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Turkey day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, WHEW! What a busy weekend, and it spilled over into the first week of December! The most important day of all the shopping bonanza days in my eyes was, #GivingTuesday.

We joined a group of thousands of organizations going back to the basics this holiday season – celebrating all the “unselfie” behavior and highlighting the importance of giving back to your community and our global world. We rooted for a smashing success! It was.

On this #GivingTuesday, the second annual

• More than 10,000 nonprofits participated
• Donation increases from 90 to 162 percent reported from web based forums like Donor Perfect and Blackbaud
• Average gift sizes $130
• Number of transactions doubled

Well, #GivingTuesday may be over, but that doesn’t mean the giving needs to end. Tis the season, and you hold the power to help girls accomplish their dreams. We refer to it #girleducation. Year after year, your support helps girls like Kalisizo, who trained as a seamstress and owns her own business.  Reality is Kalisizo worked for free as a maid; lived in the slums of Kampala, begging by day and prostituting by night, before she connected with St. Elizabeth nuns and received the opportunity for an education.

Together, we can provide a hand-up for all the “Kalisizo’s” working hard toward success and self-reliance in their own lives.

A hand-up works with the support of thousands of helping hands. You are one click away from supporting #girleducation. I give thanks to the hand-up you provide our girls.

Peace & Love

Cristen

Let’s have some fun with our Good Deed Beads holiday donation drive. I’ll start with five ways to use your beads.

1)    You got the office fashionista in your office’s Secret Santa pool. Go ahead, grab the Good Deed Beads offer she’ll love them!

2)    Wait. You are the fashionista? Go ahead donate several times. Layering the beads makes a definite fashion statement.

3)    Looking for that something blue gift for the bridal shower? Wouldn’t you know we have blue beads just for you!

4)    So you’re throwing a holiday party for your best gals and want a take home gift that gives back.  Our beads make a great take home gift. Now all your guests can leave with a smile knowing you are keeping women employed.

5)    How about taking that holiday gift to the next level. Turn your beads into a holiday ornament. Head to a craft store and grab a box of clear ornaments stuff the beads inside and Walla, a beautiful handmade gift.  So feel free to give more than once 😉 so you have plenty of beads for creation.

So on the busiest shopping weekend. Let’s do some happy shopping online with Hope for Hearts. Click here to reserve your beads today.

Peace & Love

Cristen

An education inspires.

I am launching Good DEEDS = BEADS today. It’s a donation-based campaign that supports our girls’ education.

Here’s how it works.

It takes $240 to sponsor one girl for one year. I want to show my appreciation for your donation. What better way to shower you with appreciation, than to share a piece of Uganda?

For a $30 donation support one girl for a portion of the year, and you will be sporting a necklace made with love from the St. Elizabeth community.

You efforts will help me provide a hand-up. The goal: sponsorship of 200 St. Elizabeth Academy girls by my trip’s third anniversary in September 2014.

We can do this together! Click here to get started.

Peace and Love,

Cristen

Please allow 2-3 weeks for necklace delivery.

As we enter the giving season, I give thanks everyday for my Uganda journey. Meeting these girls, hearing their stories, and seeing their ambition changed me forever.

I am a huge proponent of giving a hand-up, not a handout. I plan to support their efforts and will to overcome every hurdle way past my lifetime. Their determination to learn despite the obstacles of their past keeps me going.

I have a BIG goal to reach in the next 365 days – the sponsorship of 200 St. Elizabeth Academy girls. Next week I will tell you about an exciting new incentive promotion for the holidays. But for right now, here’s how you can help reach this goal. We created the hash tag #ISupportH4H – use this hash tag when sharing your favorite social media posts, status updates and tweets of ours.

Those famous words: “It takes a village” – is right on the mark. I can’t do this myself. I need your support to get the message out, to get our girls sponsored so their education continues.

Together with you, #ISupportH4H.

Peace and Love,

Cristen

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

My passion is providing girls a hand-up to an education. With this hand, girls become self-reliant. In Uganda, education is a luxury. Many girls fail to receive this luxury, due to no fault of their own. Well, Hope for Hearts is among hundreds of charities working in Africa to shake things up and breakdown the luxury wall. We all want the same thing, an education for the children we are supporting. They will then turnaround and share the importance of education with their siblings and children.

On October 26, we unite in a common mission to improve the lives of others. Millions of volunteers will partake in thousands of projects happening all around the world. I encourage you to find a few hours to support Make A Difference Day. Seek out a local charity and dig in….volunteer stocking food shelves, sorting clothes or whatever the need. For Hope for Hearts specifically, I am asking you to help sponsor a girl. Maybe it’s one month; maybe a year, but no matter what you will make a difference in the life of a girl.

Regardless of your age, location or resources – you can accomplish amazing things when you unite with others to tackle the problems in your community.

Peace and Love,

Cristen