Visit to the Orphanage 12/2021 The South Sudan Juba Orphanage was established in 1960, making it the oldest orphanage in the country. Currently, it is the home of over 60 children. The orphanage is under the Central Equatoria State Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare. The orphanage does not have funders, so support to provide…
I remember when I first started working with a group of 3-year-olds in a church class, I was completely at a loss as to how to deal with some of the children. They weren’t like my own 3-year-old! Some were rambunctious. Some seemed to have an aversion to actually sitting on their chairs. Some felt…
One of our newest members of the Big Ocean Women communications team is a wonderfully insightful author, Emily Layton. She grew up in Tempe, Arizona and is “the middle of five children.” She shared the following experience from her childhood: “Every summer growing up we went for a week or two to a cabin in…
Big Ocean Women and friends for the cause donated resources to assist another family who recently arrived in Utah from Afghanistan! The Emami family with 11 members exited Afghanistan on August 23, 2021, from the Kabul airport amidst chaos and confusion, and were flown to Qatar in the first leg of their journey. Weeks later…
This month is such a great time of the year. February is a nice little in-between-seasons time, the space between winter and spring. It’s a great time to do a little personal inventory! It is a great time to show respect to ourselves and others in our relationships, both personal and professional. We can use…
Once, on a writer’s retreat to a desert in south-central Utah, I was caught in an unexpected downpour while standing on a red rock ridge high above a green grass valley where a river meandered through the late fall day, slow with sediment, the drowsy water a small relief from the drought and dust that…
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.” Albert Einstein In this quote, Einstein captures our tenet for the month, “We are each unique and innately worthy of respect.” From garbage man to university president, child to adult, neighbor to stranger, respect is…
As I read through the articles submitted by our talented authors this month I was pleased to see how each of these women took the same tenet, “We are each unique and worthy of respect,” and filtered it through her life experience and perspective to share with the world a gift of light. This happens…
Betty Abah is the 15th of 30 children. She is the only one from her family to get an education, and it has led her back to her home in Lagos, Nigeria. Betty is the CEO of CEE-HOPE, an NGO that focuses on the rights and welfare of vulnerable children. She is also a journalist,…
The hit song “Diamond” by Martina McBride and Keith Urban was written to honor women exclaiming they are, “priceless as they come.” Throughout history, women have often been referred to in poetry, song, literature, and terms of endearment as precious stones. Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, MacBeth, and his other works comparing women to…