Moms take action to improve life for families worldwide

from the Traverse City Record-Eagle

BY MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
mdrahos@record-eagle.com

HARBOR SPRINGS -- Hillary Rodham Clinton may have made the old African proverb famous, but Kate Bassett and Copland Rudolph have always known that it takes a village to raise a child.

Believing that children can thrive only if their families do, and if the whole of society cares enough to provide for them, the Harbor Springs friends home school their four children together and sponsor six more children in Africa, Sri Lanka and Honduras through the Christian Children's Fund. And when Rudolph got an unsolicited calendar in the mail a few years ago from an international group called Mothers Acting Up, they were immediately drawn to its mission of action on behalf of children everywhere.

"We believe that beyond our traditional mother roles we have a responsibility to (publicly) and passionately advocate for the world's children," said Rudolph, 40, a restaurateur and environmentalist with a background in counseling and psychology.

After attending a nearby lecture on Millennium Development Goals, a set of global strategies for ending extreme poverty by 2015, the women decided to start a local affiliate of Mothers Acting Up in 2006.

"I think that we knew just from being moms and (living) in our community that we live in a really compassionate place," said Bassett, 29, assistant editor of the Harbor Light newspaper. "I think that first Mothers' Day we went in blind and hoping for the best. We didn't know if five people would show up or 30 people."

Now Northern Michigan Mothers Acting Up has a mailing list of 80 "mothers and others," including a handful of downstaters and a few men. There are no committees and few meetings, so as not to give already stressed-out moms more on their "to-do" lists, Bassett said.

Instead, the group concentrates on two main events every year: a Mothers' Day Tea with a global focus and an Alternative Gift Fair in December with a local focus.

"We stay focused on these two events because we can rally people twice a year," said Rudolph. "I think mothers are overwhelmed. We live at a very fast pace. And when you give someone a specific thing -- can you come at 10? -- it makes it easier."

This year's alternative gift fair at the First Presbyterian Church raised more than $40,000 -- quadruple last year's proceeds -- for 17 mostly local charities including the Northwest Michigan affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, Harbor Springs Community Food Pantry, the Women's Resource Center of Northern Michigan and the Little Traverse Bay Humane Society, Rudolph said.

"The more people understand it, the more they like it," she said of the unusual fair in which customers shop for "gifts" ranging from food for the fish at SEE-North to equipment for the Community Free Clinic. In return, shoppers get hand-calligraphied cards that can be given to friends or family describing the gifts given in their honor.

In this year's Mothers' Day project, the group raised $5,000 from the sale of jewelry, handmade cards, books, African violets and handmade purses to sponsor a Village Bank in Haiti. Inspired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Arkatev Chatterjea and operated by the Foundation for International Community Assistance, Village Banks give impoverished women around the world a way to provide for their families by offering them small loans for businesses that produce food, garments and other goods.

In a special feature of the program, Village Bank donors are kept up to date with sample profiles and photos of the women in the loan program as well as statements detailing the distribution and repayment of the loans.

"It really connected the women in Haiti who are benefiting from the loans and the women in Harbor Springs who worked to create the bank," Bassett said. "When you have a face and a name and a story behind somebody living in extreme poverty, it's not just a statistic."

Next Mothers Acting Up hopes to "shoot big" by raising enough money to donate a PlayPump water system to a rural African community or school, Rudolph said. The pumps, which resemble playground merry-go-rounds, help improve the lives of children and their families by providing easy access to clean drinking water and eliminating the need for children to miss school to fetch water from more distant sources.

While children have fun spinning on the PlayPump merry-go-round, clean water is pumped from underground into a 660-gallon tank where it can be drawn from a simple tap.

"We can tuck our children into warm beds at night, we have food on the table for them in the morning, the educational opportunities we want," Bassett said. "When you contrast that with sub-Sahara Africa, something like a $16,000 PlayPump seems like so little to do, yet it makes such a big difference."

"Living in Harbor Springs you count your blessings every day," Rudolph added. "To be able to have a warm home and clean water ... we think every mother on the planet ought to have this."

Engaging in specific actions takes the idea of donating from abstract to concrete, the women say. And taking on whole projects allows Mothers Acting Up to see the difference they make collectively.

"I think that's why we've had a pretty easy time meeting or exceeding our goals," Bassett said. "It's tangible, people can understand it, they can grab onto it."

In fact, many women have expressed thanks just for the chance to come together, said Rudolph, pointing to a poignant moment following a group meditation.

"When we looked up and people opened their eyes, I think half of them were in tears," she said. "Women left that event feeling uplifted just by coming together as a community and having that reflection time."

At a time when the world's problems seem insurmountable, "they don't feel so huge when you have a group of women standing around and talking together," Bassett said.

"It can and probably will take individuals stepping up to the plate to make a real difference," she added. "And I think women have that level of compassion and comprehension."

Coming Sunday: In Northern Living, a new study shows the ranks of women in philanthropy growing.