Here’s a special treat, friends. My wife is in Bosnia this week doing… Well, I’ll let her explain:
The Golden Hands
This week I am in Bosnia on a volunteer assignment with Women for Women International. I first learned about the organization about a year ago on Oprah. The organization helps women who are victims of war to rebuild their lives. W4W first started in 1993 when Zainab Salbi, who was living in Washington at the time, decided she had to do something for the growing number of women refugees in Croatia who had escaped the war in Bosnia. Zainab and her husband raised money and supplies from friends and brought them to women in Croatia. Zainab requested the women write letters to the generous benefactors back in the states, and Women for Women International was born. Today, the organization has served over 250,000 women in 8 countries primarily through a one year program where they get counseling, life skills training, some financial assistance and, most importantly, the community and support of other women who are coping with the same circumstances.
I was so inspired about the program that I went online that night to sponsor a woman. It generally takes about 6 weeks to get matched. Thanks to the overwhelming response from the Oprah coverage, I would later learn that W4W got 4 million hits on their website that day and tens of thousands new sponsors. I finally was matched several months later and decided to send a note to W4W’s customer service. I shared that my specialty is Operations and I work for a company, Salesforce.com, who gives grants of software to help organizations like W4W scale. I got a note back from Nicole Weaver, W4W’s CIO, the next day, and a partnership was born.
I am here this week with my friend and colleague, Alexa, to support a pilot of the rollout of Google Apps to the W4W field offices. This technology will help the local offices be more efficient, but will also help them connect more easily with HQ in Washington DC and the other program offices around the world.
We arrived in Sarajevo on Sunday, after a relatively smooth day of travel and a spectacular flight over the snow-covered mountain range that is all around the city. I have a vague memory of coverage of the town during 1984’s winter Olympics. It is really charming, nestled in a valley between snow-covered hills dotted with houses covered in snow. W4W greeted us at the airport, arranged very generous accommodations and planned a full week for us to achieve our technology assignment and learn about their program.
After a warm greeting in the office on Monday morning, Seida, the country director, taught us all about the local program. There are 3000 women active today and thousands of others participating in “post graduate” programs through W4W. Seida is a high energy, unstoppable woman with a fierce commitment to the women of her birth country. She has taken this program from two folding tables with two computers, one that worked, to a flourishing organization servicing 3000 women in the current program and countless other graduates who have built businesses or who earn a living through post-graduate programs.
The highlight of the day was a chance to join a training being held for the Kate Spade program. This prestigious designer developed the XX program through which she has created jobs for over 600 women in Bosnia allowing them to leverage knitting, a life skill learned at an early age, as a way to make a living. During today’s session, 20 or so women came together to learn about the designs being developed for next season’s line. 250 women might work on production of one style, all knitting to conform to a precise pattern and the highest level of quality. These “Golden Hands,” as they are known, artfully create flawless pieces of work with the most amazingly even stitches. Being a knitter myself, I was in awe of their talents.
“We are not the women who cry and moan, but the women who fight,” shared one confident and wise knitter amongst the group. In addition to income and fair compensation for their work, the program gives these women the invaluable community and support during their healing process. Despite their loss and continued day to day struggle to provide the basics for their families, these women glowed with hope and with the invitation to join the program, one women said they “grow wings” to fly over and be a part of it. They say they feel like one large family. I left the day in awe of their strength and motivated to do the best job I can this week. I’m committed to see what other ways I can help.
You can learn more about the program here.
What better gift for yourself or a loved one this holiday season that to sponsor a woman? Use this link.
