Helping Handbags
Take time to read the impressive and deeply inspiring story about the Helping Handbags project in London (click on yellow link).
Helping Handbags was started around 3½ years ago with Melora Johnson reading an article in a magazine about the horrible conditions for abandoned kids in Bulgarian institutions.
Shocked into action Melora tracked down the charities and journalists to find out how she could make a difference. After visiting Bulgaria she has raised over £10,000 and set a mission to create this amazing fundraising project: Helping Handbags together with a group of other strong women.
Shocked into action Melora tracked down the charities and journalists to find out how she could make a difference. After visiting Bulgaria she has raised over £10,000 and set a mission to create this amazing fundraising project: Helping Handbags together with a group of other strong women.
An "it"-bag full of love
As of now Helping Handbags have launched 2 models, the TABITHA bag in 2009 and the 2011 EMMA bag.
The bags are produced my MADE in Kenya, famous for making exciting fashion accessories, out of recycled materials.
The philosophy behind the MADE project is to bring "trade not aid" to Africa, as you can see in this very edifying, uplifting video. Impressive, makes you smile all over. And the jewellery is très chic !
The bags are produced my MADE in Kenya, famous for making exciting fashion accessories, out of recycled materials.
The philosophy behind the MADE project is to bring "trade not aid" to Africa, as you can see in this very edifying, uplifting video. Impressive, makes you smile all over. And the jewellery is très chic !
PRICE
Your new Helping "it"-Handbag costs:
155 £ (Tabitha)
165 £ (Emma)
which translates into 60 hours of time that a child is able to spend in the affectionate company of his/her Baba - surrogate Granny.
CLICK TO ORDER YOUR TABITHA BAG
CLICK TO ORDER YOUR EMMA BAG
Your new Helping "it"-Handbag costs:
155 £ (Tabitha)
165 £ (Emma)
which translates into 60 hours of time that a child is able to spend in the affectionate company of his/her Baba - surrogate Granny.
CLICK TO ORDER YOUR TABITHA BAG
CLICK TO ORDER YOUR EMMA BAG
Give a Granny to an abandoned child
There are nearly 3,000 babies and children under the age of 3 living in institutional care in Bulgaria. Over 30% of the children are disabled. Many have been abandoned at birth.
Once abandoned, their family rarely visit or reclaim them: less than 2% of the abandoned children are orphans. For many children, their entire childhood will be spent in institutional care: alone, unloved, unwanted - forgotten.
Once abandoned, their family rarely visit or reclaim them: less than 2% of the abandoned children are orphans. For many children, their entire childhood will be spent in institutional care: alone, unloved, unwanted - forgotten.
The Baba Programme
The Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children’s Trust finds local elderly women in the community and matches them to a child within the institution.
These Babas - the surrogate Grannies - come for 2 hours per day 5 days per week and during that time the child becomes a human being. They are touched and washed, fed and clothed. They are spoken to and sung to, held and rocked and taken outside. For 2 hours per day they mean something to someone - they become someone’s child again.
These Babas - the surrogate Grannies - come for 2 hours per day 5 days per week and during that time the child becomes a human being. They are touched and washed, fed and clothed. They are spoken to and sung to, held and rocked and taken outside. For 2 hours per day they mean something to someone - they become someone’s child again.
Please take time to enjoy this uplifting video.
The glow of these wonderful Babas, their warmth and humilty of heart are almost tangible. Elderly women with a lifetime of experience, a lifetime of struggles and hardships no doubt - and still with so much compassion to spare. The statement at 5:21 says it all:
It's a great thing for a pensioner, to be able to give something of herself, to feel that she is still needed
Grannies, you rock !
The glow of these wonderful Babas, their warmth and humilty of heart are almost tangible. Elderly women with a lifetime of experience, a lifetime of struggles and hardships no doubt - and still with so much compassion to spare. The statement at 5:21 says it all:
It's a great thing for a pensioner, to be able to give something of herself, to feel that she is still needed
Grannies, you rock !
How can you help ? Is it really worth it ?
There are so many worthy causes and so many people suffering on this planet, that it can be hard to know where to start and what to support.
The reason why the Baba programme went straight to my heart is, that it's love for no reason. Or love despite reason. Despite the cold rationality and cost-benefit analyses that surround us in our everyday business life.
The reason why the Baba programme went straight to my heart is, that it's love for no reason. Or love despite reason. Despite the cold rationality and cost-benefit analyses that surround us in our everyday business life.
If you look at the TBACT website you'll see a many photos of severely handicapped children: mentally as well as physically disabled. Or you can go to YouTube and search for "Bulgaria abandoned children" and you will find more heartrending, tragic vidoes that you'd care to see.
One could fear that a large percentage of these children will not make it past the age of 25 - or even past the age of 15.
So what's the use ? Couldn't your money be spent more "profitably" elsewhere ?
One could fear that a large percentage of these children will not make it past the age of 25 - or even past the age of 15.
So what's the use ? Couldn't your money be spent more "profitably" elsewhere ?
Probably, yes - provided you endorse the legitimacy of quantifying the value of human life into a "business case".
But caring and loving despite rational calculations, doing the right thing for the sole reason that a fellow human being is suffering - that is the essence of humanism, teaching us that a human life is an end in itself.
That is what makes us free, ethical beings - instead of mindless results of a deterministic line of cause and effect.
What a challenge to the modern mind: for once to stop worrying if your efforts are worth your while - and simply do it, because it's a right, just and honourable thing to do.
End of story.
But caring and loving despite rational calculations, doing the right thing for the sole reason that a fellow human being is suffering - that is the essence of humanism, teaching us that a human life is an end in itself.
That is what makes us free, ethical beings - instead of mindless results of a deterministic line of cause and effect.
What a challenge to the modern mind: for once to stop worrying if your efforts are worth your while - and simply do it, because it's a right, just and honourable thing to do.
End of story.
Your help makes a big difference
Children who once lay in beds all day with dull expressions now jump with joy when they see their Baba arrive in the morning. They reach for toys to explore, and they babble and laugh.
Even ‘hard to contact’ children who have been damaged by years of isolation, learn to trust and relax in the presence of a specially chosen Baba.
On behalf of TBACT, all the abandoned children, their amazing Babas, the Helping Handbag ladies in London and myself - I thank you from the heart for your support.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Children who once lay in beds all day with dull expressions now jump with joy when they see their Baba arrive in the morning. They reach for toys to explore, and they babble and laugh.
Even ‘hard to contact’ children who have been damaged by years of isolation, learn to trust and relax in the presence of a specially chosen Baba.
On behalf of TBACT, all the abandoned children, their amazing Babas, the Helping Handbag ladies in London and myself - I thank you from the heart for your support.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
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GUESTBOOK
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