They all just returned back to school from their mid-term break and we are happy to say that they loved coming home to visit! They love the new home and are looking forward to their next school break in August! It’s nice to know that the girls look forward to coming home now!

We trust you arrived safely, hope your family is well.

We really appreciated your last visit. It was the miracle we needed! The transfer of the girls went very smoothly and your assistance was highly appreciated.

Kindly extend our gratitude and love to all the Mothers Fighting For Others and our prayer is that what we have started will be a blessing to all of us and more so to the girls.

All the girls are happy and continuing well with their studies.

We’ll keep you posted.

Warm regards,

Perpetua, Alice and Margaret
Sisters Arise Project

For information on Paulie’s fundraiser please visit the Beach Party Fundraiser page on Facebook. To make contributions to the Team Paulie’s Crusade Foundation, you can send your donation to: PO Box 10216, Trenton, NJ 08650, in Paulie’s memory.

We will announce a new date for The 2011 MFFO Calendar Ball in the upcoming months. Thank you for your understanding.

If you’re from West Virginia, you are probably among the minority of people who can name the woman who started Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis, and her Mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis.  If you’re from Grafton, WV, as I am, you couldn’t escape Mother’s Day history if you wanted to. Grafton is home to the International Mother’s Day shrine and the site of the first Sunday service honoring Mothers.  It is the pride of a city that has seen much better days. And that history has always been a source of pride for me as well.

Today, my feeling of connection springs from a different source. Because what many don’t know is that the first Mother’s Day was organized by Anna Reeves Jarvis as a day to “raise awareness of poor health conditions” in her Appalachian community, “a cause she believed would be best advocated by Mothers. She called it ‘Mother’s Work Day.’” Anna was a Mother fighting for others.

So, today I say Happy Mother’s Day with a renewed sense of pride and in the spirit that Anna Reeves Jarvis originally intended.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

A Is For Aids, is the title of a primary reader. It’s part of the New Progressive Primary English (NPPE) course in Kenya. It’s targeted at elementary school children. It is self-described as a “reading scheme that offers the modern pupil an excellent mix of graded stories all packed with many exciting things. Now the pupil has fun that’s built to last.”

I took screen shots of a few of the pages. The page to the right reads, “O is for orphans. Mother went first. Father followed fast. AIDS is not a curse, we’ll win at last.” I am wholly unfamiliar with what being a child in extreme poverty in Kenya, especially an orphaned child, must be like. But I’m going to come back to this post any time I’m having doubts about the veracity of what MFFO is doing.

We’re helping orphaned girls become powerful women. Educating girls is a key to breaking the cycle of poverty and preventing the spread of AIDS.

The “create your own” link caught my eye and the first thought that popped into my head was, “we already have one.” The story of how Mothers Fighting For Others came to be is a real life Google Search Story. Rocky tells it in her Founder’s Letter. It begins, “I would have never guessed that Mothers Fighting For Others would have started by a simple Google Search on “Volunteer Africa” in 2006. I was just doing research, that’s it. Less than a year, and many, many shots later, I was to far off Kenya. I volunteered with Global Volunteer Network and was assigned with an all girls orphanage outside of Nairobi.”

At this very moment she is once again in Kenya and the girls at Saint Monica’s Childrens Home are now in a new place. It’s been an amazing journey. To cap it off, she returns from this trip on Mother’s Day. It just doesn’t get any better. So, I just had to put together this Google Search Story.

It makes me smile. I hope it makes you smile too.

This is the Mount Kenya Room. We’re figuring out where to put all the beds!

Passing out supplies for school to ALL the girls! We will need sponsors!!

MFFO and Sisters Arise Project cheering the accomplishment.

Thank you ALL for your continued support!

I was on Skype with Rocky when she told me that the girls had no concept of what a slumber party was. That’s certainly no surprise. It’s a cultural thing. So when I saw this first tweet, I was prepared.

headmutha

Rocky Turner

@headmutha: Can you say slumber party? The beds aren't put together. So we're in the living room! #mffo #fb http://twitpic.com/1ix1n4

Apr 27, 2010 @ 06:41 PM from Tweetie

Rocky uses the same tactic when our family stays somewhere that can’t really fit our six kids properly. Beds on the floor = a slumber party. In this case, the beds in the new home are not put together yet and this is their first night in the new home. Then the next tweet came a short while later:

headmutha

Rocky Turner

@headmutha: Time 4 sleep. Goodnight everyone! We R happy & thankful for this amazing change. To be witness to this is a miracle #mffo

Apr 27, 2010 @ 06:56 PM from Tweetie

To be sure, knowing every detail of the trials encountered to get to this point, and even from this great distance, witnessing what has transpired is indeed a miracle. I can hear the joy in her written words and I can tell she is in her happy place. And I still kept it together. But the next tweet sent me over the edge and I couldn’t hold back the tears of joy.

headmutha

Rocky Turner

@headmutha: 30 mins w/ lights out & giggling still going. Wangu whispered 2 me "We r just so excited 2 sleep in a beautiful home" #fb

Apr 27, 2010 @ 07:17 PM from Tweetie

The new home is indeed beautiful, but what makes it special is that it will be a home, not an orphanage run inside an old motel. There will be laughter and love and respect. And there will be discipline and struggles and tears, all handled with respect and love. They way they are supposed to be handled. If we are to help orphaned girls become powerful women, we must give them more than just a formal education. We must strive to provide for them a living example of what is possible in the homes they will create for themselves and their children.

This is day one of their journey. I’m looking forward to taking it with them.

I’ve seen most of the photos numerous times. I imagine that I am a lot like most of you who follow what is happening with MFFO. I look at the photos trying to get a feel for a place that I have never visited. I look at the photos trying to get to know, on some level, girls I have never met, but who I’ve come to love. Last night, I was simply missing my wife.

But the photo below stopped me in my tracks. It helped me focus and helped me go to sleep. It captures a simple moment in time. Two girls are reading a book. As a result, it clearly illustrates our mission: helping orphaned girls become powerful women.

What can you see in this photo? Call me pollyanna, but I see hope. I see the cycle of poverty being broken. “Educated girls grow into educated women, who – research shows – have healthier babies and are more likely to educate their children.” It’s the girl effect.  Writing this now has me on the verge of tears.

This photo is what MFFO is about.