Ann Takasaki, executive board member of Big Ocean Women, shared her passion and vision for our work in an interview on Spanish Fork City Television last month. Among the life-changing efforts of our organization are virtual and face-to-face cottage meetings of like-minded women, seeking generative solutions to poverty and abuse, educating women and girls on their divine feminine nature, and strengthening marriage and families.
Much of the world’s view of women is increasingly divergent from ours. Feminine traits are seen as a means of enslavement or subjugation by men, rather than as innate gifts that lead us to nurture, heal, and lift. Those womanly traits can lead us to make a difference beyond our homes to empower women around the globe.
Many of these efforts are focused on one woman and one family at a time. For example, last week Big Ocean Women members joined forces to host a baby shower for Shukria, a refugee who is creating a new life and possibilities for their young family. The creative and essential items for her baby were really a small part of the gifts offered such as welcoming her in a circle of sisterhood, celebrating creation of a new life, and reverencing her role as a woman and mother.
At a recent cottage meeting, some leaders shared the intense hardships they are facing from husbands– weighed down during the pandemic–who have become abusive and turned to alcohol and drugs. In direct response to those needs, global leaders from Big Ocean Women are coordinating an August conference to strengthen families and provide resources for healing and change to these men and their families. This seminar event will offer hope, help, and concrete methods to strengthen and salvage family relationships. It will be recorded and made available for future use and sharing. Watch for updates and details.
Stitching Hearts International will partner with our organization by providing kits for participants to make and donate loveys—comforting items babies and toddlers use for soothing and comfort–as they view the conference.
Tom and Becky Rogers, founders of Families Mentoring Families in Ghana, expressed their gratitude for the prompt and reassuring communication from Big Ocean Women leaders offering immediate assistance as the pandemic upended the world. That message and swift follow-up donation was the first outreach they received and provided food and a generous serving of hope.
In past years, Big Ocean Women members have attended the CSW event at the U.N. where we have gathered some of the great women leaders of the world who are courageously determined to stand for women and improve their circumstances and treatment. Some of these magnificent women are now cottage leaders in their countries where they share light and hope, along with food, encouragement, and opportunities to change the world, one woman and one family at a time. Anyone can attend these virtual meetings live or by going to https://www.bigoceanwomen.org/get-involved/join-a-cottage/ .
Our leaders also stand for women on social media and by sharing and partnering with other organizations in presentations that speak up for and support women as essential members of society in every realm.
We truly are all vital drops in a “Big Ocean” of change.
