Join Robyn’s “Share the Love” Campaign
Support vulnerable mothers & children in Zambia
with your one-time or monthly donation
Robyn will match every dollar you give!
Love works, and it’s the only thing that does.
The phrase above is one of the core values of Mothers Without Borders.
I love this organization. And I love this phrase.
For 2 weeks, from January 29th until February 12th, I’m raising funds for my favorite charity. Watch my video below…
As I Count the Years, It’s Time to Turn Outward—with Love
All I want for my birthday is for YOU to partner with me to give to an incredible cause, Mothers Without Borders—an organization that offers...
“...hope to orphaned and vulnerable children by nurturing and caring for them as if they were our own and giving voice to the power of love.”
Zambia is a place of incredible environmental and cultural beauty, and it has a reputation for political stability and tourist safety in the region.
And yet...thousands of children go hungry every day.
They are forced to scavenge for food in trashcans and alleys, to beg, or to engage in prostitution.
Why I Love Mothers Without Borders
Eleven years ago, I met an amazing human being, Kathy Headlee, when she gave a talk at BYU’s Education Week that captivated my heart.
She told the story about how she first got involved in an international relief effort and realized her calling was to serve women and little ones around the globe.
When I heard her talk, I cried. Kathy was doing great work while being a single mom of four children, at the time.
Kathy’s choices inspired me. Just like me, Kathy had to care for her own children, and at the same time, she was investing her heart in a village all the way across the world.
I love Mothers Without Borders because they do great work effectively and in a budget-conscious way, and they take very, very little as overhead.
Like 5%. That’s a shoestring budget. Most humanitarian organizations spend about 10-12% on overhead and salaries.
“Love is the single GREATEST healing tool.” —Kathy Headlee
How Mothers Without Borders Shares Love
Feeding the children is only one thing Mothers Without Borders does—their efforts go beyond, to create a lasting impact and fundamental change.
They fill the bellies of vulnerable children so their brains can think. And then they teach them not only how to learn and read and do math, but also how to do life, expand their horizons, and come back home to help their people.
In Zambia, so many children are losing their childhood. They don’t have an opportunity to be children. They don’t get to do something as simple as playing.
Mothers Without Borders is sharing LOVE and giving these kids, and these communities, hope and a new future.
Mothers Without Borders provides free school lunch, using food from the school’s garden and local items, for the 525 children currently attending their school.
The Important Work You’ll Be Supporting
Mothers Without Borders is NOT a relief agency. They go into areas with large orphan populations and look for ways they can train people and support communities in solving their own problems, long-term.
They provide food, housing, and education for children, while also offering adult caregivers literacy and business skills training.
Mothers Without Borders runs the Carol Zulu Primary School,
which currently has 525 students.
In a country where only 60% of 7th-grade test scores are passing, they’ve maintained a 100% pass rate since they opened in 2010.
They also have a Children's Resource Center, where children found in crisis come to live. The center uses an individualized, holistic approach to support each child in a “family”-like setting.
How Your Support Transforms Lives
Ruth
Ruth came to Mothers Without Borders in 2008, when she was about 10 years old. She was an only child, with no information about her father. Her mother became ill (AIDS-related) when the little girl was about 7. She had to leave school, and find food and water for herself and her mother. She didn’t have support from an extended family.
When her mother died, Ruth was there. The experience was traumatizing. She heard her mother gasping for air. She pushed on her arms and kissed her. But her mother didn’t move. Ruth described being very frightened.
Mothers Without Borders took Ruth in to live in their crisis center. Ruth wanted to go into the medical field. She worked really hard in school. And now, she’ll graduate from nursing school in April 2020, and she’s already secured a job for when she graduates.
One family who visited Zambia on a volunteer trip has supported Ruth since they met her. They supported her through school, new clothes, new shoes, and everything she needed to achieve her dream
Edgar
Edgar was found about a year ago while Mothers Without Borders was conducting home visits at homes with HIV-infected children. They were visiting Edgar’s grandmother, who was caring for Edgar and a few of his teenage brothers after their mother died of AIDS.
It was a mud-brick house with a dirt floor. In the 10” x 10” home, there was one bed, one chair, and one broken-down couch. Edgar was 12 years old at the time, but he looked like he was about half that. He was bundled up in layers; his pants were wet; he was clearly very sick.
He shuffled over and laid his head in Kathy Headlee’s lap. In addition to being affected with HIV, he was epileptic. Though his grandmother was doing the best she could, it became clear that Edgar would be dead in the next month if he didn’t get more care.
Mothers Without Borders took him into their crisis center. He was very smart, even though he probably hadn’t attended school in years. Though his health situation would often worsen, he kept rallying. He kept surviving.
Within seven months, he was speaking three languages. He was an active community member and leader in the community. He loved to dance. He even won a rapping competition, with participants from all over the country. He wants to give back however he can.
Phillip, Elida, and Trina
Phillip’s mother died when he was about 8 years old. He was a triplet, with two sisters, Elida and Trina. Without anyone to care for them, the children ran wild. The daughter of the village leader came to visit. She said, who are these horrible children? They can’t stay here anymore; they’re causing too much trouble. She took the three kids and pinned a note on them and sent them on a train to the city.
The triplets ended up at Mothers Without Borders, even though the crisis center was full at the time. They continued to be tyrants for the first two years. But now, they’re all very sweet.
The sisters look back at how they behaved in the past and laugh. Phillip, who has special needs, is 15 years old and works very hard in school. Elida and Trina are fast runners. They compete in track, and are the top two in their district.
These triplets came from an impossible situation, and survived.
These stories are not unique. Situations like this are common in Zambia.
With your help, more people like these children can get the help and love they need to rebuild their lives and be positive members of their communities.
*The names of the children have been changed to protect their privacy.
Why Now Is an Important Time to Give
Zambia has had very little rain. In fact, the country is experiencing the worst drought in a century.
People already have very little food to survive. And now, the situation is even worse.
Here’s a video from November and a demonstration of how your money can make a powerful difference for these people.
Simply sharing what you can will bring so much joy to these people, who are more like us than they are different, except that they don’t have food to eat or guaranteed education. This is another core value of Mother Without Borders that I love:
We are more alike than we are different.
I found this to be true during my own humanitarian trip to Zambia, when I saw first-hand the power of love in action.
Robyn in Zambia with Mothers Without Borders.
My Family’s Work with Mothers Without Borders
In the summer of 2017, I sent two of my kids, Emma and Tennyson, to Zambia to help with Mothers Without Borders’ initiatives and participate in Kathy Headlee’s personal-growth classes.
They found the Zambian people to be the most impoverished people they’d ever met, and they also found them to be kind and openhearted.
My Emma on our trip to Zambia. You can volunteer with MWB
for an opportunity to help others and grow personally.
Now, This Is About You...
This year, for my birthday, it’s all about YOU.
As Kathy Headlee says, at their core, everyone loves to love.
Can you find the part of you that loves to love? That remembers we all belong to each other. And then, share what you can from that place.
During the next 2 weeks, I’m asking you to give generously. My goal is to raise $100,000.
3 ways you can participate in the “Share the Love” campaign:
1. Give a one-time donation that will be used to support vulnerable women and children right away.
2. Become an ongoing, monthly donor (What Mothers Without Borders needs MOST is ongoing funds, because these kids need to eat every day, and they need ongoing funds to support the systems they have in place that work)
3. Join a volunteer trip to Zambia (or send your kids!) during summer of this year (learn more below)
Examples of how your ONE-TIME donation will help:
- $20 feeds and educates a Zambian child for two weeks
- $35 pays for a pair of school shoes
- $50 supports a child in a crisis center for one month
- $75 helps a grandmother start a garden to feed the kids in her care
- $150 buys a bicycle for older children to get to school (MWB runs a primary school; older children must go to other schools)
- $250 gets a child in crisis off the streets (clothes, medical exam, bed, etc)
How your MONTHLY donations will help:
- $40 a month. Sponsors kids in school and feeding programs. MWB is seeking 400 monthly sponsors at this level.
- $100 a month. Sponsors community health workers program supporting more than 250,000 women and children. MWB is seeking 100 monthly sponsors at this level.
- $250 per month. Sponsors children rescued from trafficking and abuse who live in our children’s resource center. MWB is seeking 52 monthly sponsors at this level.
With your gift today, you’ll be providing children and communities in Zambia with food, education, and, most all, opportunity.
Let’s show Kathy Headlee and Mothers Without Borders what’s possible when the GreenSmoothieGirl community comes together to SHARE THE LOVE.
You Give, I’ll MATCH (until February 12th!)
Until the end of this campaign, I’ll match each dollar you give!
So, giving $20 is really giving $40.
Additionally, I have these prizes for you:
#1 Donor ($10,000 minimum): I’ll fly to you, anywhere in North America, and spend a day with you, doing whatever you want. (But, please be from Hawaii or SoCal. I kid!)*
Donors #2 - #10 (over $250): You get a 45-minute phone consult with me. Let’s talk about whatever is on your mind related to health, wellness, business, you name it.
Donors #11 - #20 (over $250): You get a $50 gift certificate for the GreenSmoothieGirl store!
All Monthly Sponsors: God’s blessings for you who share with those who have nothing—plus a shout-out on the GreenSmoothieGirl blog and Facebook page, expressing my and Mothers Without Borders’ gratitude.
Prizes will be announced after the campaign ends.
P.S. Definitely Donate to My Campaign! But Also… Consider Going to Africa, or Sending Your Kids
You can also join a Humanitarian Trip to Zambia with Mothers Without Borders this summer to help mentor children and serve people of all ages, to experience the culture, and to take part in daily personal growth classes.
My son, Tennyson, in Zambia.
Think about sending your teen or young adult child for a life-changing, humbling perspective outside the 1st-world experience.
Mothers Without Borders has 23 spaces open for volunteers to travel on a 2-week expedition team and help with various projects this summer. Cost is $2,900 plus airfare.
“The soul is healed by being with children."
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ready to donate?
Your gift today is a powerful statement of your belief in the power of love, and that we are all in this together. Together, we are strong.
