The Grow Hope Foundation

Do you remember this pillow (and cat)?

Oh, sheesh, sorry. Dude! You’re in the way.

Yes you, skadattle!

Okay, there we go, I blogged about it back in March of 2013. I recently donated this pillow to The Grow Hope Foundation, spearheaded by Kimberly Taylor. I met Kim back in 2007 when we were invited over for dinner shortly before our husbands started working together. Kim was very warm and welcoming and the dinner was amazing. Their house was filled with heart felt family photos and I believe she had just started collecting her vintage cameras (a collection that now sits beautifully on their mantel). Just around that time Kim started a blog to show off her amazing photography including photos of her yummy food and life on her beautiful farm they have the cutest chicken coop!).  Her blog was pretty pivotal in my life because it, along with a handful others, inspired me to start my own blog a few years later. Kim was a bona fide Martha Stewart and to be honest it was a little intimidating. However at that dinner, Kim and her husband were upstairs cleaning up dishes while we were all downstairs. I had walked upstairs to get something out of my bag and I must have been extra stealthy quiet because I caught her and her husband kissing… awkward, yes but it was adorable and I thought, I bet I’d never catch Martha Stewart doing that! Which made Kim seem very human to me. She was a wife and a mom, with a home to take care of. It was filled with her family, gardens and animals, all of which you could tell she loved very dearly.

It’s with this big heart that The Grow Hope Foundation came to be. The Grow Hope Foundation, in partner ship with the Sustainable Community Education Program (SCEP), have been helping building communities in Uganda. They’re helping by showing people in the community how to build new latrines, teaching the importance of sanitisation (washing hands after using the washroom and before eating). They are currently working on building a learning compound where locals will have the opportunity to learn how they can improve their lives through, sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and skills training. Their next big goal is to put in a well, so they don’t have to trek off to pick up water everyday but instead put their energy into planing gardens to feed their families.

We we were visiting Kim and her family last weekend she showed me the jewellery that the women of this community make. She told me they get together twice a week for an hour or so and make these beads. They roll them and shellac them, let them dry in the sun and string them. They are so finely made. I’ve seen paper rolled beads before but none like these. As Kim said to me, “It’s the women, they are the ones that really get me” and I have to agree with her. When I saw the beads I just couldn’t help but think, this was probably made by a woman that was born the same year as me, she might even have two boys of her own. She gets together with her friends and makes things just like me. Then Kim told me that all the ladies wanted for their time and all the jewellery they’ve made was two chickens each. Two, just two. Not money, two chickens. They figured there are roosters around and if they get chicks they can raise them for meat. In the mean time at least they would have the eggs to feed their family… big breath, push back tears, I’m all farklempt now… so as you can imagine I’m quite honoured to have been asked by Kim to partake in her auction to raise proceeds for The Grow Hope Foundation. I’ll keep you posted about it but in the meantime if you are interested in donating or learning more about this amazing project you can do so here.

Thanks so much and especially for popping by!