Let me tell you a secret about me: I love creating an awareness, being completely open, creating trust and being direct...One of my goals in life is to contribute in creating more and more changemakers in this world. The Umeebee blog allowed me to create a personal connection between YOU and a community at the other end of the world, to connect with individuals here in Africa and to give them a face and a voice. Yes this blog satisfied me in a way to fulfill this one goal.
During my work on Umeebee it became more and more clear to me that I didn't just want to create a medium for connections and I definitely didn't want to create a structure of just giving and receiving. I kept asking myself the question: how to make an impact on individuals here in Africa? How do I empower people here? How do I bring community members in Africa something that allows them to bring something to others in their community?
I can't tell you how happy I was when I met Anasuya here in Cape Town! With her organization: Let Love Lead she organized workshops in Africa and used the arts to empower, inspire and heal individuals, infected with and impacted by HIV/AIDS.
We have merged Umeebee and Let Love Lead together and started our new initiative: Love to the World
We are offering workshops in arts and leadership as well as Global Peace Tiles workshops. We are identifying community-based organizations that are at a level to receive global investment so that changemakers like you can invest in them in the near future and be a part of transforming lives and countries.
We are also co-producing the first ever Sister CircleSummit of HIV+ women of African-heritage from the U.S. and South Africa! Together these women will share their stories and their struggles living with this virus as well as develop ways they can empower one another on-goingly across continents.
And we are creating a Love To The world Arts and LeadershipAcademy for high school students in the townships. It will be a 12 week courses in theater, creative writing, visual arts, and mentor ship that will train the teens to develop and lead successful community-based projects in their township. These are kids who have never had one extracurricular class in their lives! They have never done arts and no one has ever asked them to be responsible for their world by making it a better paradise! Our academy starts this Saturday! We have no funding and yet, we know we must do it and figure that out as we go along!
The First phase of the Umeebee giving-platform is being build by Matthijs www.movimiento.nl , Hester www.surfchicas.nl/hes and Yannick www.goyaweb.nl . Looking forward to start using this here as well!
This email is an invitation to be a part of bringing Love To The World by
1) going to our website and subscribing (www.lovetotheworld.org )
2) leaving a comment
3) sharing the website with all your friends
4) watching the video
5) making a donation (of any size) or buy something at our "love for sale" shop
Thank you for making a difference!
Love, Fre