Who's Helping Haiti
dated 2010-01-26 | posted in columns | topic Charity | permanent link
As if Haiti doesn’t have enough problems of its own, now it’s become a magnet for low-life American men to give their money and their time too, apparently hoping that their generosity will wipe their unfaithfulness out of people’s minds. Take Tiger Woods for example: he hasn’t surfaced since late November but has recently donated 3 million dollars to Haiti relief. He’s been generous before, giving hundreds of thousand to Katrina and to ts ...
Super Mothers
dated 2009-05-06 | posted in columns | topic Charity | permanent link
Meet the Super Mothers
As far as I’m concerned the true heroines of Mother’s Day are the seven mothers at the SOS Village in Bicesse. Sure, there are great mothers all over the world, and I was lucky to have one of them. But the women I know in Bicesse: Celeste, Natacha, Fernanda, Cinda, Emília, Eugénia , Filomena and Amélia, who retired last July, stay in my mind as the most dedicated, loving and hard working mothers I have ever met ...
48 Hours
dated 2009-03-24 | posted in columns | topic Charity | permanent link
For 48 brief hours last weekend Don and I put aside all talk of the Dow, the dollar, AIG, and the IMF. Instead we gave all of our attention to our God children Tomás and Sandra (not their real names.)
I can’t conceive of growing up without my parents. They gave me love, time, a spectacular education and a structure for my personal and spiritual life. But what would I have done without them? The question, for me, is unthinkable. But for the 61 c ...
Letters to Santa
dated 2008-12-14 | posted in columns | topic Charity | permanent link
Last year I watched Rodolfo open his Christmas present in his Village home at the Aldeia SOS I Bicesse ((http://www.aldeias-sos.org/ ) . The wrapping was shiny red, the green ribbon tightly curled and the present of medium size. He tore through the paper and held up a grey knit sweater. The white card with a Santa pulling reindeers read " Bom Natal." The envelope said, “Boy, 9"
He tried on the sweater, rolled up the sleeves, a few inches ...
Amelia - Aldeia SOS
dated 2007-11-06 | posted in columns | topic Charity | permanent link
On Saturday October 27, the SOS Children’s Village in Bicesse celebrated its 40th anniversary. I sat in the full to capacity social hall and looked around at the 62 children who now live in the Village accompanied by the 8 Social Mothers who have given up their lives to raise these children whom the courts have taken from their parents for reasons we can and can’t imagine. Even though I have been a Godmother to 6 children for 9 years, I still ...