Gendercide in India: Add Sugar and Spice
Posted on Apr 08, 2011 | 35 COMMENTS
The news from India’s 2011 census is almost all heartening. Literacy is up; life expectancy is up; family size is stabilizing. But there is one grim exception. In 2011 India counted only 914 girls aged six and under for every 1,000 boys. Read the entire article in the Economist HERE.
Breaking the Cycle
Posted on Apr 05, 2011 | 30 COMMENTS
Back in 1933, Alice O’Toole Gangstee was a farm wife to a World War 1 veteran and mother of two young daughters, Bernette and Delores. In a matter of seven days, her husband Erick took ill with flu-like symptoms and died. Doctors said a delayed asphyxiation resulted from the gasses he inhaled during the war. It probably didn’t matter much to Alice how he died – just that she was young and alone, left to raise two girls in the midst of a Depression, in the middle of a Dust Bowl.
Alice O’Toole Gangstee at age 19 in 1926
Erick’s photo has hung in my childhood home in Minnesota for as long as I can remember, in a domed, oval frame. His handsome, black-and-white face stares out from underneath a soldier cap.
Erick’s death left my grandmother, Delores, to grow up during the Depression without a father. In that time and culture, loneliness was not her mother’s only grief – she faced limited opportunities and the risk of poverty. Even when she beat the odds and got a job as a waitress in a local diner, her absence put her daughters at risk at a time when day care centers and after-school programs didn’t exist.
Delores and Bernette in 1930
Delores and Bernette in 1945
Grandma Dee once told me that when she was a young teenager home alone, a workman who was working on their home made advances toward her, and she had to force him to leave. I don’t know how she did, but I’m glad she did. America has never lacked sexual predators, just like any other area of the world.
A woman who has been sexually abused faces a cycle that often captures her daughters, her granddaughters, and her great-granddaughters. The psychological pain deeply impacts her core beliefs about herself. She believes that she is an object to be used. The dehumanization often goes so deep that even when given an opportunity for a dignified life, she does not take it. She does not believe she is worthy of it. Her beliefs about herself affect the beliefs her children have about themselves.
We’ve heard the horrific stories of children who are forced to lie under their mothers’ beds because there is no one to take care of them while their mothers are working the line. Not every child’s story is this shocking, but even one child with this story is one-too-many. It is very common for the cycle to sweep up these children as well, and it affects generation after generation after generation – until one woman has the strength, opportunity, and support to break it.
The faces of IPP are faces of women who have stood up to overcome. We see their photos and workmanship through PUNJAMMIES™, but we often don’t see the children who stand with them – the children who are often their inspiration for seeking out a better life. These mothers have given their children a chance to go to school, a chance to eat healthy meals, a chance to imagine and play.
In my own family, Alice’s strength and the support of her family allowed both her girls to finish school and then carry a nation as working girls through World War II. My grandmother had the option of marrying for love instead of need, and she had three good children, the oldest of which is my mother, Celeste.
The first pair of PUNJAMMIES™ I ever bought were a gift for my mother. She and the matriarchs in my family built a positive cycle that I pray I will be able to pass on to my children someday. A lot of love has trickled down through the generations of my family, and I wonder, why me? Why was my life different when so many others’ lives are filled with abandonment and pain? Problems are easier to face when a support system stands behind you, ready to catch you when you fall.
Mom and me in 2006
Alice has been gone for many years now, and Grandma Dee is living out the last few years of a good life in a nursing home back home. Mom takes care of her daily with calls and visits, making sure she knows how much she is loved. Her care for Grandma is much like the love and care she gave me as a little girl. These three women are far away, and though I won’t see them on Mother’s Day, I carry them with me in my heart.
I don’t know who I would be without them. I don’t want to know.
Mother’s Day Gift with Purchase
Posted on Apr 05, 2011 | 15 COMMENTS
IPP announces that beginning today, April 5, 2011, we are giving away this beautiful bracelet from our friends at 31 Bits with the next 50 online orders!
IPP honors the courage of the mothers working to restore their lives and the lives of their children in the PUNJAMME™ Project. We will be sharing some of their touching stories throughout the month.
And the Winner Is…
Posted on Apr 04, 2011 | 15 COMMENTS
Congratulations, Christine Matchell, you have won IPP’s first giveaway! Look for an e-mail from us in your inbox.
To everyone who participated in our first giveaway, thank you so much for helping us raise awareness for the ladies in India. We appreciate you!!
Last Chance!
Posted on Apr 01, 2011 | LEAVE A COMMENT
Remember, today is the last day to enter the IPP giveaway!
We won’t accept entries after midnight tonight, so comment on our blog and enter to win the Sari Bari purse! (See full details in the post below).
We will announce the winner on Monday.
Good Luck!
International Princess Project is offering its first giveaway!
Posted on Mar 29, 2011 | 26 COMMENTS
We are giving away this beautiful hand-made Sari Bari bag:
Sari Bari is a company similar to IPP. Sari Bari offers dignified employment to women who have been exploited by sex trafficking. Sari Bari teaches women to make beautiful handmade items, everything from handbags to blankets, from recycled saris.
Go here http://www.saribari.com/ to check out their website.
To enter the giveaway, do one of the following:
a) Like this post and leave a comment with your email saying you liked this post.
b) Leave a comment on this post telling us what your favorite item from IPP or Sari Bari is.
c) Tweet about this giveaway and leave a URL in a comment on this post.
d) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL in a comment on this post.
e) Post this URL: http://www.intlprincess.org/index.php/ipp/blog/ to your Facebook and leave the URL to your Facebook in a comment on this post.
The winner will be selected via a random drawing and will be notified by e-mail (so leave your e-mail in your comment!).
This sweepstake opens on 3/29 and closes on 4/1 at midnight.
Monday News: Upcoming Graduation
Posted on Mar 28, 2011 | 15 COMMENTS
This month 10 new women have been training to join the IPP Freedom Center in Peddapuram India, and they are graduating next week! These 10 women are excited about their new lives.
IPP is excited to be growing:
There are currently a total of 32 women at Freedom Center, 35 at Ashraya and around 40 at Ashagram - over 100 women benefitting from the PUNJAMMIE™ program!
Thank you for supporting International Princess Project as we seek to help women reclaim their value and their voice.
One way you could continue to help IPP continue to grow is to “like” this blog post. (Anytime someone “likes” a blog post the message is shared with exponentially more people. It’s small gesture that makes a huge impact!)
New Spring PUNJAMMIE™ Styles Available Now!
Posted on Mar 24, 2011 | 16 COMMENTS
The newest styles of PUNJAMMIES™ always move fast, so visit PUNJAMMIES™ home page today to check out the latest from India!
