who've been through a lot. Ever since then, I decided to teach or something there when I grew up. Human rights officers, do-gooders, are like my mind's version of rock stars..
[Yes, my friends consider that weird about me]

Anyway, 'nuff gushing.
I'll ask my parents, see what I can do, and check out that link to Annie's.

One Crabapple said...

Will send some woolens to Annie.
Hope you get the Paypal Donation button up soon.
I love that you will be able to buy the things you need yourself there.

I had borrowed some of your FLickR pictures as I was writing about Annie and yourself on my own blog and then came here to get your link and was so surprised to see you had an entry since I had visited and read about the children only a few minutes before.

Instantly imagining us both at work on a blog entry at the same time - using the same wonderful photo gave me a smile.

Good luck to you there and in this special effort.

Much Love - S.

Laini Taylor said...

Frida, this is such an amazing window into your world. Thank you! The children are so beautiful, and I almost can't imagine the reality of their situation, the reality of helping put their cold little feet into warmer socks. That's something you just don't get from the news. The only thing that gives me the slightest inkling what it might be like is from having visited a 'school' in rural Bulgaria, which was really an orphanage for children who weren't really orphans but whose parents couldn't/wouldn't care for them because of minor developmental disabilites. The emotional hunger of these kids was devastating to experience, quite apart from their lack of basic material things, and to think how very very many children there are in the world -- I am so grateful to know there are people like you doing such wonderful work. I get really down on humanity sometimes; I need to see more of the positive. I'm excited that there's an effort afoot to get some woolens to you and these kids. I'll be contributing via Annie, and I hope everything will reach you safely. If you post a way that money can safely be contributed, too, that would be appreciated! :-)

paris parfait said...

I'm so pleased this effort is being organised. Rather than send woolen things across the Atlantic to Annie and back again, I'll donate via my Paypal account to yours. Will e-mail you about details.

Regina said...

Thanks, Frida! It's good to have a couple different options here and I will see what works best for me right now...

Anonymous said...

I just stumbled on your website and the amazing work you are doing.....just sent a small donation. Best wishes and God be with you in your journeys in all that you are doing in Ghor and elsewhere.

Fondly,
Cheryl in Louisville, KY

Alex S said...

Do you have a preference for what you would like sent, money to buy things from there or through A? Just let me know as I would love to contribute. Thank you so much for making it possible. You are so deeply inspiring!

Anonymous said...

I used some of your pictures from flickr to make a post linking to you and to Annie. I will send you some handmade alpaca scarves and hats and hope you are able to distribute them. Will look for the paypal link to be up so I can pass that on as well. Thank for this incredible work you are doing!

Anonymous said...

Lots of woolens around these parts - I'm not entirely clear on how to get them there but I'll double check the post - we'll see what we can do - thanks for the opportunity - xox - eb.