So, I promised some kind of action steps regarding the abductions in Nigeria of over 200 girls from school.  I've been noticing that this story is fading from the news, and regardless of "assistance" from other countries... the girls seem to have disappeared.  I have looked for good places to donate money or assistance, but have found very little in the way of credible organizations.  What I have found is below...

I'm resisting the temptation to get discouraged.  While I struggle to maintain hope for these girls in Nigeria, I'm realizing that I have a choice to either feel incapacitated by powerlessness, or I can choose to address a larger situation.  I can apply my desire to help change the pervasive subjugation of girls everywhere.  Here's what I can share:

Girl Rising is a mighty group that supports educating girls as a road to empowerment.  They are dedicated to telling the stories of girls all over the world.   Right now their primary contribution to the girls in Nigeria is to maintain pressure the government to work together to retrieve the girls.  Join their efforts here.  Watch a trailer for the Girl Rising film below, or at the Girl Rising website.

Brave Girl's Club at its essence is simply about women being kind and compassionate to each other, and to themselves!  They have lots of art classes and retreats, but the thing they do that I channeled energy into around empowering women is their TRUTH CARD EXCHANGE.  You make cards meant to encourage and support women coming out of human trafficking situations all over the world, and these cards are given to the women as they enter work training that enables them to be free of slavery.  Just the other night, I got together with a couple of friends and we made these cards:

In order to complete the cycle, Brave Girls Club has partnered with Full Circle Exchange to bring the products these women are trained to make, to retailers in the US.  That means, you can send loving support to a newly freed woman early in her education and training, and you can buy her handmade cards to support her new life!

The other thing that you can do is to heal your own wounds around the Sacred Feminine.  The Dalai Lama famously said that "the world will be saved by the Western Woman".  And, while I'm sure we could debate for a long time about his intentions with those words, I'll tell you my interpretation.

I know that women are powerful.  Generally women will reinvest what they have into their families and communities.  So, my call to you, is to do your inner work.  Don't only send your money and love to women elsewhere (do do that, but... also... ) give to yourself.  Give yourself permission, and compassion, and love... as you would to another.  Heal the wounds you carry around the nurturing and mothering you received (or didn't).  This is not just about your mother, yes, her, but others too... were they there for you?  When no woman taught you what it was to have a moon cycle, how to care for yourself, or initiated you into the blood mysteries... what did you begin to believe about yourself as a woman?  Has your feminine expression ever been shamed by another woman?  These experiences create a Mother Wound... a wound that for many women created a barrier to her own connection to and expression of her innate Sacred Feminine.

When we heal these things for ourselves, we bring ourselves into alignment with the Sacred Feminine.  As more women live their lives in coherence with the energy of reverence and confidence around their feminine aspect, they invest this energy in their families and communities.  They empower their daughters AND the daughters of others.  Because women know that we are interconnected, that we depend on one another, empowered women will stand for girls everywhere.  The more of us there are, the more demands are made for education for girls, fair treatment of women, and intolerance of sexual slavery and subjugation of women.

So, do your work around your Mother Wound.  In our lives in the west this wound might show up in a strained relationship with your mother, guilt around your own mothering, as difficult relationships with other women, or even as depression, hormone imbalance, and/or a hesitation to follow your dreams.  It might also show up as unequal/unbalanced relationships with men, a sense of duty or owing others, and believing that the needs and feelings of others are more important than our own.  

Do what you came to do in this life, be who you are whole-heartedly.  And send money to or volunteer for organizations that YOU feel good about who are empowering girls all over the world and working to better their situations.  Or nurture your creativity through making Truth Cards for Brave Girls Club... or whatever it is that sets your heart afire with passion.  Do it.  Please.